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My Stats are 25 year old minority female.


2.9 GPA from University of Toronto (Economics)
- took 5.5 years to complete
- death of a close relative/best friend - followed by a couple years of depression
- there is no real trend, but upward, Transcript: 50% A's, 40% B's, a few C's and D's - Just did extremely well in classes I liked, and not so well in others. a handful of A+'s
- Parents had some financial hardship, supported myself last 2 years financially

-1.5 Work Experience in Financial Service Industry - IR for a Hedge Fund Administrator
- Founded two NGO's - One dealing with Food Sustainability, the other focuses on social/economic issues in Kashmir
-Active Volunteer/Tutor - Just generally like to provide mentorship to young kids, help them understand different career paths, something I didn't have myself
-Mensa Member (not something I would put on any application)
-Did some freelance modelling - turned down being signed by some top modeling agencies
-CFA Level 2 candidate

I know I eventually want to get an MBA, because my interest in strategy and problem solving is something I haven't been able to shake. Since I was all over the place in University, mentally and emotionally, I didn't get the chance to give academics and networking my 100%. I have a strong, amiable personality, and find myself assuming leadership roles in work/extra currics (thought my work is not very "prestigious").

I would like to know whether it's better for me to take the GMAT right now (November), and do the CFA level 2 (June) and apply for BSchool in September. Or whether it's more practical for me to look for another job that I enjoy more, building up my work experience, do the CFA, and then apply next year.

Really appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Ps. The reason I'm thepoet is because of my strong interest in Eastern Poetry - I'm working on some creative side projects of translating my favorite works to English.
Pps. I scored a 680 on my GMAT diagnostic test (I feel I could hit a 720+ with some effort, and even higher with a lot of effort)

thepoet -

Thanks for contacting Clear Admit for some advice . . . I lean towards the second option - continue building up your work experience and applying in 2015 (even though that sounds like a long way off!). Quality work experience typically trumps the quantity of work experience, but MBA programs typically prefer candidates with 4 - 6 years of work experience who are able to demonstrate strong leadership and teamwork skills. Holding off for another year will get you closer to that range and bolster the quality of your work, too. Hopefully you'll have the opportunity to develop yourself further, either in your current role or in a new one that is more engaging to you, help you to refine your goals, etc.

In the meantime, you can consider working on an alternative transcript if you haven't already. Additional coursework will help off-set concerns that will be raised by your GPA. Success on the CFA will help a bit on this front, but adcoms tend to view the CFA more as professional development/advancement than as academic ability. It'll be looked at positively, but it won't have as much impact as more traditional academic coursework.

You also mentioned that your GMAT diagnostics were looking pretty good . . . the only way that you'll truly know how well you'll do is to actually take the test, and I'd recommend taking the test (with a healthy amount of preparation) sooner rather than later for a few reasons. Having a concrete score will help you to better plan the time ahead of you (possible scenarios: bad score = intensive studying, likely multiple retakes; OK score but room for improvement = more studying, hopefully 1 retake will do it; great score = done!) and will give you a better idea about how your academics line up with different schools that you might be considering. No matter the unfortunate circumstances, your undergraduate GPA is going to be a flag for programs and most likely a deal-breaker for some (think H/S/W), so you want to do as much as possible to get the best score you can.

I hope that helps a bit, and feel free to reach out to me directly if you'd like to discuss your situation further.

Regards,
Jon

Jon Fuller
Clear Admit, LLC
215.568.2590

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Hi Jon,

Thank you - I found myself leaning towards the second option as well.

For the Alternative Transcript, is it less effective to do it online than physically on campus? Do schools discriminate between that?

Also, how many courses would you suggest taking?

Thank you,

You're welcome.

I think it'll be most effective to take a course or courses in a traditional classroom environment as that is a better emulation of the MBA experience. That said, I don't know that the adcoms will be able to tell what kind of delivery method was used since I doubt that those sorts of details are transcripted. In the end, it's most important that you show self-awareness and good judgement by proactively addressing a less-than-ideal aspect of your profile.

It's difficult to say how many courses, but you probably want to try to provide a counterbalance to courses/subject matter areas that didn't go so well in college. I think two or three total over the next few semesters would suffice.

Regards,
Jon