Dear Dan113,
Thanks for your post!
If your passion is real estate, you should be targeting programs like Wharton, NYU and Columbia (to name a few). Of course, if you are looking at top schools, there are some concerns I have regarding your profile:
1) Your ugrad GPA is below the 'unspoken cutoff' of 3.00 that many of the top schools have. This puts a lot of pressure on your GMAT result and the master's grades.
2) Your GMAT result of 710 is decent, but actually average-to-below-average at the top MBA programs. In short, when coupled with your ugrad performance, a 710 may not cut it. I'd be curious to know the breakdown of your performance (quant and verbal percentiles). Did you cross the 80th percentile in each section? How many times have you taken the exam?
3) While your ugrad was top-20, I'd like to know the caliber of the master's dergee you pursued. Was this from a top school as well? If it was from a more regional program, the adcom may 'discount' the 3.50 slightly.
4) As you are aware, you are a bit older than many candidates - especially if you aren't applying until next fall and planning on starting school in the fall of 2010 (at which point you'd likely be almost 30). While the experience you have sounds great, some of the top tier schools have been gravitating towards younger applicants as a rule.
5) As a white male, you belong to an over-represented portion of the applicant pool. This will place greater emphasis on metrics like GPA and the GMAT, while also requiring that you do all that you can to stand out in the applicant pool.
As you can see, I'd need to know a bit more about your profile to really provide some in-depth advice. Feel free to send your resume to
[email protected] if you'd like to set up a free session with one of our counselors.
Best of luck,
Graham
