Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

I apologize I posted in a sub forum before noticing this generic one. I will remove my other sub forum post.



Is it a very long shot for any of Kellog, Tuck, Fuqua, goizueta, booth? if so is it something I can work on if i put admission off for a year? if wont make a difference what is my best next options(schools) with respect to my profile?


- GPA: 2.8, major: Computer Science, School: Cairo University ( top reputable university in Egypt)
- GMAT: 710

- resume highlights, including company name, job titles and promotions:

Work experience: 8+ years of experience, 5 after graduation, 3+ during school ( full time job)

Function: sales, particularly Telesales, all my experience was in Call centers(outsourced telesales campaigns from US UK and AU to egypt, so the call centers I worked in are in EGYPT but the companies
represted were multinational like Verizon yellowpages, superpages and so).

Industry/Products: Internet Advertising/ Online Yellowpages, Search Engine Marketing services.

Promotions: Sales rep (1+ years), Sales Supervisor ( 2 years) Sr. Sales supervisor (1 yr)
Sales Operations Manager (4 years)

- extracurricular involvements: The only experience I can mention here was literacy education to the illiterate in country sides of Egypt. Not too much time log into this though, less than a year time.

- interesting personal facts - countries lived in, challenges faced, unusual interests

So many unusual events that I can talk about since I live in Egypt with everything that has been happening in the past few years, but the main challenge faced and personal story I might bring up is the fact that I had to work throughout college to pay for my tuition and to save for big part of my mba schools tuition, that explains the low gpa. I have achived a within the top 30 ranking in my grades on my first year but I couldnt juggle school and work any faster when courses got more hardcore in the following years. I will be taking courses in finance, accounting, and sales and marketing from an accredited institution in egypt to make up for the low gpa though.

Lived in Cairo, Egypt and Dubai, UAE. Please also note that we dont use the GPA system in evaluation
in most egyptian universities so that is a rough conversion it should slighltly amount to more than that.

yj787 wrote:I apologize I posted in a sub forum before noticing this generic one. I will remove my other sub forum post.



Is it a very long shot for any of Kellog, Tuck, Fuqua, goizueta, booth? if so is it something I can work on if i put admission off for a year? if wont make a difference what is my best next options(schools) with respect to my profile?


- GPA: 2.8, major: Computer Science, School: Cairo University ( top reputable university in Egypt)
- GMAT: 710

- resume highlights, including company name, job titles and promotions:

Work experience: 8+ years of experience, 5 after graduation, 3+ during school ( full time job)

Function: sales, particularly Telesales, all my experience was in Call centers(outsourced telesales campaigns from US UK and AU to egypt, so the call centers I worked in are in EGYPT but the companies
represted were multinational like Verizon yellowpages, superpages and so).

Industry/Products: Internet Advertising/ Online Yellowpages, Search Engine Marketing services.

Promotions: Sales rep (1+ years), Sales Supervisor ( 2 years) Sr. Sales supervisor (1 yr)
Sales Operations Manager (4 years)

- extracurricular involvements: The only experience I can mention here was literacy education to the illiterate in country sides of Egypt. Not too much time log into this though, less than a year time.

- interesting personal facts - countries lived in, challenges faced, unusual interests

So many unusual events that I can talk about since I live in Egypt with everything that has been happening in the past few years, but the main challenge faced and personal story I might bring up is the fact that I had to work throughout college to pay for my tuition and to save for big part of my mba schools tuition, that explains the low gpa. I have achived a within the top 30 ranking in my grades on my first year but I couldnt juggle school and work any faster when courses got more hardcore in the following years. I will be taking courses in finance, accounting, and sales and marketing from an accredited institution in egypt to make up for the low gpa though.

Lived in Cairo, Egypt and Dubai, UAE. Please also note that we dont use the GPA system in evaluation
in most egyptian universities so that is a rough conversion it should slighltly amount to more than that.

First of all, hope you're safe with all that is going on right now in Cairo!

With your current level of experience, I think you can and should apply this year - unless you foresee some *major* changes in your professional life happening in the next year, you're unlikely going to be that much stronger as an applicant next year compared to now. You currently have five years which is right within the averages of what most people have.

As for schools, I think you may be overreaching a little. In essence, between Kellogg/Tuck/Booth -- choose 2.

Here's what I suggest:

Stretch: Kellogg/Tuck/Booth (choose 1-2)
Sweet spot: Fuqua, Ross, Darden, Stern, Cornell, Yale, UCLA (choose 2-3)
Safety: Emory, Georgetown, Maryland, UNC, USC, Texas, Tepper (choose 1-2)

That should give you a good range of schools with less of a possibility that you won't get into any.

Good luck and stay safe!!!

Thank you Alex.

I appreciate the tip on spreading my applications between top and mid tier schools to avoid not getting into anything.

One last thing. Being in sales and writing scripts and pitches for quite a period I think I can nail a very good essay after researching what admcomm usually look for. what I am really concerned about is the low GPA and the fact that my sales experience although is extensive, is cornered within Call center operations.

The experience I have in sales concepts and practices is huge and I can easily express that in essays but the company names in my resume wont be internationally reputable and all my exposure have been within call centers (dont know how call centers management positions are perceived by admcomm and whether they regard them as less prestigious professionally then consulting, banking, finance,hi-tech or engineering backgrounds)

Will that along with my GPA affect my chances in getting one of these b-schools? any tips on how can that be offset, if possible? and provided the above, is this list still realistic or what should I cross off?

Stretch: Kellogg/Tuck/Booth (choose 1-2)
Sweet spot: Fuqua, Ross, Darden, Stern, Cornell, Yale, UCLA (choose 2-3)
Safety: Emory, Georgetown, Maryland, UNC, USC, Texas, Tepper (choose 1-2)

Hi,

With 5+ yrs. of work experience, you are in ideal phase of your career which most of the b-school(s) look for. You have good GMAT and low undergrad scores. Therefore, I would suggest you to focus on application essays and showcase leadership examples, ability to work with others, achievements in or outside work place, maturity and professionalism during the final interviews. With the given information, you may target schools like: Tuck, Kellogg, Columbia, NYU-Stern, Duke, UCLA-Anderson, Ross, Cornell, McCombs, Tepper, INSEAD, Oxford, Cambridge, HEC-Paris, IMD, IE-Spain, ISB, HKUST, CEIBS-Shanghai, Nanyang & NUS. You may try your chances in b-school(s) by clicking https://goo.gl/onTKu

To get some more clarity on b-school application process and inputs from top b-school grads, kindly attend the webinar conducted by b-school alumnus. For more information and to register your name, click https://tinyurl.com/orhuqum

Regards
Erina

yj787 wrote:I apologize I posted in a sub forum before noticing this generic one. I will remove my other sub forum post.



Is it a very long shot for any of Kellog, Tuck, Fuqua, goizueta, booth? if so is it something I can work on if i put admission off for a year? if wont make a difference what is my best next options(schools) with respect to my profile?


- GPA: 2.8, major: Computer Science, School: Cairo University ( top reputable university in Egypt)
- GMAT: 710

- resume highlights, including company name, job titles and promotions:

Work experience: 8+ years of experience, 5 after graduation, 3+ during school ( full time job)

Function: sales, particularly Telesales, all my experience was in Call centers(outsourced telesales campaigns from US UK and AU to egypt, so the call centers I worked in are in EGYPT but the companies
represted were multinational like Verizon yellowpages, superpages and so).

Industry/Products: Internet Advertising/ Online Yellowpages, Search Engine Marketing services.

Promotions: Sales rep (1+ years), Sales Supervisor ( 2 years) Sr. Sales supervisor (1 yr)
Sales Operations Manager (4 years)

- extracurricular involvements: The only experience I can mention here was literacy education to the illiterate in country sides of Egypt. Not too much time log into this though, less than a year time.

- interesting personal facts - countries lived in, challenges faced, unusual interests

So many unusual events that I can talk about since I live in Egypt with everything that has been happening in the past few years, but the main challenge faced and personal story I might bring up is the fact that I had to work throughout college to pay for my tuition and to save for big part of my mba schools tuition, that explains the low gpa. I have achived a within the top 30 ranking in my grades on my first year but I couldnt juggle school and work any faster when courses got more hardcore in the following years. I will be taking courses in finance, accounting, and sales and marketing from an accredited institution in egypt to make up for the low gpa though.

Lived in Cairo, Egypt and Dubai, UAE. Please also note that we dont use the GPA system in evaluation
in most egyptian universities so that is a rough conversion it should slighltly amount to more than that.

The fact that you worked throughout school, have a good GMAT score, graduated in a difficult major and graduated from a top university in Egypt will mitigate your lower grades. I would suggest you write a brief optional essay stating this.

I concur with Alex. I think Emory Goizueta is more of a safety school, Fuqua on target, and Kellogg and Tuck are more reach/stretch schools.

For a school like Tuck alignment with their culture is especially important. So, see if you can attend one of their global events (https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/admission ... d-an-event).

Good luck,

Though this process is not purely scores/grades driven, that GPA does put you in a tough position at the top schools, and call center sales is not a very common MBA feeder job. It is great that you have a promotion into sales management and schools will like your Egyptian profile.

All this said, I feel that schools like Tuck, Duke, Kellogg and Booth will be reaches, so maybe apply to one or two of them at most. I would suggest applying to schools like Tepper, Cornell, UNC Flagler, McCombs...

I helped two clients last year with gpas in the 2.4-2.7 range and one got into Cornell and the other got into Ross. They had some other very attractive components (one had a 770 gmat and the other was a World Class rower), but admission into any of the top 7 type schools was not happening.

I hope that helps.

Alex

Thank you all for the reply, its been a great help in clearing things up. From majority of the replies, provided my background and GPA I should really consider Kellogg, Tuck and maybe also Duke as a long long shot and I should cover myself with other safer options.

My main criteria in b-school choices are reputation for good placement/recruitment in business consulting firms in sales and marketing related function departments (that's my short term goal after an MBA)and have a focus on management, leadership and interpersonal skills in their acceptance of candidates as I can leverage a lot of my workforce management experience to get in and would also want to improve my knowledge in these area if they have programs focusing on that.

My brief research got me the schools i was targeting in this order: Kellogg, Tuck, Duke, Emory.

My question is what are other school that can match that criteria (mainly business consulting firms preferable) and be in the safe or sweet zone for me provided my profile?

If I were you, I would go for the managerial post in the present job. In most MBA application, the quality of your experience matters. Leadership and team management matters a lot for admissions.
Though your work experience is on a higher side, you need not worry about it as we have seen people with even 10+ years of experience. What matters is how you showcase your experience in your essays. If you can show a strong experience over the last 8-9 years with increasing responsibility and results, I think it should be fine. Clearly your constant growth in the organization shows this.
You could also target Johnson graduate school of management, Darden and Haas.

Best of luck!
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