Ask mbaMission

Hello everyone,

I am applying for fall of 2011 entry into business school. My statistics are below:

Age: 25 at matriculation
Demographic: Chinese American
Undergrad: Wharton/Penn - Marketing / Management Major, Psychology Minor
Overall GPA: 3.1 - Major: 3.6
GMAT: 760

Work Experience To Date: 3 years at Deloitte Strategy Consulting, top of my analyst class and promoted from analyst to consultant within 1.5 years of starting

Most of my activities stem from my two fraternities. The bulk of that experience comes from college, in the form of being a president and pledge educator. Today, the only thing I do outside of my 100 hour work weeks is serving as an alumni advisor for one of the fraternities. Also, I provide training on Excel modeling to many junior analysts in the firm. I also provide tutoring for the US citizenship exam to Chinese immigrants in my neighborhood.

Post-MBA I'd like to head into the world of venture capital, particularly around the online distribution and wireless spaces. I think it's clear that with telecom speeds about to break through, we're going to see a huge number of new and creative services I think that MBA will not only help me form the networks I need, but also to cultivate finance skills that will be crucial to evaluating such ventures in a quantitative sense.

Schools in mind are the top 10 pretty much... although I prefer NYU and Columbia as I love the city.

I'm not sure if this will be considered at all, but my low GPA during college was primarily due to the fact that not only was I financially independent, but I also worked at the family restaurant on weekends through college and also managed the household duties as my parents do not speak English.

Thanks for your time!

zmaster85-

Thanks for your questions and I am impressed with your profile. I think you may be being a little too hard on yourself regarding the lower-than-average GPA. Your reasons of having considerable family and financial obligations coupled with Penn (and especially Wharton) being a very competitive university setting should be able to be explained.

I think that your personal background of having been raised by non-English speaking parents, working in the family restaurant, taking care of their affairs, could yield some very successful essays. Additionally, I like that you still work with individuals who are studying for the citizenship exam. That says something about the unique ways you have chosen to give back to your community. (Not every strategy consultant could say something like this, so it distinguishes you!)

In short, a Top 10 schools should be attainable for you. NYU is typically slightly less competitive than Columbia, so that might help as well.

Good luck -
Jennifer