Dear bigeater1,

Thanks for your post!

The short answer to your question about low GPAs is as follows:

1) A 2.7 GPA clearly puts you at a significant disadvantage at all of the schools you've mentioned. Given that the average GPA at top programs is closer to 3.5, anything that falls below the 3.0 mark can be a serious liability.

2) Despite this negative, your application will still be given a holistic review at each of the programs. The real question is whether or not the other aspects of your profile (as well as the circumstances surrounding the 2.7 GPA) can somehow help you to overcome the strike you will have against you going in.

3) When I was an admissions officer at Wharton, we did admit some folks with sub-3.0 GPAs. In all cases, however, there was something highly compelling about the candidate in another area that enabled them to stand out. I should also add that almost universally, the low GPA folks managed to secure very high GMAT scores and that they had excellent reasons for the GPA they had earned (working full time to pay their way through college, first in family to university, personal issues, etc). They also usually had pursued challenging majors at top-flight ugrad institutions.

4) Over the years, Clear Admit has worked with a number of low-GPA folks. Several have gotten into schools on your list - but not without a lot of work on their part - and not without a compelling profile in other dimensions (great work exp., unique background, etc).

With this in mind, I'm curious to know the following:

a) How did you do on the GMAT?
b) What were the reasons behind your low GPA?
c) Have you taken outside courses since college to build an alternative transcript?

If you would like to discuss this in more detail, send your resume to [email protected] for a free phone session with one of our counselors.

Best of luck,

Graham