Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi

I would appreciate if you can advise me on my best possible course of action.

Background
I am a married 30 year old with a 19-month old son. I was born and raised in Southern California, but family is from Hawaii. I'm Japanese, but only speak english.

Undergrad
I went to jr. college for two years and transferred to USC. Majored in business with an emphasis in finance. I had a 3.4 GPA at junior college and a 2.7 gpa at USC. I also had an accounting internship for Edison International and worked 20 hours a week while at USC for what it's worth. At USC, I was in a fraternity and business club.

Current situation
I have 7 years of work experience. My first year out of college I worked as an currency/interest rate traders and obtained my Series 3 license which has lapsed. Since 2002, I've worked in real estate development (commercial real estate and homebuilding). I was a financial analyst for 3 years for known local developers. For the past 3 years i've worked for Bank of America's Commercial Real Estate Bank. I'm currently a vice president underwriter and have done quite well. I will have great letters of rec's from regional executives from Bank of America and the developers I worked for.

I'd utilize the MBA to advance my career to an executive position within the Bank or move back to the developer side as a VP Finance or CFO.

I make $125K now, so I'd be giving up significant income if I went to school full-time. In addition, I could probably make the executive level within the Bank without an MBA, but it would take longer. Short-term it doesn't make much sense, but an MBA from a top-tier school long term would be very helpful. I realize my GPA is low and I anticipate getting a 700 on the gmat.

Sorry for the long post, just curious to see if I'm even a candidate for a top-tier mba program. Thanks!

Hi Candance,
Thanks for your post. You have an interesting background and if you are able to score 700+ on your GMAT, you might have a shot at a top 25 school (on the lower end). Along with your low UG GPA, my concern is your diverse work experience. I think its great that you have worked in different industries/functions, but AdCom might see this as a lack of focus - unless you are able to tie all of the experiences together in your essays. Create a story which lead you through your jobs and to where you are today.

As you probably know, this year is going to be very competitive for admissions into top MBA programs. That is another reason why you might have difficulty getting into a good school. But I would encourage you to also look at schools in the 25-50 range that have strong ties to the companies/industries/regions you are interested in.

Have you considered a PART TIME program? I understand your concern of giving up your salary. At the same time PT programs are usually 'slightly' less competitive than full-time programs.

Good luck!

NP