Please be kind enough to advise. Will be greatly appreciated

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Hi All,

I know your time is valuable so any help will be greatly appreciated. I will try to keep it short.

Age: 37
National Origin: Bangladesh
Bachelor G.P.A (Poli Sci): 2.4 (2nd tier Liberal Arts College) - Year - 1995
M.H.A (health admin) G.P.A: 3.9 - Year - 2000
GMAT Score: 700 - Year - 2010
Current Job: Vice President for Operations at a 400 Bed hospital (part of a 15 facility hospital system)

I have 12 years of working experience in the health care industry with roles of increasing responsibility. After my disastorous undergrad performance worked a few odd jobs while taking non-degree seeking courses at the Master's level in a 2nd tier public university. Eventually convinced the professors to take a chance on me and the rest as they say is history. Excelled in the Masters program (graduated from it in 00') and got selected for a prestigious fellowship. Upon completion was offered a job in the same company and have excelled in the health managment track since then. Have lots of extracurriculars like volunteering, teaching Master level courses, community service etc.



Given all this what are my chances for a top MBA program ? The obvious concern I have is my undergrad G.P.A. Not that it is any sort of an excuse but I suffered from extreme depresson and bi-polar disorder in my early 20s. All the medical conditions are documented and in my opinion were the causes for my undergraduate G.P.A. I have recovered from the nightmare and have had no relapses for the last ten years now (also documented)

Any advise would be GREATLY appreciat !!

Thank You,
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by Bryant@VeritasPrep » Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:08 am
Thanks for the question. You really need not worry about your undergrad performance for several reasons. One, it was 15 years ago, and two, you have innoculated concerns about your ability to handle academics with a top performance in grad school. The more time between UG and MBA, the less it matters, because what you have done with that time matters more. Because you not only excelled in grad school already, but also have excelled in your career. This will be a one-two punch against the poor UG GPA. Good luck!
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by Sahil Sheikh » Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:57 am
Thanks Bryant ! Your reply is really appreciated. Could you or some other consultant be kind enough to address the following concerns?

1) I don't know if certain admission consultants specialize in some schools while lagging behind in others. Just for clarity these are the EMBA programs i am interested in:

Kellog
Wharton
Booth
Colombia
Stern

Based on this could you suggest someone ?

2) Should I mention my illness to explain my undergrad G.P.A. I have heard it can be counter productive.


Thank You,

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by Bryant@VeritasPrep » Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:35 pm
You might use an optional essay to briefly address your GPA just to acknowledge that it's below standards, but I really wouldn't spend too much space on it. As for consultants, I myself have actually helped clients get into all the schools you mentioned and would be more than happy to talk about an engagement. If I can put in a shameless plug for Veritas, I truly find the way they do things to be superior, since they assign you to a head consultant such as myself to help you get things in order and then we pull in other consultants (called specialists) who actually graduated from your target schools, who in turn read your semi-final essays to help tweak them for individual schools. You can find out more by contacting Veritas or going to the website.
Bryant Michaels
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