Atypical Profile

Academic Info:
I am completing my HBA as a philosophy specialist from the University of Toronto (class of 2010). My overall GPA is a 2.0 thus far.

GMAT Score: 760 (49 Q, 45 V)

Areas of Concern and Why I Want to Pursue an MBA:
My GPA is obviously a major area of concern. However, my situation is atypical. Please allow me to explain. During my first year of university (in 2003), I started my own online real estate company. I found a disconnect in the real estate market between land wholesalers and people looking for undeveloped investment properties. I started with $5000 CAD. I had a website made and I optimized the site for all of the major search engines. (I would just like to note that I am in no way a computer programmer. My ideas all came to fruition through my creation of a strategy and management of a team of programmers). After this initial stage was completed, I contacted land wholesalers and started buying small increments of land throughout the United States and Canada. After approximately one month, I analyzed the data I received about consumer trends (i.e. average price I could charge for land, locations where land was most desirable to consumers, etc) and focused my purchases around those trends. At our peak the company earned over $3 million CAD in revenue per year, I managed a full time staff of 9 people, we held an inventory of land in excess of $150 000 USD, and I was only 22 years old. I then sold the company to private investors in 2007.

At this time, I envisioned a new adventure that I wanted to pursue. I successfully applied for a Government of Canada entrepreneurial grant in excess of $120 000 CAD (in order to receive this, I had to present a formal business plan to underwriters at both the Government of Canada and ScotiaBank). I was the youngest person to ever be awarded an entrepreneurial grant from this government program. With these funds I created a completely unique student website to help students with their homework. Upon launch of the site, I had already secured both a top 4 Canadian bank and Visa as primary sponsors. The site grew quickly and I started looking for venture capital to facilitate our expansion. To lower operating costs, I established a partnership with an IT firm in Bangalore and outsourced certain non-essential programming tasks to them (cutting our technology expenses by 60%). I successfully presented our company business plan to the National Angel Investor Lending Forum in January 2009, where we were initially offered $100 000 USD in exchange for a small equity stake in the website. However, I rejected these funds because I recently chose to sell the website outright to a private investor.

My dismal GPA is the result of complete irresponsibility on my part. My transcript is littered with both A’s and F’s. It is pathetic. While I was working full time on the two companies that I had started, I should have de-registered myself from UofT. However, against my better judgment, I chose to enroll in classes that I just did not have the time to attend. I neither submitted work, nor wrote exams for most classes. However, my GPA does not in any way present my actual academic abilities. One of the major motivations in selling my latest website was so that I could register for this upcoming undergraduate term and create an alternate transcript for myself. I am going to take calculus, stats, and economics. I have also been engaged in many extra-curricular activities (eg. I have coached rep hockey, been elected treasurer of one of the largest clubs at UofT, and helped stage two different shows). I have also started to volunteer my time with the Make a Wish Foundation.

My reason for pursuing an MBA is to focus on entrepreneurship and strategy. Since I have already created and managed two successful start-ups (both from the creation of an initial business plan through to selling each respective company to investors), I feel that I am able to add value to projects that I manage. With an MBA, I would gain the formal knowledge necessary to identify key metrics and nuances within a company’s balance sheet, and try to identify niche companies that are underperforming. At this time, I would like to perform a buyout of the company and work towards adding the value that I judged to be under the surface. However, without formal business training, my goal would be very difficult to achieve.

My target schools are Columbia, Harvard, Wharton and Richard Ivey (at the University of Western Ontario).

What are my chances? Thank you for your time

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