Hey zab002,

Impressive bio! You know, a huge part of the MBA application story that you tell is your ability to demonstrate to the admissions committee that you're credible in your goals - that you've actually taken steps toward them independent of just the MBA. When people apply with career-change stories that seemingly come out of nowhere (e.g. working in IT for 5 years, master's in computer science, want to own a hedge fund someday, admit me to Columbia/NYU/Wharton) that's a tough sell. Why haven't you worked toward that on your own? How serious are you really, about that career or even an MBA? How well will your experience resonate with potential interviewers for jobs? How much of a professional network do you have to lean on when seeking jobs?

So in your case, that commitment to nonprofit work will be a huge asset for you; you're pretty clearly not trojan-horsing a story about altruism to get into school and then change your major to microfinance to become the next Madoff! And particularly given your Peace Corps work, you're likely to get a break on things like your GMAT score...your lifestyle is understandably less conducive to a great study regimen than that of someone who worked in consumer marketing in Chicago, for example. So you certainly have some great application assets to work with. Plus, your experience will be really compelling to show those leadership/innovation traits that schools want - very few applicants will have had to undertake the kinds of projects that you have!

That said, for schools like Virginia and Carnegie Mellon, specifically, they're working to have average scores near or above 700, so you'd probably be pretty well-served to be into the 600s to feel confident in your application. You'd hate to have pretty much everything they're looking for but just fall short because they need to pull up their scores. Given everything else you bring to the table I doubt you really have to kill it on the GMAT, but being within that middle 80% or better for your top-choice schools would be a big help.

Thank you so much Brian,

I've been involved in international non-profit work since my freshman year in college working within service learning in the Bucknell community or going to Nicaragua as part of a brigade group and now the P.C as you already read in my profile. Therefore, the international experience (especially in nonprofit)is a field that I am genuinely passionate about and would LOVE to do it for the rest of my life.

As I replied to you already, I would appreciate any help/suggestions that would help me with the process!

thank u so much!