Hello everyone,
I am applying for second round Booth and kellogg and wanted to know how strong my profile is and what I can do to better it besides the GMAT (which I am re-taking in 2 weeks).
GPA – BA Economics, 2.75 GPA (top 15 state school in the US). It is low because I took all biology classes first year as I was pre-medicine and completely bombed them. My econ GPA is much better.
Secondly, I took pre-mba classes at graham school (part of university of Chicago) which are like first semester classes at booth and are graded. I have a 3.5 GPA from that program.
GMAT – 700(49Q, 36V) first try. I am taking it again and feel comfortable getting around 740.
Work Experience
1.5 years – eCommerce Analyst supporting a major eCommerce retailer.
- Most of my achievements revolved around generating incremental income through testing/optimization on ecommerce platform
- Second aspect of this work was to propose new marketing tactics for customer base to increase goal metrics. Again this was done by analyzing behavior and purchase data. I do have a list of achievements driven solely by me.
2 years - working at a tech Startup (~20 ppl, funded by well known VC's) as a analytics and strategy manager, building out the infrastructure for analysis, working cross-functionally with product and marketing to identify opportunities for growth, figuring out the unit economics, and testing/optimizing various customer decision points. I have worked with all types of data here, and doing tons of stuff that is not always what an analyst/data scientist does. Ex includes financial modeling, reporting kpis and explaining them to our board/investors, managing the marketing team. I was promoted after 9 months to lead the marketing team (4ppl) in addition to having ownership of analytics.
Overall I achieved a lot at this company. Significantly improving the KPIs and creating/driving strategies for growth. I was also leading the charge to optimize pricing and have hard numbers to show the impact. At bigger companies this would be seen as a corporate strategy role, but at a startup things are at a much smaller scale so you can’t really make that claim. Manging direct reports is also a good experience and shows growth in my career.
Why do an MBA?
- I feel like I am at a point in my career where I have gained lots of skills in my area of practice, analytics, and some in strategy in my previous role. But my previous role was on a much smaller scale vs a corporate strategy function for a fortune 500. I want to do strategy consulting and I can't get that position without doing an MBA. I like booth because it is more quant focused, which will help me better my analytical capabilities and I also have some connections to the school (my recommendation is coming from a booth alum and also taking the pre-mba classes at UofC).
Extra Curricular –
Volunteered with an organization that teaches kids and young adults about money management
Working as a pro bono consultant to help local non-profits solve their particular business challenges
I am applying for second round Booth and kellogg and wanted to know how strong my profile is and what I can do to better it besides the GMAT (which I am re-taking in 2 weeks).
GPA – BA Economics, 2.75 GPA (top 15 state school in the US). It is low because I took all biology classes first year as I was pre-medicine and completely bombed them. My econ GPA is much better.
Secondly, I took pre-mba classes at graham school (part of university of Chicago) which are like first semester classes at booth and are graded. I have a 3.5 GPA from that program.
GMAT – 700(49Q, 36V) first try. I am taking it again and feel comfortable getting around 740.
Work Experience
1.5 years – eCommerce Analyst supporting a major eCommerce retailer.
- Most of my achievements revolved around generating incremental income through testing/optimization on ecommerce platform
- Second aspect of this work was to propose new marketing tactics for customer base to increase goal metrics. Again this was done by analyzing behavior and purchase data. I do have a list of achievements driven solely by me.
2 years - working at a tech Startup (~20 ppl, funded by well known VC's) as a analytics and strategy manager, building out the infrastructure for analysis, working cross-functionally with product and marketing to identify opportunities for growth, figuring out the unit economics, and testing/optimizing various customer decision points. I have worked with all types of data here, and doing tons of stuff that is not always what an analyst/data scientist does. Ex includes financial modeling, reporting kpis and explaining them to our board/investors, managing the marketing team. I was promoted after 9 months to lead the marketing team (4ppl) in addition to having ownership of analytics.
Overall I achieved a lot at this company. Significantly improving the KPIs and creating/driving strategies for growth. I was also leading the charge to optimize pricing and have hard numbers to show the impact. At bigger companies this would be seen as a corporate strategy role, but at a startup things are at a much smaller scale so you can’t really make that claim. Manging direct reports is also a good experience and shows growth in my career.
Why do an MBA?
- I feel like I am at a point in my career where I have gained lots of skills in my area of practice, analytics, and some in strategy in my previous role. But my previous role was on a much smaller scale vs a corporate strategy function for a fortune 500. I want to do strategy consulting and I can't get that position without doing an MBA. I like booth because it is more quant focused, which will help me better my analytical capabilities and I also have some connections to the school (my recommendation is coming from a booth alum and also taking the pre-mba classes at UofC).
Extra Curricular –
Volunteered with an organization that teaches kids and young adults about money management
Working as a pro bono consultant to help local non-profits solve their particular business challenges
