Profile evaluation request - low undergrad gpa, high gmat

Hi Welett,
Lots of good stuff here! You don't discuss community leadership, volunteer work, so if you haven't been doing that you'll want to start to engage, because this is important to top business schools.

Your biggest challenge, as you know, is that low GPA. Given your awesome GMAT, this was clearly a "maturity" issue, not a "smartness" issue, so you'll take that approach in your applications, using an optional essay to discuss honestly what happened there and how you grew out of it.

However, you'll also want to review the acceptance patterns at potential target schools by analyzing the incoming class profiles. Look at that GPA range -- if the 80% range only goes down to, say, 3.4 (HBS, Haas) the chances are that for this school, your undergraduate GPA is a deal-breaker. If the bottom of their 80% range is 3.0 or below -- and believe it or not, there are some top MBA programs (Duke, Tepper) that do have that broad a spread -- that's telling you that they are viewing applicants more holistically, and you will have a better chance of making your case with this school.

Good luck!
Margaret Strother

Hi Welett,
Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge of the Sloan MSMS to advise you on that one. Stanford is simply a long-shot for everyone, even with the best numbers possible.


Margaret Strother