Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi - I'll chime in since you asked!

I think your background is very interesting and will set you apart. You have solid academics, diverse extracurriculars that don't look scattershot but have some depth, some international (Asia) and entrepreneurial (both the non-profit and your online store) experience, and 4 years of work at one organization.

You don't state exactly what you do or how your responsibilities have grown, so I'm making an assumption that in 4 years at a non-profit (where people tend to take on whatever they can handle!) you can describe a 4 year history of increasing responsibility.

Your career goal sounds like a logical fit with your background. You'll want to show in your essays not just "interesting stories" (I"m sure you have those!) but how those stories demonstrate larger themes in your life - inititative, creativity, ability to find innovative solutions, etc - and how those skills that you have developed are transferable to the social enterprise you plan to start.

In terms of your academics, overall they're quite solid but with a slightly lower quantitative GMAT score and a PoliSci major, you may want to demonstrate to the Admissions Committees that you have the ability to excel in a rigorous quantitative environment. You can do this either my highlighting any quant classes you did well in in college, or describing any quantitative/analytical activities you do routinely at work, or by taking 1-2 quantitative classes outside of work (and doing well in them). Doing my last suggestion will demonstrate that you have the ability to do well in quantitative classes while also balancing a full workload and a busy life.

Haas and Columbia both seem like very reasonable choices for you. Stanford may be a bit of a stretch but if you write well and can place your stories in a broader context, I certainly think you should give it a shot.

Best of luck.

I'm glad you found the advice helpful - I really do think you sound like an interesting candidate and someone the schools will enjoy learning about.

For quantitative classes, see what you can find online. If you're not able to find any classes (online or elsewhere) that finish before R1, don't take any unless they have find mid-terms or assignments due by then. Stating "I am doing well in Statistics at xx community college" is not as strong as "So far, across 6 weekly quizzes, assignments and a mid-term, I am getting a 3.8 in Statistics at..."

But I don't think the quant side is a glaring gap for you; more like a minor one since your Quant score and your quant grades aren't bad, they're fine. So in your case it may be sufficient simply to highlight the work experience - and yes, budgeting, budget analysis, accounting and analysis using excel are all good indicators of your quantitative ability.

You can use the optional essay as a very simple and straightforward discussion of your quantitative skills, along the lines of: "As someone in a creative field and with a poli sci major, I wanted to be sure that the Admissions Committee did not have any questions about my quantitative abilities." Then you can state that you "did well" (if you got at least a B) in several undergrad classes, repeat your 77% GMAT, and then expand on your ability to use quantitative techniques at work to drive your decision-making. The point isn't that you can crunch numbers and write formulas; it's that you can interpret and understand financial and quantitative information. Keep it to 150 words or less.

Good luck!

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Schools vary in how specific they want you to be, with Stanford, for example, asking only about the rather general "career aspirations" and Yale, on the other hand, asking for 150 words on your short term and 150 words on your long term goals. Clearly you need to be more detailed with schools like Yale than with Stanford.

I give my clients this advice: No one has ever had their MBA diploma revoked because they didn't do, five years after graduation, what they had said they were going to do in their admissions essay. But at the same time, the schools want to know that their applicants are not applying simply for the joy of learning or to escape a bad economy. They want to know that candidates have a compelling trajectory from past experience to present (why mba) to their future goals. So while you don't need to have a business plan, you do need to be able to discuss with some authority what you plan to do and how that school will help you.

We discuss this concept of Past + Present = Future Goals in more depth in our free Personal Statement Guide, which you can download here: https://www.mbamission.com/docs/mbamissi ... _guide.pdf

There are a few recent blog posts you may also find helpful:
https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2008/12/ ... bjectives/ - Contextualizing Academic Objectives, which explains how to tie your goals to the school's offerings;
https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2009/04/ ... nal-needs/ - Bringing Focus to Professional Needs, which guides you to how to discuss the school offerings in a more persuasive way, and https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2009/06/ ... ls-really/ - Back up Goals - really? which discusses a recent interview we did with six top admissions advisors about how career changers should address their specific issues.

I hope this helps!