Age: 25
GPA : 3.0 . Top 10 engineering school. Chemical Engineering
GMAT : 680 (plan to take it again)
work experience:1 year start up consulting, 3 years financial analyst for top bank/investment bank
Graduated as I was working since I finished my core classes and was offered full time position by my current employer with one class left to take so I didn't technically graduate till 2008 even though I have about 4 years total full time work experience.
I own and operate two profitable businesses: one is education consulting for families that want to send their children to usa but can't communicate the language. The other is a highly successful online retail niche business. Both have margins over 80% and the only "employee" that I have is my wife. I've had both businesses since late freshman year and have been working full time at work and full time at home. I am very interested in the financial securities field and that's the field I would like to go into so I am interested in going to a top 10-15 school
My top school choices are
Chicago
Upenn (legacy on both sides of family)
NYU
Harvard
back up would be Texas and UVA.
Based on my scores I'm guessing the schools above may seem like reach schools but I think I would only like to attend a school if it's ranked highly.
I understand I need to work on my application but my time is quite limited. Would it be best to concentrate on an alternative transcript (did get some b c d in some quant classes), higher gmat, or just my overall application. I would like to attack them all but I am unsure if I will have enough time to. Any feedback would be helpful.
I have also started the process of using Stacey Blackman Consulting as my consultant of choice this summer.
5-Day Free Trial
5-day free, full-access trial TTP
Available with Beat the GMAT members only code
MORE DETAILS
Unique Applicant Want to enter top school
This topic has expert replies
-
sneezingpanda
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:58 pm
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
Lisa Anderson
- MBA Admissions Consultant
- Posts: 3845
- Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:57 pm
- Location: Houston, TX
- Thanked: 442 times
- Followed by:148 members
Dear sneezingpanda,
It is really hard to answer your question based on the limited information I have. I am positive your SBC consultant will have some solid ideas and thoughts on what you should do. A higher GMAT score will certainly not hurt you and is probably a good idea if you will not consider any schools outside of those in your post. I would place time spent on your essays and applications above an alternative transcript at this point for a couple of reasons. First, a 3.0 in engineering is not that bad and your GMAT score helps to mitigate the GPA to some degree. Second, your essays, recommendations, resume and interview are absolutely critical in the evaluation process. Even if you had a 4.0 GPA and 800 GMAT, if the rest of your application was horrible, you would be rejected. So, based on what I know, I would say your time is best spent on your applications and a GMAT retake. Having said that, I do think you should discuss your situation in detail with your consultant and come up with your own personal plan.
Good luck,
Lisa
It is really hard to answer your question based on the limited information I have. I am positive your SBC consultant will have some solid ideas and thoughts on what you should do. A higher GMAT score will certainly not hurt you and is probably a good idea if you will not consider any schools outside of those in your post. I would place time spent on your essays and applications above an alternative transcript at this point for a couple of reasons. First, a 3.0 in engineering is not that bad and your GMAT score helps to mitigate the GPA to some degree. Second, your essays, recommendations, resume and interview are absolutely critical in the evaluation process. Even if you had a 4.0 GPA and 800 GMAT, if the rest of your application was horrible, you would be rejected. So, based on what I know, I would say your time is best spent on your applications and a GMAT retake. Having said that, I do think you should discuss your situation in detail with your consultant and come up with your own personal plan.
Good luck,
Lisa
