Dear tommycanuck,

Based on your post, you seem to have all the pieces to create a compelling application for your schools. How effective your applications are will depend on the strength of your essays, resume, recommendations and interviews. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time, but try to hit R1 deadlines if possible. Likewise, you might identify 1-2 safety programs to apply to in R2 as a back up plan.

Good luck,
Lisa

Dear Tom,

The short answer to your post is yes, you are getting a bit mired in the details of your GPA. MBA programs will look at your overall percentage (including all courses--even the one you failed), as well as scrutinize your transcript for patterns and trends in individual courses and semesters. Thus your performance towards the end improving will be noted and reflect positively on you. Your rough estimate of how your overall grade translates to the 4.0 scale is about right and puts you right at or slightly above the average for most programs. In my humble opinion, there is no significant difference between a 3.3 and a 3.4.

Best of luck,
Lisa