Profile Review Unconventional Work History

Question

Hello I am looking at applying to Business school this fall and wanted to see if my profile lined up with the schools I am looking at applying to.

GMAT: 640 (taking a course right now that guarantees 70 point increase so hopefully score will be 710+)
GPA: 3.0
Major: Marketing Management 
Minor: Management 
Native American wanting to apply through the Consortium 
Schools applying to through the Consortium: Tuck, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Indiana, University of Texas
Others: Penn State

Work Experience
I work for a non profit that primarily works with college students. I develop students in leadership, character, and faith. I lead leadership studies for specific fraternities on campus for their top members challenging them and helping them make a positive impact on their organization. I also do consulting for the Executive board, observing there meetings, identifying potential problems, and coach them on communication, critical thinking, and offering solutions. I do one on one mentoring with leaders and provide coaching and training on decision making, character, and leadership. I coordinate a weekly meeting of 100-200 college students each week and speak at each weekly meeting. I also host our national conference where I am speaking to 5,000 college students in attendance with over 17,000 more watching online. Hosting includes introducing speakers, on stage interviews, and conveying information. I do a lot of public speaking where I develop and convey curriculum on recruiting, character, leadership, personal development and others. I fundraise for our non profit personally bringing in $75,000 annually and coach and provide training for a group of fundraisers that brings in a total amount of $350,000 annually. I have recently been promoted to oppositions director where I over see staff providing them with training and development, evaluating systems, and providing feedback. I have lead a team of 12 college students in an international cultural exchange to India and Taiwan for one summer. We were there to understand culture through surveys and experience another culture by building relationships with local college students who invited us into their home and took us to see historical monuments, temples ect..

Volunteer
I am interviewing with a non profit called SCORE that does consulting work for non profits and small start ups.

If you have any thoughts on where I am lacking or thinking I mention something that is not worth mentioning please provide feedback. Thank you!

AvantiPrep · Answer

Hi camthewizard , Thank you for your post. May I ask where you went to undergrad (or at least a school range) and what year you graduated? At a very general level, if you hit the higher end of your stated GMAT range -- and assuming very strong application execution, articulation of your story, clear / specific / coherent / connected goals, why MBA, authentic passion and purpose (i.e., "why those goals"), etc. -- I believe you could make yourself competitive at the schools that you have listed (also pending where you went and how much work experience you have). I would encourage you to read this blog post (link below) for more detail regarding the comments above. With a strong enough score (and reputable enough undergrad and ample work experience), I think that much of this will come down to how you articulate your vision, experiences, personal and professional story, reasons why you want an MBA, deep understanding of each school / fit / how they get you where you want to go, quality of recommendations, etc. https://www.avantiprep.com/blog/the-mos ... on-process ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apart from that, I see potential for you to deepen your leadership experience outside of work (which it seems you're about to do, and which is mitigated somewhat by the fact that your main job centers around areas that most other applicants would typically "volunteer" or "engage" in). I also see potential for you to deepen your business / technical / analytical chops. The marketing major is "business related," but it seems that your main job does not involve much in the way of the nuts of bolts of "business" and "analysis." It's got other great "leadership" and "people" elements to it -- which are very important -- but proving to the AdComs that you can handle the analytical rigors of the MBA classroom would be valuable as well. The consulting work you're signing up for should also help with that -- so too would solid performance in Quant and IR, and perhaps some additional business coursework in the likes of Microeconomics, Statistics, Calculus, Accounting, Finance, etc., depending on what exactly you have or haven't taken to this point and how you performed in each of them (i.e., your grades in those courses). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I would be more than happy to chat by phone to add more color and nuance to the details above. Please feel free to sign up for a Free Consultation here: https://www.avantiprep.com/free-consultation.html Best Regards, Greg

camthewizard · Answer

Thank you for taking the time to look over that. Those are very helpful points you brought up. I have been working for my company for 5 years now. I also over see a budget of $280,000 for a specific project. Would that help with the more business side of things? Thank you.

camthewizard · Answer

Graduated in 2014 from Oklahoma State.

AvantiPrep · Answer

Thank you,  camthewizard .

I appreciate the follow-up school information. My previous comments stand in light of what you've shared. Regarding year of graduation, I was mostly curious about how much work experience you've had. I see that you've had a promotion, and what appears to be some nice, multifaceted leadership experience (one-on-one, large groups, international, etc.). With about five years (at the point of application) and about six years (at the point of enrollment), you have a nice runway of experience and seemingly have a track record of impact. (The average work experience at most schools you've referenced is about five years.)

The budget oversight experience definitely helps, and I would encourage you to look to highlight business nuggets like that in your resume, and to encourage your recommenders to do the same. (Not at the expense of everything else, but along with it.) At the same time, I do think some of the considerations I mentioned in my initial response would be valuable, especially if you don't have baseline math or business courses, or scored poorly in them in undergrad.

If you score well enough on the GMAT -- and again, assuming all of the aforementioned "application execution" points -- I actually think you can aim even a little higher with schools. I like the range and diversity of schools you've initially referenced -- though I'd be curious to know more about your goals and what you're looking for to opine further on fit and school strategy -- but once you have your official GMAT score(s) in hand, it's worth revisiting initial school lists. And again, in your case, you might consider calibrating a little higher if you score at the top of your stated range (or adjusting generally based on score).

Happy to chat further about any / all of the above, whether now or when you have your scores in hand (or both)!

Best Regards,
Greg

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