Sorry if this is a bit long-winded but I am a 30 yr old very non-traditional student and want a realistic evaluation. I am interested in attending a Top 5 program, specifically HBS or Wharton’s dual MBA/Int Studies program with the Lauder Institute…and I want to know if I have any chance at all.
I am not sugar coating this; I am accurately describing what I did with my life the last 10 years and would appreciate an equally frank and direct appraisal.
High school – all honors classes, 1420 SAT (older, non-recentered version), many honors, blah blah…
Following high school, I received elite scholarship from the German Bundestag, which paid for me to attend the 13th grade in a German high school. I was one of 15 Americans nationwide. I then stayed on for a few years in Europe, polishing my German and studying at a German university.
At roughly age 21, I returned to America, attended Vanderbilt University for a year, dropped out to goof off and bartend in Nashville.
Later I reentered college at a small state school in Tennessee. After 2 years, this school offered me a scholarship to be first student in their new Hamburg exchange program - they sent me back to Germany where I received a monthly stipend of $1000 as part of a scholarship for Young Entrepreneurs, plus housing, plane tickets, tuition etc. This scholarship was primarily funded by the German government to encourage entrepreneurial ties ties with American universities/business students.
That year, I founded a company that year selling designer clothing and watches in Germany. My first year, the business did $100k in sales, a business I operated off a laptop and the garage of my apartment in Hamburg.
I then moved back to the USA, and further developed the business for 2 years while still in school. Expanded to serve 20+ countries with sales of $250,000 my final year, at which point I closed the business in order to move back to Europe. Ran the business from my laptop and my Dad's garage.
My final year of undergraduate studies I spent in Spain. I speak relatively fluent Spanish now as well as German. I have restarted my import/export business in the 3 languages I speak. I am also part-owner in a few small businesses.
Graduated in May 2006 with double major in Economics and Foreign Languages, minor in International Studies. Bad GPA – 3.35 or 3.40 with the degree from a small state university. Actually my grades were relatively decent, but have a number of F’s, etc on the transcript from semesters I started and just never bothered to withdraw. This is basically because I spent the last 10 years of my life traveling all over the world while enrolled in school, literally while enrolled and taking these classes – ie Lived in Brazil for a few months volunteering at an eye clinic – in Ecuador taking Spanish lessons…went to China to climb along the Great Wall, Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef and through the Middle East – not to mention dozens and dozens of trips through Europe and South America. All of these trips were self-financed - my business was successful and my classes easy, so I basically just took off all the time to see the world while I was young. Was not motivated academically and so took a very immature attitude toward my grades.
I was and continue to be very entrepreneurial – and I had to be to finance all this traveling – and I have enormous amounts of foreign experience, not just the typical semester abroad of so many American students. Other random honors etc: Mensa – Eagle Scout -
I just took the GMAT last week for the first time,
Scored 720 (95%). My essay was scored 5.5
MY QUESTIONS, specifically:
----Knowing this basic information, do I stand a chance at the schools I mentioned (Top 5 MBA programs, specifically Wharton/Lauder Institute and Harvard)??
---When I took the GMAT, I actually felt I could have done a bit better. Nerves and lack of prep. I think if I crammed for two weeks and did it again, I stand a decent chance to get a 750 or higher. Of course, any given day one could also score lower. But feel relatively confident I could improve. Should I try? Or is it inconsequential?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK, I am posting this question to all four admission consultants here on the forum.
While I am seeking the experienced opinion of an admission consultant, if anyone else wants to chime in with their two cents, I am all ears
