Profile Assessment Request

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Profile Assessment Request

by righton12252000 » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:50 am
I am looking to apply in 2010 for admission to an MBA program in the Fall 2011 semester and am in the process of planning my application approach. Some relevant profile info is as follows:

GMAT:
I recently took the GMAT and received a composite score of 780 (Q: 50; V: 48) and an AWA score of 6.0.

GPA:
I graduated in May 2004 from a fairly small private liberal arts school in the Midwest with a B.S. in Finance and a GPA of 3.99. I immediately proceeded to a reputable, but not elite, state law school (also in the Midwest) and graduated with a J.D. in May 2007 with a GPA of 3.25. As might be expected, my undergraduate transcript bears a range of business-oriented quantitative coursework, while my law school record does not.

Experience:
In addition to having logged some part-time employment during law school, I anticipate having about 59 months of full-time work experience under my belt by MBA matriculation. I expect that about forty of those months will have been spent working for my current law firm in a tenure that will likely conclude around July 2010. As an associate attorney in my particular current firm, short-term opportunities for substantive advancement in responsibility and title are limited. However, due to some personal circumstances, I think it best to stay the course for about another year.

I have also worked two short-term (one-month) clerkships in Beijing with an unrelated (to my U.S. firm) Chinese law firm. I am still affiliated with that firm as outside U.S. legal counsel (requiring fairly occasional project work) and anticipate that I may further participate in a full-time one-year fellowship arrangement with that firm from July 2010 to July 2011. I am by no means fluent in Mandarin but have studied it for about a year and intend to continue doing so.

Extracurricular:
Over the course of my undergraduate, law school, and subsequent years, I have been fairly extensively involved in faith-based and other community extracurricular organizations and activities, and I have held a handful of leadership positions related to the same. I also participated in some intercollegiate academic competitions during my last two years of college. I didn’t play any varsity sports in undergrad, but I am an avid basketball fan/player. I received several academic scholarships in college and law school and was given a handful of other named awards. I am a fellow in a national legal organization and have published one small research-based work in the course of my involvement therein.

Objectives:
I am hoping to eventually move from traditional legal practice to a more entrepreneurial path. It is my post-MBA desire to create and develop a services-oriented business tailored to internationals (with an initial primary Chinese emphasis).

One of my highest priorities with respect to business school, however, is to complete a program without any debt. I recognize that this will likely narrow the range of schools on my radar, and I understand counter-arguments that might be presented with respect to return on investment at elite schools, student loans notwithstanding; the debt-free objective is nonetheless an important one for me. It is my anticipation that I will have sufficient funds to cover living expenses during both years of an MBA program, but essentially none left to allocate to tuition. Thus, a primary goal is to elicit at least one financial aid offer sufficient to cover tuition through non-repayable (grant, scholarship, fellowship, assistantship) aid only.

Questions:
I'm have asked a few admissions consultants their thoughts on these two questions and would appreciate any feedback you might have:

(1) Assuming solid essays, recommendations, interviews, and other pieces of the application not quantified by the information given, at what sorts of programs do you think I might be competitive for both admission and financial aid offers that would fit my financial criteria?

(2) Would you suggest that I address my law school GPA or let it stand without explanation? At 3.25, it is substantially lower than my undergraduate GPA, and while I believe the disparity does not imply a low set of standards at my undergraduate institution, I think a full discussion of the same would have potential to prove dicey. I also think the similarity in both substance and structure is greater between my business-oriented undergraduate coursework and most MBA coursework than between my law school coursework and most MBA coursework. I’m certainly willing to engage a short but tactful dialogue in my application if appropriate, but I think I’d prefer to avoid it unless doing so leaves a gap. What do you think?

Thanks so much for all of your help,

A Grateful Prospective Applicant

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by mbaMissionJessica » Fri Jul 17, 2009 8:48 am
Hi and thanks for your questions...which are not easy ones but very interesting!

First, it sounds like you have a terrific background, with solid academics, international experience, a variety of community-oriented activities and a clear path to what you want to do. With your background I think you would be competitive at really any school you wanted to apply to.

But there's that scholarship issue, which may change your strategy. One overall statement - in this economy there are no guarantees for scholarship money and endowments have been declining, which makes scholarships even more unpredictable. If graduating with no debt is the single most important item to you, then you may want to "undershoot", applying not to the very top schools where you would be competitive, but to up and coming schools that may compete to get someone with your credentials by offering scholarships. This isn't to say you don't have a chance at getting money from the top schools, you do, but you'll be competing with other top applicants for them and you may find you stand out a bit more at a lower-ranked school.

However that being said, you want to be sure that those up-and-coming schools you apply to don't think that you're applying to them as a safety school; they may be more disinclined to offer you a spot if they think you'll turn them down. You should be extremely specific in explaining why that particular school is right for you, making a compelling argument as to how its resources (classes, clubs, specific faculty, atmosphere, alumni network, etc.) will be directly relevant to your goals. You must come across as sincerely interested in that school.

One other note of caution given your background. You don't want the schools to think that you're jumping casually from one graduate program to another without thinking through the switch. In discussing your goals, it would serve you well to make a very clear and coherent explanation of why business school is not a departure from your legal career but an enhancement of it, demonstrating a logical trajectory from your past to your future.

As to your second question, I don't think there's any need to discuss your law school GPA. It's a good GPA, and your GMAT and undergrad GPA clearly demonstrate your academic abilities. Law schools are difficult and they'll recognize that. In general candidates are compared on the basis of their undergraduate grades, with the graduate one being an enhancement.

I hope this helps; best of luck.
Jessica Shklar
Senior Consultant
mbaMission (www.mbamission.com)
646-485-8844

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