Thank you in advance for your insight and time. I have included my general profile and a few specific questions that I am curious about. I want to earn a top MBA to either transition into consulting or gain international perspective and a network to break into international real estate. I know my target schools are pretty tough for a guy with a 3.0 undergrad GPA, but I have worked my butt off to be as competitive as possible in the other areas. If you don't think I have a shot at targets can you recommend others?
Profile
28 Years Old
Mexican-American Male
First generation college student
Academics
3.0 Undergraduate GPA | Unknown state school in Texas | Interdisciplinary Studies | Took 6 years to complete | Worked Full-time throughout
4.0 Masters GPA | Real Estate Development | Top 25 Public University
Alternative Transcript to make up for lack of rigor, quant and pedigree in undergrad | 4.0 - 15 hours of math and business courses
GMAT
750
Work Experience
4 years of experience in Property Management subset of Real Estate Industry - 3 promotions - Leasing Manager - Luxury Class A Multifamily New Constructions. DISCLAIMER: All of this was full-time experience, often working with college graduates, but I do understand that it is not considered "professional experience" to many, especially considering it was not post-bac. All during undergrad. Consistently lead sales efforts.
1.5 years as a commercial real estate leasing associate. Did this while in grad school - managed to be the top producer while completing masters program with 4.0. I hold a Texas Real Estate License.
2 years as a land development manager with a nationally top ranked home builder - 1 promotion.
Languages
English - Native
Spanish - Business Proficiency
Portuguese - Intermediate working proficiency
Community Service
Consistently contributed 5 hours per month to a local non-profit over the last 2 years.
Target Schools
Yale SOM
Dartmouth TUCK
UCLA
LBS
Oxford Said
Insead
QUESTIONS
1) From looking at class profiles at top programs I have observed that Real Estate represent a very small portion usually around 1-4% of the professional backgrounds of students. Does having a real estate background help me compete with a smaller pool of applicants or does this hinder me because they just aren't looking for applicants with my background?
2)I have always been a little bit confused when reading excerpts of consultants speaking to the competitiveness of Hispanic applicants - there always seems to be a disclaimer or caveat in there like "if you are an actual Hispanic" or "if an ad-com would perceive you as Hispanic." I am half Caucasian and half Mexican, I have a 100% Mexican surname, I speak Spanish fluently and am getting there with my Portuguese. Would I cut the mustard? I know that Hispanics are often the most underrepresented minority in the applicant pool... how much does this help?
3) This one is more of an explanation. I know I would kind of need to make the case that I NEED an MBA for my goals because I have already earned a graduate degree. Just to clarify, my masters sounds a lot more business oriented than it is. It was earned out of the university's college of Architecture and includes a lot of design and construction elements - I did take two classes out of the business school, but it wouldn't be too redundant at all. Would this still hurt me at any of my target schools?
Thank you again for your help!
5-Day Free Trial
5-day free, full-access trial TTP
Available with Beat the GMAT members only code
MORE DETAILS
Profile Evaluation
This topic has expert replies
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
Jon@Admissionado
- Elite Legendary Member
- Posts: 3135
- Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am
- Location: Everywhere
- Thanked: 589 times
- Followed by:332 members
Hey dude very good to hear from you,
I think you're very interesting and unique profile, but first let me jump in and start with your questions:
1) From looking at class profiles at top programs I have observed that Real Estate represent a very small portion usually around 1-4% of the professional backgrounds of students. Does having a real estate background help me compete with a smaller pool of applicants or does this hinder me because they just aren't looking for applicants with my background?
Well I am from real estate background! And it worked out pretty good for me. So yes actually I would say that as long as your job is really solid and you've done good stuff, coming from real estate is an advantage.
2)I have always been a little bit confused when reading excerpts of consultants speaking to the competitiveness of Hispanic applicants - there always seems to be a disclaimer or caveat in there like "if you are an actual Hispanic" or "if an ad-com would perceive you as Hispanic." I am half Caucasian and half Mexican, I have a 100% Mexican surname, I speak Spanish fluently and am getting there with my Portuguese. Would I cut the mustard? I know that Hispanics are often the most underrepresented minority in the applicant pool... how much does this help?
You definitely cut the mustard. And you get all of the advantages that come with it. I also like your story of being a first-generation college student.
3) This one is more of an explanation. I know I would kind of need to make the case that I NEED an MBA for my goals because I have already earned a graduate degree. Just to clarify, my masters sounds a lot more business oriented than it is. It was earned out of the university's college of Architecture and includes a lot of design and construction elements - I did take two classes out of the business school, but it wouldn't be too redundant at all. Would this still hurt me at any of my target schools?
This is not problem. You just have to create an it story of need for the MBA, but There's 1 million ways to do this.
Other then That I would want to know more about your work experience, but things look pretty good and I think you can hit top 10 programs in United States as well as top European programs.
Drop us a line for a full one evaluation if you like: https://admissionado.com/free-consultati ... n=mba_blog
Best,
Jon
I think you're very interesting and unique profile, but first let me jump in and start with your questions:
1) From looking at class profiles at top programs I have observed that Real Estate represent a very small portion usually around 1-4% of the professional backgrounds of students. Does having a real estate background help me compete with a smaller pool of applicants or does this hinder me because they just aren't looking for applicants with my background?
Well I am from real estate background! And it worked out pretty good for me. So yes actually I would say that as long as your job is really solid and you've done good stuff, coming from real estate is an advantage.
2)I have always been a little bit confused when reading excerpts of consultants speaking to the competitiveness of Hispanic applicants - there always seems to be a disclaimer or caveat in there like "if you are an actual Hispanic" or "if an ad-com would perceive you as Hispanic." I am half Caucasian and half Mexican, I have a 100% Mexican surname, I speak Spanish fluently and am getting there with my Portuguese. Would I cut the mustard? I know that Hispanics are often the most underrepresented minority in the applicant pool... how much does this help?
You definitely cut the mustard. And you get all of the advantages that come with it. I also like your story of being a first-generation college student.
3) This one is more of an explanation. I know I would kind of need to make the case that I NEED an MBA for my goals because I have already earned a graduate degree. Just to clarify, my masters sounds a lot more business oriented than it is. It was earned out of the university's college of Architecture and includes a lot of design and construction elements - I did take two classes out of the business school, but it wouldn't be too redundant at all. Would this still hurt me at any of my target schools?
This is not problem. You just have to create an it story of need for the MBA, but There's 1 million ways to do this.
Other then That I would want to know more about your work experience, but things look pretty good and I think you can hit top 10 programs in United States as well as top European programs.
Drop us a line for a full one evaluation if you like: https://admissionado.com/free-consultati ... n=mba_blog
Best,
Jon
"Hands down the best MBA admissions consulting firm of all-time, and boy, what an incredible founder!" -- Raj Patil, Founder of Admissionado
Something for everyone:
https://admissionado.lpages.co/admissio ... nter-2018/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/50-essay ... ked-vol-4/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/case-studies-lp/
https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm
Reach out, and let's gab. Our only requirement is that you don't prefer warm milk over cold milk. Everyone else, 100% welcome.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 866-409-4753
Hit us up on WhatsApp.
Ping our satellite: 0884#&@-2#101101
Contact us via web form you lazy git: https://admissionado.com/contact/
Mostly, email Claudia.
Something for everyone:
https://admissionado.lpages.co/admissio ... nter-2018/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/50-essay ... ked-vol-4/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/case-studies-lp/
https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm
Reach out, and let's gab. Our only requirement is that you don't prefer warm milk over cold milk. Everyone else, 100% welcome.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 866-409-4753
Hit us up on WhatsApp.
Ping our satellite: 0884#&@-2#101101
Contact us via web form you lazy git: https://admissionado.com/contact/
Mostly, email Claudia.
-
mcbMcK
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 308
- Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:29 pm
- Thanked: 43 times
- Followed by:5 members
Sharing a few more perspectives here troy34:
Cheers,
- For reasons mentioned here, I would not go naming names but top schools can be pretty unforgiving in general. I am not saying that your undergrad thing is a deal breaker but just that it'll be good to hedge your bets some by having some other schools in the fray too.
- I have seen the real estate thing work both ways. What will be important to understand here is how you connect the dots, especially going forward. There is a reason why real estate is underrepresented in an MBA classroom - because not very many real estate firms hire MBAs. So you'd have to clearly reason out your career plans.
- On the Hispanic bit, it may be worth having a conversations with adcoms on this. Schools may interpret things differently. If you are visiting schools, no harm in informally checking on this bit.
Cheers,
MG (Manish Gupta)|The MBA Crystal Ball Team
Website: https://www.mbacrystalball.com
Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com
Website: https://www.mbacrystalball.com
Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
Donna@Stratus
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 298
- Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:37 am
- Thanked: 26 times
- Followed by:11 members
troy34 wrote:Thank you in advance for your insight and time. I have included my general profile and a few specific questions that I am curious about. I want to earn a top MBA to either transition into consulting or gain international perspective and a network to break into international real estate. I know my target schools are pretty tough for a guy with a 3.0 undergrad GPA, but I have worked my butt off to be as competitive as possible in the other areas. If you don't think I have a shot at targets can you recommend others?
Profile
28 Years Old
Mexican-American Male
First generation college student
Academics
3.0 Undergraduate GPA | Unknown state school in Texas | Interdisciplinary Studies | Took 6 years to complete | Worked Full-time throughout
4.0 Masters GPA | Real Estate Development | Top 25 Public University
Alternative Transcript to make up for lack of rigor, quant and pedigree in undergrad | 4.0 - 15 hours of math and business courses
GMAT
750
Work Experience
4 years of experience in Property Management subset of Real Estate Industry - 3 promotions - Leasing Manager - Luxury Class A Multifamily New Constructions. DISCLAIMER: All of this was full-time experience, often working with college graduates, but I do understand that it is not considered "professional experience" to many, especially considering it was not post-bac. All during undergrad. Consistently lead sales efforts.
1.5 years as a commercial real estate leasing associate. Did this while in grad school - managed to be the top producer while completing masters program with 4.0. I hold a Texas Real Estate License.
2 years as a land development manager with a nationally top ranked home builder - 1 promotion.
Languages
English - Native
Spanish - Business Proficiency
Portuguese - Intermediate working proficiency
Community Service
Consistently contributed 5 hours per month to a local non-profit over the last 2 years.
Target Schools
Yale SOM
Dartmouth TUCK
UCLA
LBS
Oxford Said
Insead
QUESTIONS
1) From looking at class profiles at top programs I have observed that Real Estate represent a very small portion usually around 1-4% of the professional backgrounds of students. Does having a real estate background help me compete with a smaller pool of applicants or does this hinder me because they just aren't looking for applicants with my background?
2)I have always been a little bit confused when reading excerpts of consultants speaking to the competitiveness of Hispanic applicants - there always seems to be a disclaimer or caveat in there like "if you are an actual Hispanic" or "if an ad-com would perceive you as Hispanic." I am half Caucasian and half Mexican, I have a 100% Mexican surname, I speak Spanish fluently and am getting there with my Portuguese. Would I cut the mustard? I know that Hispanics are often the most underrepresented minority in the applicant pool... how much does this help?
3) This one is more of an explanation. I know I would kind of need to make the case that I NEED an MBA for my goals because I have already earned a graduate degree. Just to clarify, my masters sounds a lot more business oriented than it is. It was earned out of the university's college of Architecture and includes a lot of design and construction elements - I did take two classes out of the business school, but it wouldn't be too redundant at all. Would this still hurt me at any of my target schools?
First of all from an adcom perspective, don't doubt for a minute that you bring a lot to the table. If you are considering real estate, I urge you to add UNC Kenan-Flagler to your list- they have an excellent program and from my prior adcom experience there I believe you would present very favorably. As for the rest- address in optional essay any challenges you faced with GPA and also stress the first generation college angle. Good luck!
Thank you again for your help!
