Low GPA, Good GMAT. Please advise

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Low GPA, Good GMAT. Please advise

by iMBA » Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:06 am
Hello everyone,

I was hoping to get some help. Here are my stats:

- GPA= 2.9, economics, Top Public undergrad (Univ of California system) Class of 2010
- 710 (48Q, 39V) 92%
- Currently have 1 year of job experience working for an aerospace manufacturing company. I am part of a 2 year Graduate Development program where I will be exposed to different aspects of the business. So far I have experience in customer service, sales, production control.
- Some volunteer work (will increase this beginning this fall); recently started martial arts and will likely continue this for a few years
- I am part of an underrepresented minority group and plan on applying through The Consortium.

I plan on applying to MBA programs in the Fall of 2013 to begin in 2014. Obviously my GPA is the biggest constraint. I plan on taking about 4 courses at a community college or local university to build an alternative transcript.

These are the schools I wish to apply to:

UCLA Anderson
USC Marshall
Cornell Johnson
UC Berkeley Haas
NYU Stern
Dartmouth Tuck

I know that these schools maybe out of my reach, but I have a "go big or go home" mentality. Please give me your honest opinion and any advise on how to better increase my chances of being admitted to any of these programs. Thank you!
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by paulsbodine » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:03 pm
iMBA,

Your underrepresented minority status combined with a somewhat higher GMAT score and an optional essay explaining reasons for the GPA (and pointing out rising GPA trends etc.) would probably make you competitive at all the schools you listed, with Haas, Stern, and Tuck being the toughest nuts, but by no means impossible. To get them focused away from that GPA, you should, aside from building the alternative transcript (a good idea; maybe also consider MBAmath.com or MBAIQ.com) excel professionally in a fast-track way and find one extracurricular where you can demonstrate leadership (i.e., lead people, etc.). You are smart to start thinking about this so early; that helps to ensure you of a happy outcome. Feel free to send me your resume for a closer look.
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