Ask mbaMission

Hi, and thank you for your question.

I think you have several strengths to your profile but I do have a couple of concerns as well. In terms of strengths, you have good grades in a field that you have continued to work in, and a history of promotions and increased responsibility at work, showing both depth and growth in your field. It is also a more unusual field for business school which will help differentiate you. You also have some involvement in the community outside of work, in a leadership role, which will be viewed favorably. Finally, your ethnic background should make you stand out as well.

Let me describe my concerns though as well, so you can try to lessen their impact. I do have a mild concern about the frequency with which you have changed jobs - 3 jobs (4 positions) in 4 years is a bit high...but on the other hand you have 2 years with your current role which shows stability, and your job changes have all been within an industry, so my concern here is very mild. I would suggest writing your career essay in a way that shows how each job built on each other, which I suspect won't be difficult to do. You also do not state any career goal, so be sure to demonstrate a logical flow from your past to your future, with the MBA as the bridge, and articulate clearly what you want to do with the MBA. One other area to be aware of is that your profile comes off as very marketing-intensive (between work and your involvement in 85 Broads), which is good in that it shows depth, but can also present a problem because it doesn't give you opportunities in essays to showcase different sides of your personality. As you select your essay topics, think hard about other ways to show different dimensions to your experience; remember that the admissions committee wants to learn about you as a person, not just you as a professional.

Finally, my biggest concern given your school choices is your GMAT. 610 is very low for most of the schools on your list. I don't know about the Columbia executive program, but other than that, your score falls in the middle 80% only for Smith. It puts you in the bottom 10% for all of the other schools which I think creates a real uphill battle for you. Have you had tutoring? If you can pull it up even 50 points, that puts you in the middle 80% range for several of the other schools.

Best of luck,

Jessica