The Application Process

Hi everyone,

First, I just want to thank you all on this forum for sharing so much valuable information!

I just got my Bachelor's degree in Finance. My Overall GPA is 2.66

I am studying for TOEFL right now and I have no doubts that I will take it with a great score since I studied English in high school, lived in the US for a little over 3 years, and I am working at a call center.

I will try to study and take the GMAT by mid November and have the score sent to a number of schools so I can apply by Round 2. Most schools' deadlines for Round 2 is mid December-early January as far I have researched. Please correct me if I am wrong here. Then I plan on studying for the GMAT again, retaking it with hopes for a better score and re-applying for Round 3.

Now I know that the application is a combination of many things. Maybe I can impress with a good essay, but still my GPA and my job experience are the things that worry me. I am 26 now and I have worked as a Lifeguard, Valet, Manager at a fast food restaurant, a Help desk Analyst,Software Support and lastly a Manager at a Financial Advisory Firm. This is not going to impress the top 20 B-Schools, right? Do you guys think if I should even bother applying to them considering my GPA and not having a solid experience in Management? What schools would you all recommend if say I get a 600-700 score in GMAT which I think is doable for me?

Any suggestions are appreciated, especially from people who were in my position and succeeded in being admitted to a desired school!

Thank you all again!

Regards,
Nick

Hi Nick - we've helped a bunch of people who were in your position and succeeded in being admitted to a great school so we can offer all sorts of reactions to what you've said.

First off - congrats on graduating - that's great! On to the next adventure.

The issue with your GPA is real however. How did you come up with the 2.66 GPA? If you went to school in India then you need to present your academic record as your school reported it, which we doubt would be on the 4.0 scale. If you want to share more details then we can try and help you evaluate it.

The truth is though, anything below a 3.0 GPA equivalent is going to make it very difficult to get into a Top 20 bschool. It's just too competitive from candidates all over the world, especially Asia, and many people are presenting super strong profiles. If your college academics weren't strong then your GMAT will matter a lot more, but even so the GMAT cannot fully compensate for poor grades (especially if you just graduated). The finance degree is good but it's a hard sell if you're claiming you want to go get an MBA - basically, more finance studies - and you didn't do well in those classes very recently. It's complicated and there's lots of moving parts, and we obviously only know tiny bits of your profile, so we're not saying that you can't get in, only that there are challenges.

You'll also want to move up your GMAT test and try for Round 1 instead, as it represents a real advantage, particularly if you're coming from an oversubscribed candidate pool. Is there a reason you're putting it all off for that long?

We're also quite puzzled by the strategy you described. You cannot reapply to the same school in one admissions season, and it's always easier to get in as a "fresh" applicant rather than as a reapplicant. Why are you planning to retest and reapply? This is very confusing.

It sounds like you're early in your process so it's fine to not have it all worked out yet. You'll want to figure out what your career goals are first as that will help you decide on some schools. It sounds like you've bounced around quite a bit so far. That is not necessarily a problem but it does mean that you'll need to do more in your application to show the adcom how you have transferable skills to a specific future path that you clearly define for yourself.

Lots of challenges but lots of opportunities too! Good luck with everything and you've come to the right place, excellent resources available here on BTG, have fun!

EssaySnark

Hi,

I am from Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. My low GPA is due to the fact that I had to work throughout my bachelor's simply because I could not afford to just study. I would like to get an MBA because I like it more than Finance. That's pretty much it. I was 19 when I decided the major, but things change, right? Especially after you have studied it for 4 years. Not that I hate Finance, but I think I would enjoy MBA more. I guess I will describe my decision this way in the essay as well. I mean, it's not like I am switching from Law to MBA.

Regarding the GMAT test and applying for Round 1, I simply do not have enough time to prepare and get a score that is good enough. It's mid July and if I want to apply for Round 1, I need to take the GMAT in mid August (having taken care of TOEFL), because it takes 20 days for the result to be ready and be sent to the schools.

You are saying I can not re-apply for Round 2 to the same school I applied for in Round 1 if I get a better GMAT score in-between the rounds?

I am still so confused as to trying to figure out what my chances are and for which schools..

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,
Nick

Hi Nick - thanks for the additional information, it's helpful to know more of the story. If you were working a lot during college then that's something to inform the adcom about, but still, the GPA is lower than most schools are going to be comfortable with, particularly if you're coming straight from college. The schools need to see some significant work experience and they also want to make sure you take school seriously. There was a very detailed discussion of this not long ago in this thread: https://www.beatthegmat.com/rejected-fro ... 14563.html

The GPA can be overcome but you need to demonstrate why you need an MBA and why the GPA shouldn't matter in your profile evaluation; it's a weakness that you will need to handle carefully. Much of the MBA curriculum is focused on finance (at least the core is) so if you didn't excel in finance then maybe the schools will wonder why you want to do this. Remember, finance is the language of business, they cannot be separated.

On the GMAT, you actually don't need to have the official test score in order to apply, you can self-report your unofficial score and then the schools will get the official score later including IR and AWA. So technically you could take the GMAT right before a school's deadline and be fine. That would be a lot of pressure so we don't recommend it! But you don't have to have the official score first.

You can only apply to the school once per intake or admissions season (there's some variations if you try for a part-time program vs a full-time program at the same school but those are wrinkles that you don't have to worry about). If you don't make it in during this year's application cycle, you would need to wait till next year and try again at that school. The rounds are just a way for the schools to break up their processes and spread everything out; if you apply in an earlier round you hear back from them sooner, and it's easier to get in earlier.

The good news with your profile is that there are fewer applicants from Bulgaria and Eastern Europe in general and the schools are always looking for diversity in their classes. If you were Indian as we had assumed then it would've been much more difficult to overcome a 2.66 GPA simply due to competition, but we have a tiny bit more hope for you given your geographic background.

Hope this helps, let us know if you have other questions.

EssaySnark

Ok, first I forgot to mention in my initial post (which I already corrected) that my last position is a Manager at a Financial Advisory Firm. What worries me is not the actual work experience I have but the fact that the schools will take into account to a big degree the fact that it took me 7 years to complete my Bachelor's and I obviously worked throughout it, even though as a Manager in the field in which I was studying. I guess I should have provided in the initial post a more detailed explanation as to why my work experience worries me. Or should I not be worried that I worked during my Bachelor's? But how can I not be considering that it was the reason my GPA is so low.. Anyways, no point of looking back, I did not have the finances to support myself anyway so I had to work. I will describe that situation in the essay.

So I think I am done building my strategy pretty much. I will focus all my energy and time from now on until early December for the GMAT preparation, take it and apply for Round 2.

I will be getting two recommendations, one from a previous Manager at the Fin.Adv. Firm and another from a Professor at the University I attended.

I will be writing probably two essays. In the first one I plan on presenting myself, explaining as to why I want an MBA and not a MFin, why I chose the respective school, what I plan on doing once I get my MBA, etc. In the second one I will go on in explaining as to why my GPA is so low, the fact that I had to work during my Bachelor's in order to support myself financially.

I am taking the TOEFL exam on August 10th, not worried about it all since I already smashed through a couple practice tests without any prep. It seems like a piece of cake.

I am researching right now as to what books I will be needing for the GMAT prep. If I need assistance on that, I will open another topic in the GMAT Strategy sub-forum.

Thank you very much for your time once again!

Regards,
Nick

Hey Nick - sorry to be so blunt but we think you need to be doing more research, your strategy really has some issues.

You shouldn't get a recommendation from a professor, none of the bschools want that unless you just graduated and literally don't have anyone else to ask.

https://essaysnark.com/2012/03/academic-recommendations/

We're pretty confused by your statement about the essays that you plan on writing. All the schools have specific questions you need to answer. You can't just write what you want. You also can't re-use the same essay for multiple schools; they all need to be written from scratch (some of the ideas can be reused, sure, but the essays themselves are almost never portable).

The TOEFL is in fact pretty straightforward for most people however you might want to do the GMAT first and then take the TOEFL for two reasons: 1) the studying you do for GMAT verbal and AWA will help you prepare for the TOEFL; 2) the TOEFL score only lasts for 2 years, if this process takes longer than you expect or for some reason you decide not to go to school this year, having a TOEFL dated further out might mean you don't need to take it again later (worst case scenario).

Anyway good luck with everything, this process is complicated!!! Lots of moving parts.

EssaySnark

Hi,

Well I did not mean that I would be copy pasting the same essay. The points I mentioned were general that would fit in any essay for any school. I am aware that schools have posted on their websites their own concerns about their candidates and I will address their questions accordingly. Every essay will be different obviously.

About the recommendation from a Professor, I read that it was good to have one of the recommendations from a Professor, but I guess I was wrong. I will take that into account.

Thanks for your reply!

Nick

It seems I calculated my GPA incorrectly. It is 3.36, not 2.66. Well good thing I payed for that iGPA calculator at wes.org !