Ask Stacy Blackman

Profile:

29 years old

Married for 7 years, 3 kids

Started career with Morgan Stanley in 1999, worked for Wells Fargo Bank for most of my career. Currently a Private Banker at Wells Fargo.

Completed school going full time at night for the past 3 years while advancing my career durring the day. Graduated with a 3.29 GPA from Arizona State University.

Took the GMAT last spring and bombed it, got a 580. I hope to retake in 6 weeks and am shooting for a 750. I won't apply unless I get better than a 700.

Target Schools:

Harvard
MIT
London Business School
Carnegie Mellon
Stanford
USC - Marshall

I hope to go into management consulting for a firm like McKinsey or Bain.

Concerns:

I've spent a lot of time working and going to school. Most of the schools on my target list are greatly concerned with leadership roles. I have worked with my church in a couple of minor roles. My career has been one of an individual producer. I have not directly managed or served in a leadership role in work. I feel that I have lead my life. As the sole bread winner for my family I have had to manage the finances and household needs for the 5 of us. I was the top sales producer in our region (Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico) in 2005. I've been able to do this while performing adequetly at school. I did all of this and managed to keep up my responsiblities as a father, husband and church member. I take pride in that fact, but I don't know that it really means anything to an admissions board.

My GPA is sub par for the schools I have targeted, and I still need a decent GMAT performance to even consider applying.

I have been banking on the fact that I did a very difficult thing over the past three years and proved myself under trying conditions. I am hoping that this type of endurance and dedication toward a goal will outweight deficencies in my GPA. Asuming that I can recover and deliver a 700-750 GMAT score, will my personal story provide me with enough "application power" to make a realistic atempt at my target schools, or should I reformulate my list?

Thanks for the timely response. I really appreciate the imput you give to this forum.