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Taking a Class as a Precaution?

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Taking a Class as a Precaution?

by chynaxdawl » Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:41 am
Hi,

I'm a newbie here, first post, so please bear with me if I'm making mistakes or am out of line...!

I heard from an admissions consultant that taking classes can help with your application. In my case, I don't have a lot of hands-on analytical experience from college or through my career. I also took the GMAT and did quite poorly on the math. So as a precaution, I was going to take an introductory accounting class at a community college with a plan to be the top student in the class. The point of this would be to prove that I'm analytical, capable, and have what it takes for businees school But I wonder how much help this would be to my profile and whether accounting is even considered to be that analytical?

A little more information about myself:
I went to UCSD for undergrad and graduated cum laude with a GPA of 3.69 double majoring in Communication and Computer Art. I haven't taken any math courses in college because it wasn't required for any of my majors and I had taken calculus in high school and got a 5 on my AP test. I didn't do any extracurricular activities in college...I spent my time getting a professional certificate from the extension program, doing part-time internships, working part-time, and studying abroad.

I am now a marketing professional in the architecture/design industry and have never worked at a "big" name, Fortune 500 company. I've been promoted once and will have over 5 years of full-time working experience by the time I apply. I am also a Public Information Officer for the Red Cross and an officer for a minority professional development organization (will have been involved with both for about 2 years when I apply). I'm 26 (27 when I apply), Asian-American, and female.

I've taken the GMAT once and didn't study much and performed badly (600, 5.5)...but I plan on studying a lot more and will be taking a Veritas Prep course in the spring. I will retake the GMAT 1-2 more times (depending on how well I do) in the summer. I know I need to score a lot higher in order to have a good chance of being accepted by my choice schools. My target is top 10...particularly Kellogg, Booth, and Haas.

Any help/insight that can be shared would be greatly appreciated! I apologize for the long post.
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by humblebee » Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:26 pm

I heard from an admissions consultant that taking classes can help with your application. In my case, I don't have a lot of hands-on analytical experience from college or through my career. I also took the GMAT and did quite poorly on the math. So as a precaution, I was going to take an introductory accounting class at a community college with a plan to be the top student in the class. The point of this would be to prove that I'm analytical, capable, and have what it takes for businees school But I wonder how much help this would be to my profile and whether accounting is even considered to be that analytical?
It would definitely help given that you have no numerical/analytical experience - which is what business school basically is i.e. a numerical and analytical experience, but at an advanced level. Accounting is a core subject in business and is analytical - you have to decipher what the numbers mean in the course (if you were taking a book keeping course, then you dont care what the numbers mean).
Any help/insight that can be shared would be greatly appreciated! I apologize for the long post.
You're a female with an artsy/creative background. Those are definitely pluses. If you get your target GMAT score, I would imagine you'd be a pretty decent chance at your list of schools.

I'm assuming your reason for a MBA is to further marketing experience and build a more solid base in business fundamentals?
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by paulsbodine » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:57 pm
chynaxdawl,

Acing an accounting class would offer only minimal benefit to you if your GMAT score remains low. If you have never taken statistics or calculus, then coursework (and A's) in those subjects would be helpful, but you need to raise that score. Especially since the rest of your application looks very promising to me: good international exposure, interesting industry (don't worry about the non-branded employer), solid extracurriculars. Aside from the GMAT (which will need to be north of 680 or so to make K, B, and H realistic), you also need to show leadership. You sound like you may have some. Feel free to shoot me your resume, if you like.
Paul Bodine
Author, "Great Applications for Business School," "Perfect Phrases for Business School Acceptance," "Perfect Phrases for Letters of Recommendation"
https://www.paulsbodine.com/
[email protected]
(858) 869-1959
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by chynaxdawl » Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:26 pm
Thank you both for your responses! :)
I'm assuming your reason for a MBA is to further marketing experience and build a more solid base in business fundamentals?
Yes, I'd like to further and advance my career in marketing and I think an MBA would not only do that but open up many options. Also, I'm hoping to round myself out with the quantitative side that business school offers. I think it'll be a great learning experience for me...as well as a challenge.
Acing an accounting class would offer only minimal benefit to you if your GMAT score remains low. If you have never taken statistics or calculus, then coursework (and A's) in those subjects would be helpful, but you need to raise that score. Especially since the rest of your application looks very promising to me: good international exposure, interesting industry (don't worry about the non-branded employer), solid extracurriculars. Aside from the GMAT (which will need to be north of 680 or so to make K, B, and H realistic), you also need to show leadership. You sound like you may have some. Feel free to shoot me your resume, if you like.
I completely agree that I need to improve my GMAT score tremendously. I was quite disappointed with my score...I wasn't expecting a lot but I had been scoring 630-670 on the CAT's. I'm prepared to study a lot more this time around and focus on quality. Just to clarify, I have taken calculus but it was in high school. I took the Advanced Placement test in high school and scored a 5, so I passed out of any general education requirements for math in college. I thought accounting might be a good subject to take and it'd have to be introductory since I've never taken any classes. Besides the reasons I stated in my first post, I was hoping it would also show some initiative in the sense that I'm trying to compensate for any weaknesses in my application and address them ahead of time. I hadn't thought about statistics but I will definitely try to get into the class (it's already started) if you think it's more valuable than accounting (probably at least in the sense that it'll help me with the GMAT). I think I've shown a lot of initiative and leadership in my position at work given that I don't have any people to manage...but I do manage a lot of projects. I've also tried to show leadership in my extracurriculars by being an officer. I will be the lead project manager for a networking mixer later this year for about 150 attendees and I have some big goals for it. Thank you for your generous offer! I will likely take you up on that soon!
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