PROFILE REVIEW: 30M, 750, 3.0

Question

Planning to apply this fall with hopes of matriculating Fall 2020. Would appreciate any thoughts, tips you're willing to provide!

Work experience: 
3.75 years working in social media strategy and analytics (think: media planning and buying, not so much content creation / community management) at an independent advertising agency (~100 employees) in Minneapolis; promoted four times during my time there, ultimately managing two assistant account executives

CURRENT: 1.5 years in digital marketing strategy/operations (non-management position) at a large integrated healthcare system based in the Midwest, playing a lead role in enterprise digital media planning/buying/analytics in social, display, direct, native, etc.

Extra curriculars: 
Spent the last 1.25 years on the Programming Committee and Associate/Junior Board (~8 hours/week) of a prominent inner-city youth sports organization; will continue to participate for as long as I can (even during/after MBA) – truly value my time here and the opportunity to have an impact

During my time at the agency, I was selected/sponsored by agency to participate in a three-month-long national case study competition

One of five students selected to represent my university in the Public Relations Student Society of America’s Bateman Case Study Competition – a year-long, national case study competition in which student teams create and implement a full public relations campaign

Multi-year member of two different ad/PR student orgs

Undergrad school/major: 
Big10, Journalism – with an emphasis on Strategic Communication (i.e. Advertising/PR)

Race/nationality: 
White; born in Northern Ireland, primarily raised in US

Sex: 
Male

Stats 
GRE Score:
332 – 167Q, 165V (according to ETS’s conversion tool, that would be a 750 GMAT - hence the headline)
Undergrad GPA:
3.0 – I understand this is something I’ll need to overcome (more on that below).

Goal of MBA: 
Transition out of marketing into the digital group of a Big 4/T2 consulting firm

Target schools: 
Will narrow down in the very near future, but the current list consists of:

Reaches/High Targets: Northwestern, Yale, Dartmouth, Michigan, Virginia, Duke, Cornell

Targets: Rice, UNC, Texas, Emory, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin

Beyond my lower GPA, I have a checkered past academically. Due to lack of maturity more than anything else, I wasted my first two years post-high school bouncing out of a Pac12 party school and failing classes at a local community college. Then I enrolled in the Big10 school from which I graduated and began to take my academics more seriously. And since I’ve been in the workforce, I’ve been passionate and dedicated (which I hope is demonstrated by my history of promotions). Absolutely plan to address past failures in my essays and how I’ve benefitted from them.

Four big questions:

· Any thoughts on reaches and targets?

· Any guidance on framing up my lackluster academic history?

· Wondering about the value of completing MBAmath or HBX Core this summer to reinforce quant skills and demonstrate commitment?

· How much will GRE > GMAT hinder me? I’ve taken the GRE three times (324, 325, 332), so I’d very much like to avoid returning to the GMAT.

Thanks in advance for your time and advice!

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hi  mbahopeful04 ,

I don't think your GPA can be a threat in application since your profile arc is well rounded. Moreover, no one can do anything to improve your GPA now. Since you have real fact to reason your GPA just need to craft a good story around it to show your application. Anyhow you have great GRE score to make it up for your lower GPA. List of the target schools looks decent to fit your current profile, but the reach school would be a bit tough situation assuming you want to work in consulting post-MBA(considering your lower GPA). Reason being that in Top B schools, some of the organization looks into pre academics while recruiting students. The idea of completing MBAmath or HBX Core should definitely work as an added advantage to show your commitment towards academics and also help you overcome the negativity of low GPA. Speaking about taking GMAT would not be necessary as most of the global B schools accept GRE and you have a pretty good currently.

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

A few more thoughts and reassertions  mbahopeful04 :

The career arc sounds pretty good but the issue could be that almost all of your brands (including undergrad?) seems to be from non-feeder programs(?). While that by itself is not a deal breaker, make sure you do sufficiently well to articulate the impact, brand, professionalism of both your work and your employers' so that adcoms value it correctly. 
  GPA matters as you know for sure. But there are ways to overcome and   tackle low GPA in your story  . The GRE will help for sure. HBX can definitely be a good idea to showcase commitment.  
  For reasons mentioned  here , we don't speculate on school selection. That being said, you are doing the right thing by balancing out the overall target list - make sure you keep it that way in the end count.  
  While the post-MBA plans logically make sense, think a bit deeper there to make sure they don't come across as too easy - schools do want to help you overachieve on your current trajectories.  
  GRE vs GMAT is fast completely diminishing. I'd have said give GMAT a shot purely because of the consulting factor - but that tends to matter more at the top league ones (which at the moment you dont seem to be targeting) plus, given that you've already had multiple attempts, it would be wiser to spend your energy elsewhere in the application.

Hope this sparks the right thoughts.

Cheers,

PersonalMBACoach · Answer

Hey mbahopeful04! I think you've got a lot of good things going for you in your applicant profile. You have a great track record and clear progression at work. Your story makes sense, as do your goals post-MBA, so I don't think your essay writing process will be inherently difficult. You've also got a strong standing in the community and have shown consitent time, effort, and impact away from the office. Schools love smart, well-rounded people and I think you fit the bill! Let me answer your questions directly, and in a more logical order (school recs last): 1. I don't think you need to worry about the GRE-GMAT paradigm so much, as your most recent GRE score is very strong. Could it hurt you at a place like Booth or Wharton, where the majority of white males will be applying with a GMAT score? Possibly. I do think taking and doing well in an online math course could reinforce that you are serious about your academics and inherently capable of succeeding in the business school classroom. It can't hurt. 2. You've got to be honest in your optional essay space about your academics, but frame it in a way that shows self-awareness and maturation. For example, the storyboard could read like "I did not take my academics seriously my first two years of school and was not mature enough to juggle both a social and academic life. Being forced to transition to a CC really opened my eyes to the mistakes I had made and from that point on, I was motivated to place academics first. My GPA of 3.0 is not a representation of my academic capabilities and this summer I enrolled in MBA math to both prepare for the rigors of an MBA and re-orient myself with the classroom experience." So, not these exact words but something similar, I'm sure you get the picture. 3. I think with your current profile (assuming essays and recs are stellar) you've got a solid chance in the 10-20 range, and I think your reaches should be schools like Yale and Kellogg. Your targets are a bit on the conservative side, and I think you should drop Minnesota and Wisconsin from your list, as they don't really place at the types of positions you are looking for. I would say the first 4 on your target list are more target/safety, and that your actual targets should be closer to Ross and Fuqua. Does all of this make sense? Feel free to reach out at scott@personalmbacoach.com to discuss your applications offline! Regards,

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

mbahopeful04 
Planning to apply this fall with hopes of matriculating Fall 2020. Would appreciate any thoughts, tips you're willing to provide!

Work experience:
3.75 years working in social media strategy and analytics (think: media planning and buying, not so much content creation / community management) at an independent advertising agency (~100 employees) in Minneapolis; promoted four times during my time there, ultimately managing two assistant account executives

This is obviously not a typical pre MBA job which might help you in terms of work diversity, however it's really really important that you demonstrate leadership teamwork problem solving and innovation to sell the quality of your work experience. Hopefully the fact that you've worked at a smaller company gave you a chance to wear many different hats and see the business end to end more so than people at larger MBA feeder companies

CURRENT: 1.5 years in digital marketing strategy/operations (non-management position) at a large integrated healthcare system based in the Midwest, playing a lead role in enterprise digital media planning/buying/analytics in social, display, direct, native, etc.
  I'd be interested in knowing how this fits into your overall trajectory, did you want to work for larger company for perspective or is that the direction you want to take things? Just make sure to shape the narrative in something that makes sense to the admissions committee

Extra curriculars:
Spent the last 1.25 years on the Programming Committee and Associate/Junior Board (~8 hours/week) of a prominent inner-city youth sports organization; will continue to participate for as long as I can (even during/after MBA) – truly value my time here and the opportunity to have an impact

Very excited to see that, that's a large commitment as well. I hope that you can leverage some of this experience in your applications I think it would set you apart if it is done correctly. sounds like you're really passionate about it and I think that's fantastic

During my time at the agency, I was selected/sponsored by agency to participate in a three-month-long national case study competition
  This is interesting, I'd be interested in knowing what the criteria was for the selection , do they see you as someone who is particularly good at this?

One of five students selected to represent my university in the Public Relations Student Society of America’s Bateman Case Study Competition – a year-long, national case study competition in which student teams create and implement a full public relations campaign

This demonstrates leadership, if you have a good story around what you learned from this it might be a helpful thing to discuss in your applications, because it has some applicability to business school team dynamics, analysis, etc.

Multi-year member of two different ad/PR student orgs

Undergrad school/major:
Big10, Journalism – with an emphasis on Strategic Communication (i.e. Advertising/PR)

I think I would need more granularity around this, if you were a journalism major at Iowa that would be a lot more impressive than maybe other big 10 schools, not generally considered the most challenging major.

Race/nationality:
White; born in Northern Ireland, primarily raised in US

were you there during The Troubles or anything or impacted by that? Anything particularly interesting or diverse about your background ? might add some depth to your somewhat vanilla profile

Sex:
Male

As you probably know white males are overrepresented so that's not a plus factor but you can demonstrate diversity in other ways

Stats
GRE Score:
332 – 167Q, 165V (according to ETS’s conversion tool, that would be a 750 GMAT - hence the headline)

You might be pleased to take a look at this link, however I do want to caution you that universities often accept candidates with GRE scores that are not really is on par with the GMAT average is because they want them for their diversity. If they can find an Iranian feminist or something who will really add a lot to the diversity of the class they are more motivated to accept them with a so so GRE, especially because it won't pull down published GMAT averages. That said I really don't think you are in need of retaking this exam.

https://poetsandquants.com/2019/03/17/average-gre-scores-at-the-leading-business-schools/3/

You might HBX Core because it will give you a chance to develop an alternative transcript but that might offset your ability to put in applications at a variety of schools answer to a bang up job at them. So weigh the options there.

Undergrad GPA:
3.0 – I understand this is something I’ll need to overcome (more on that below).

I get that you don't feel very good about the way you started your academic career and that's understandable but I don't think this is really a very big deal given that you've proven yourself with the GRE score. I've helped people with this GPA ,even more overrepresented with zero extra curriculars or hobbies, get into schools like Ross and NYU.

Of course it would be wise to address it and how you have since matured but the 3.0 threshold is important and you're at least on that threshold. Definitely apply to Cornell because there is really zero correlation between an acceptance there and GPA.

Goal of MBA:
Transition out of marketing into the digital group of a Big 4/T2 consulting firm

Make sure that you have a good solid why; connect dots. Would be nice to have a long-term goal that speaks to something bigger than just you. 
  
Target schools:
Will narrow down in the very near future, but the current list consists of:

Reaches/High Targets: Northwestern, Yale, Dartmouth, Michigan, Virginia, Duke, Cornell

Targets: Rice, UNC, Texas, Emory, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin

When I look over this target school list I'm like this guy really feels bad about his GPA. If you didn't have a good test score then it would really be a problem but you do. 
 
 Given your marketing background I definitely would like to see you apply to Kellogg as your reach school 
I'm kind of wondering what the other schools offer that interests you? I think I'm seeing a trend of college town instead of a city? if you're going to be working in digital it just seems very well aligned with NYU, UCLA, metro schools as well.

I think you have achievable goals here; Darden might especially like your case competition experience; Duke has a good marketing focus. Curious how you created this list. 
Make sure to choose schools where there's a very clear value proposition on both sides, where you could both stand out and fit in with their values and strengths and they would position you for success with your next goal. Make sure to take a look at employment numbers 
  
Beyond my lower GPA, I have a checkered past academically. Due to lack of maturity more than anything else, I wasted my first two years post-high school bouncing out of a Pac12 party school and failing classes at a local community college. Then I enrolled in the Big10 school from which I graduated and began to take my academics more seriously. And since I’ve been in the workforce, I’ve been passionate and dedicated (which I hope is demonstrated by my history of promotions). Absolutely plan to address past failures in my essays and how I’ve benefitted from them.

If you can scratch beneath the surface of something generic like lack of maturity this might actually be an interesting story that would help them get to know you. Add some depth.

Four big questions:

· Any thoughts on reaches and targets?

· Any guidance on framing up my lackluster academic history?

· Wondering about the value of completing MBAmath or HBX Core this summer to reinforce quant skills and demonstrate commitment?

I’m normally a big fan of MBA Math; it is a very simple program so it would not hurt just for your own preparation. But your quant is not problematic so honestly I would like to see you apply your energies more around shoring up your strengths and any diversity you offer; really going more in a positive direction and getting the WOW factor across.

· How much will GRE > GMAT hinder me? I’ve taken the GRE three times (324, 325, 332), so I’d very much like to avoid returning to the GMAT.
 
 Unless you are applying to INSEAD, which only takes the GMAT, would not worry about it. Open to other opinions on this but I have had success with applicants with the GRE. More so with diverse applicants; however they had much lower scores than yours in verbal.

PROFILE REVIEW: 30M, 750, 3.0

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