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Hi guys,

I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts and advice on my chances for acceptance into a top 10 b-school (I'm targeting Booth, Kellogg, Wharton, and Haas).

I recently took the GMAT for the first time and received a 720 (Q44, V45). While I am really happy with my overall score, I know that my quant score is on the low side. Both of these scores represent my highest during practice tests, so I don't think I would have enough time to retake the test and do substantially better and still make the Round 2 deadlines.

I have approximately 3.5 years work experience: 2 years in the Peace Corps as a small enterprise development adviser, 8 months as a staff assistant at the International Monetary Fund, and 8 months as a lead analyst at a non-profit research institution in DC (focusing on the region where I was with Peace Corps).

I went to a top 25 school for undergrad and received a bachelor of arts, with a 3.64 GPA.

Cognizant of the fact that my quant background may look weak on an application, I also took an intermediate statistics course through the local community college last spring.

Any thoughts on my chances? Thanks!

Hi Bhavik,

I really appreciate the response and encouragement.

You have a good point about applying to a school within the 11-15 range to round out the risk. I didn't mention it but I'm also looking seriously at Duke. Primarily because I know that it has a strong partnership with Peace Corps and I've heard that the school really values Peace Corps experience among applicants. I identified the target schools listed above because they seem to have good concentrations in international management and global business.

In regards to post-MBA plans, I would like to continue to pursue economic development in low-income countries but from a private sector approach. My goal would be to consult and advise multinationals on market entry strategies in emerging markets (ideally with a focus on West and Northwest Africa--the regions I am most familiar with). I think I will be able to weave fairly compelling and coherent essays regarding my job progression and how it fits into my long-term goals. Currently, I just lack some of the necessary business acumen.

My largest concern is demonstrating in my application that I have the required quantitative analytical skills to keep up at these programs.

Thanks again for the response and advice.

Eric

Will do. Thanks, Bhavik.

A 44 is low-60's percentage and unfortunately low for the schools to which you are targeting. But there are other compelling aspects to your candidacy including your overall GMAT score and the fact that you served in the Peace Corps.

Try your best to substantiate any quantitative experience in your background along with the statistics class. Is there anything you did in your 8 years-experience as a staff assistant to the International Monetary Fund, like ideally building some sort of financial model(s)? Or in your role as an analyst where presumably you did analytic work?

I agree with Bhavik in that you should apply to some schools outside of the Top 7 (Duke is a good one).

Good luck,

Hi Bhavik and Michael,

Thank you both for your responses and insight. I always found it a little annoying how no one ever updates these things with the final results, so I wanted to drop back in to share the news with you and any future lurker who comes across the post in case it may help him/her.

Here's the final tally:

Booth: Dinged
Kellogg: Accepted (and probably matriculating)
Wharton: Dinged
Haas: Waitlisted
Fuqua: Accepted

If I were to do it all over again, I would probably only apply to the schools that waived the application fee for former Teach for America/Americorps/Peace Corps folks (which both Kellogg and Fuqua do) b/c (1) it demonstrates from the very beginning that they value that kind of experience among candidates and (2) I would have saved a bunch of money!

Regards,
Eric

Awesome news!!!! Congratulations!!!! Are you going to attend the respective Admit Days?

MBAPrepAdvantage wrote:Awesome news!!!! Congratulations!!!! Are you going to attend the respective Admit Days?

Hi Michael,

Sorry for the delay, I'm just seeing your response now. I'm not able to make either admit weekend, but plan on visiting Evanston on a different weekend in May in order to get a feel for the town and campus. Having spoken to a couple former Peace Corps volunteers and people from my undergrad that are at Kellogg now, I feel really good about it.

Thanks for the congratulations, as well as your advice on the forum, Bhavik and Michael.

Bhavik and I are in agreement. FYI - I graduated from Northwestern University for my undergraduate degree. So, enjoy dangling your keys rooting on the Wildcats (you will know what I mean when you get there).

Congrats again!!1!

Definitely go to Kellogg.