Profile Eval Please

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Profile Eval Please

by canadian52 » Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:54 am
Hello,

I was just wondering if my 2.7GPA really hurts my chances of admission to the schools listed below?

Age: 25 (Male, white, Canadian)
GPA: 2.7 (Have taken 5 quantitative courses since - received A to A+ in each (finance, accounting, statistics))
GMAT: 720

Education: Business (finance/marketing) undergrad from Canadian University. Grades trend upward... wasn't sure what I wanted to do during first few general years/had too much fun. 3.5 and 3.8 in last two years respectively.

Work Experience:
Internships: Financial analyst at one of Canada's largest telecom companies
Full-time: 2.5 years in business development at one of Forbes Top 10 most innovative tech companies (Promoted roughly once per calendar year). Should become a manager in 6 months or so.

Extracurriculars:
VP positions in University Commerce association
Teaching Assistant (3 different economics classes)
Ran 3 large university events
Big Brother Organization
Habitat for Humanity leader - Lead project to build houses in Nicaragua

Plan: Get an MBA in finance and leverage my skills (biz dev, finance) to gain employment at top consulting firm (tech sector)

Target Schools: Tuck, Darden, Johnson, Stern, Haas, Booth, Ross, Kellogg, Yale


Thank you very much!
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by milimbamission » Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:27 pm
Hello,

You have a pretty good profile overall: Strong professional experience, good GMAT/post undergrad grades, and decent participation in ECs/community (though it's unclear to me which, if any, you've been consistently involved with post-college).

The undergrad GPA will definitely be an issue at these programs, but the fact that you've taken steps to correct for it (quant courses), that your GPA trends up, and that you have a strong GMAT should help compensate for it. Definitely write an optional statement to address this and take responsibility for the fact that you were a little lost/immature in the first couple years of school. :)

I would definitely add some safer programs to your list in light of your GMAT score. And also, see if you can bulk up your leadership activities outside of work - especially if your community activities aren't current.

Good luck,
Mili

Mili Mittal
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Mili Mittal

https://www.mbamission.com

Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)

Download [url=https:// https://info.mbamission.com/MBA-Personal ... ent-Guide/]mbaMission's Free Personal Statement Guide[/url]

Visit the mbaMission Blog

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by canadian52 » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:16 pm
Thanks for the reply Mili!

I just have a few quick questions if you don't mind.

1) In terms of post-grad EC's:
- I led a trip of 15 to Nicaragua to build houses with Habitat for Humanity raising over $30,000 to support our efforts
- I have been actively involved as a mentor within the Big Brothers organization
- Current leader of all volunteering initiatives at my work --> I oversee and help plan all charity and volunteering work our office takes part in
- Yearly participant in the Run to End Women's Cancer's

I will continue to build this list, but am I on the right track as far as quality of EC's goes.


2) With my score and my GPA, should I retest and try for a higher score? I wrote it with the intention of applying to a non-MBA international business masters program at Queens University. There was a little bit of a rush on the application as they restrict admission to candidates with less than 2 years work experience and I was approaching that point. Had I have taken more time prepping I'm sure I would have scored significantly higher.



To narrow it down a bit, my top 3 schools would be Cornell, Northwestern, and Dartmouth. I see stories in the forums of students with low GPA's gaining acceptance to top programs. With a few years before I apply to programs is there anything else I can do to ensure I am competitive and be one of those stories?