Profile Evaluation:
Sorry if this is a bit long-winded but I am a 29 yr old very non-traditional student and want a realistic evaluation. I am interested in attending a Top 5 program, specifically HBS or Columbia…and want to know if I have any chance at all.
I am not sugar coating this; I am accurately describing what I did with my life the last 10 years and would appreciate an equally frank appraisal.
High school – all honors classes, 1420 SAT (older, non-recentered version), many honors, blah blah…
Following high school, I received elite scholarship from the German Bundestag (Parliament), which paid for a year of study in Germany. I was one of 15 Americans selected by the US Congress nationwide. I then stayed on for a few years in Europe, polishing my German and studying at a German university.
I then attended Vanderbilt University for a year, dropped out to goof off and bartend in Nashville.
Reentered school at a small state college in Tennessee. After 1.5 years, I this school offered me to be first student in their Hamburg exchange program and they sent me back to Germany, as part of a scholarship for Young Entrepreneurs. I was paid roughly $1000 per monthly to study in Germany for a year – a scholarship funded by my college and the German government.
I founded a company that year selling American textiles in Germany. My first year, the business did $100k in sales, a business I operated off a laptop and the garage of my apartment in Hamburg.
I then moved back to the USA, and further developed the business for 2 years while still in school. Expanded to serve 20+ countries with sales of $250,000 my final year, at which point I closed the business in order to move back to Europe. Ran the business from my laptop and my Dad's garage.
My final year of undergraduate work I spent in Spain, where I currently reside.
I speak fluent Spanish now as well. I have restarted my business, selling throughout Europe in the 3 languages I speak.
Graduated in May 2006 with double major in Economics and Foreign Languages. Bad GPA – 3.10 Actually my grades were quite good, but have 5 F’s on the transcript from semesters I started and just never bothered to withdraw. This is basically because I spent the last 10 years of my life traveling all over the world while enrolled in school, literally while enrolled and taking these classes – ie Lived in Brazil for a few months volunteering at an eye clinic – in Ecuador taking Spanish lessons…went to China to climb along the Great Wall, Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef and through the Middle East – not to mention dozens and dozens of trips through Europe and South America. All of these trips were self-financed - my business was successful and my classes easy, so I basically just took off all the time to see the world while I was young. Was not motivated academically and so took a very immature attitude toward my grades.
I am very entrepreneurial – and had to be to finance all this traveling – and I have enormous amounts of foreign experience, not just the typical semester abroad of so many students. Other random: Mensa – Eagle Scout -
I have the GMAT scheduled in 2 weeks.
MY QUESTIONS, specifically:
----Knowing my basic information, do I stand a chance at the schools I mentioned (Top 5)??
----What type of GMAT do I have to get to get to have a decent shot? 700? Or more like 750, etc
Sorry if this is a bit long-winded but I am a 29 yr old very non-traditional student and want a realistic evaluation. I am interested in attending a Top 5 program, specifically HBS or Columbia…and want to know if I have any chance at all.
I am not sugar coating this; I am accurately describing what I did with my life the last 10 years and would appreciate an equally frank appraisal.
High school – all honors classes, 1420 SAT (older, non-recentered version), many honors, blah blah…
Following high school, I received elite scholarship from the German Bundestag (Parliament), which paid for a year of study in Germany. I was one of 15 Americans selected by the US Congress nationwide. I then stayed on for a few years in Europe, polishing my German and studying at a German university.
I then attended Vanderbilt University for a year, dropped out to goof off and bartend in Nashville.
Reentered school at a small state college in Tennessee. After 1.5 years, I this school offered me to be first student in their Hamburg exchange program and they sent me back to Germany, as part of a scholarship for Young Entrepreneurs. I was paid roughly $1000 per monthly to study in Germany for a year – a scholarship funded by my college and the German government.
I founded a company that year selling American textiles in Germany. My first year, the business did $100k in sales, a business I operated off a laptop and the garage of my apartment in Hamburg.
I then moved back to the USA, and further developed the business for 2 years while still in school. Expanded to serve 20+ countries with sales of $250,000 my final year, at which point I closed the business in order to move back to Europe. Ran the business from my laptop and my Dad's garage.
My final year of undergraduate work I spent in Spain, where I currently reside.
I speak fluent Spanish now as well. I have restarted my business, selling throughout Europe in the 3 languages I speak.
Graduated in May 2006 with double major in Economics and Foreign Languages. Bad GPA – 3.10 Actually my grades were quite good, but have 5 F’s on the transcript from semesters I started and just never bothered to withdraw. This is basically because I spent the last 10 years of my life traveling all over the world while enrolled in school, literally while enrolled and taking these classes – ie Lived in Brazil for a few months volunteering at an eye clinic – in Ecuador taking Spanish lessons…went to China to climb along the Great Wall, Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef and through the Middle East – not to mention dozens and dozens of trips through Europe and South America. All of these trips were self-financed - my business was successful and my classes easy, so I basically just took off all the time to see the world while I was young. Was not motivated academically and so took a very immature attitude toward my grades.
I am very entrepreneurial – and had to be to finance all this traveling – and I have enormous amounts of foreign experience, not just the typical semester abroad of so many students. Other random: Mensa – Eagle Scout -
I have the GMAT scheduled in 2 weeks.
MY QUESTIONS, specifically:
----Knowing my basic information, do I stand a chance at the schools I mentioned (Top 5)??
----What type of GMAT do I have to get to get to have a decent shot? 700? Or more like 750, etc
