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Applying directly after undergrad...Advice?

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Applying directly after undergrad...Advice?

by Borgulous » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:18 pm
Hello all! First off, Beatthegmat.com is awesome for providing such a great community.

So right now I'm starting my second semester of my junior year at a small, liberal arts college. I'm majoring in information systems and expect to have a 3.7 by the time I apply. I have a 4.0 within my major field of study. I've had two substantial internships: Lockheed Martin & a prosperous web-service company in the Silicon Valley. I also have done a lot of other smaller, free-lance type jobs. I'm currently looking into internships for this upcoming summer and will hopefully land another "big name" one. I'm planning to take the GMAT the first time around this May.

Right now I'm looking at Yale's Silver Scholar program and Vanderbilt. I am planning on getting great letters of recommendation, have done substantial amounts of service, and am hoping to launch a start up of my own concurrently with school this semester.

What sort of GMAT score would I need to get to get into a Top-25 program like Yale or Vanderbilt? Does anyone know any schools that are particularly friendly to college seniors applying? Is there a good round to apply in being a college senior? And lastly, with all the above information, do I have a shot at all?

Sometimes I read peoples' stories on the site and get a bit discouraged, but I really have set goals and would like to get my MBA directly after undergrad. Any advice anyone could give would be amazing!

Thanks in advance!
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by tmino » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:12 am
Hey, I think u have quite an impressive background so far. As for a the required GMAT, you probably already heard that there is no cut-off score at any program. Try to be within the 80% range of your target school. Since your GPA will already be above average, you don't necessarily have to exceed the average GMAT score of your target school (though it can never hurt :-).

Have you looked into Harvard's 2+2 program? I think you apply during college, if you get accepted you work for 2 years and then go to HBS. Both Harvard and Stanford accept students straight out of college, though it is highly competitive. Being a current MBA student myself, I really think it's important that my peers have full-time work experience, so I can learn from them. But it seems like you already made up your mind to apply straight out of college.

Some things to keep in mind though: It is much more difficult to get accepted with zero years of full-time work ex (at least for the top programs). From your profile, it seems like after working for a few years you could have a great shot at getting into a top 10 program. Vanderbilt is a fantastic school, but the resources, job opportunities and especially your peers will be more impressive at a top 10 school.

As to rounds, I don't think there is a rule for applicants without work ex, but in general, the earlier the better (e.g. R1, always avoid R3 if u can).

Overall, it seems like you have a very competitive profile, you are way more active than I was when I was in college. Keep up your drive!
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by Borgulous » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:20 am
Thanks for the constructive reply!

Maybe I'm mistaken, but isn't Harvard's 2+2 program geared towards students with no business background? Being an information systems major I'm exposed to accounting, economics and other business type classes that I thought excluded me from participating in this program.

I completely understand that having full time work experience is important. However, I feel that my roles in all of my internships have been as close to "the real thing" as possible. I'm just trying to figure out how to address that to the admissions committees.

I'm looking into Stanford a bit, but with the acceptance rates it has, I wonder if it is worth it for me to try.
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by kart.dirk » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:34 am
hey

i took my gmat and scored a 720(50q 38v)
now i am still in my final year of engg and have no work exp
the problem is here we have the % system of scoring and my scores are around 75% so how does it scale in gpa

what are my chances of getting into these universities (if apply after 2 yrs with exp ) ????
rice university
southern methodist univ.
UNC
michigan state
Carneggie mellon

pls give me some advice as to what i can do now !!!!!!!!!!!
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by ninkorn » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:19 am
More and more top bschools are accepting candidates directly out of college.

In recent years, the trend was to accept candidates with avg of 5 years of experience.

However, bschools began to change this policy.

1) To attract more female applicants
2) To compete with Law school or Med school and other grad school programs for top undergrad talent
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