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by shaselai » Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:49 pm
undergrad EE & Comp. eng. 2.93 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Grad school Comp. sci 3.3 North Carolina State University
GMAT 720 49/39 (87/87 percentiles)

Work(total 5+ years:
2+ years with Northrop Grumman as System engineer
2+ years with ITT as Software Engineer

Extracurricular:
creating software with friends (interested in creating a company if things go well)

Target schools(leaning into FT MBA with concentration on E-commerce, finance, management):
Yale <- first choice because family lives there (so less burden financially)
Johnson
stern
Haas
Sloan
Columbia
Anderson
Kenan-flagler
Tepper

I am more interested in schools on the East(family lives) and West coast(love CA) plus schools in illinois/NC.

i went through the GMAT scores and 720 seems to be the mean in many of the top schools so i "barely" made it there... I hope colleges will look at my Master degree GPA more since it is more recent...
My goal is to apply to ~7 schools with maybe 2-3 reach and 3-4 "on target" and 1-2 "safe" schools. Some suggestions to remove/add from/to current list is appreciated. Thank you!
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by Lisa Anderson » Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:09 am
Dear shaselai,

I think you could be a competitive applicant for your target list if you have a strong, overall package--meaning you also need a great set of essays and recommendations. Your GMAT is strong. I think your master's GPA also mitigates your undergraduate GPA, along with the rigor of your major and institution. Depending on the quality of your work experience, you will want to highlight any leadership and teamwork success stories. You do not note any current extracurriculars, so that is something else you will want to work on and highlight in your applications. Finally, your mix of schools that you note at the bottom of your post is perfect. However, the list you posted does not really fit that mix as there are no safety options on it. Most of the schools on your list are reach schools with Tepper, Kenan-Flagler and Johnson being between reach and target. I would suggest visiting some of these schools as a way to narrow down this list and adding others on in the target and safety category.

Good luck,
Lisa
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by shaselai » Tue Apr 13, 2010 8:04 am
Lisa,

which schools do you think could be "safeties" - would that be tier 2 schools (30+) for me basically? I am planning to send 6-7 for R1 and possibly more if i dont get into what i want. I havent had too many extracurricular activities - i tried to get into some here but nothing went through (being in a small city doesnt help either...). I am doing some extracurricular programming activities with couple of friends and he is thinking of creating a company if things go off - maybe i can put that up.

Also, is this strategy valid or too risky(please help switch around to improve):

Round 1: Yale, Columbia , Tuck , Kellogg, Duke, Stern,Johnson.

If IN round 1 then Haas, Booth, Sloan.
If NOT IN then UCLA, Tepper, Cornell, UNC.

The idea is go for reaches and couple of targets R1 (maybe go Early Decision on couple of them). If i get in then i can try reach higher and if i didnt get in at all then go for more targets.

Also, should i initiate interviews will all the schools i am applying unless the school offers interviews? Thanks
Thanks.
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by Lisa Anderson » Wed Apr 14, 2010 6:48 pm
Safety schools are generally going to be schools where your statistics are above average for the school's class profile. Since your GMAT is quite high, but your GPA is on the lower side, then you have to weigh that in finding those safety options. I would say look at schools that tend to fall in the 25-40 range for some safety options. You can apply to those in R2 if needed depending on the outcome of R1, but you need to have those 1-2 schools identified.

With regard to your strategy, you should do what you feel is best for you. It seems like a lot of applications to write and a large amount of application fees, but you have to proceed how you are comfortable and know that you ended up where you are supposed to be in fall 2011. I highly encourage you to continue researching schools and comparing them to your personal list of what you seek in a program (your own ranking, if you will). You should have an idea of what your top choices are and go from there versus letting some arbitrary magazine ranking decide what schools are best (just my two cents :) ). Based on the "shaselai" ranking, you might re-order your applications accordingly. Perhaps you have already done this--if so, I'm glad--but if not, then it might be worthwhile.

Finally, if you apply Early Decision, then it seems you should accept that offer of admission and be finished. So, be careful if you choose to do that. While many people continue to submit applications other places, you should be careful if you take that risk.

Good luck,
Lisa
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by shaselai » Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:45 pm
Lisa,

I have checked out geographic details and other stats of the colleges and have came up with a new list:

Round 1:
NYU (picked out of tuck and columbia)
yale
georgetown
Virginia (instead of Ross)
Carnegie (instead of duke)
Kellog

Other consideration:
tuck
colombia,
ross
duke

SO WANT:
haas & BOOTH but chances are slim....

Yale and Kellog are my 2 high reaches since my GMAT matches their mean but my undergrad gpa falls off their 10-90% range although my grad gpa is within range.Georgetown, virginia and carnegie seems to be targets stat wise and stern is slight reach in term of stats. Is this a good round 1 or i need to add more targets/reaches?

Also, how much weight does adcom put grad gpa into consideration? Is undergrad gpa still the one they base it on or they would use grad gpa instead or maybe their mean? Thanks!
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