Profile evaluation

[Onkey]

Hi,

Thank you very much in advance for evaluating my profile. I am a undergrad student at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Business Management. I have currently a 3.95 overall GPA and expect to graduate in Jan 2010. I should graduate with honors and received several scholarships. I am originally from Germany and came to the US 3 years ago. I completed a year of full time Voluntary service in a homeless shelter in Baltimore. Besides my studies I also have worked for a year as a Office Manager for a non-profit that empowers students to address global issues. I am 24 years old and haven't taken the GMAT yet. Once graduated I am planning on working for two years in consulting or at a large cooperation. I would like to earn my right after my BS but I heard the chances for admission are lower. My goal is to earn a MBA from worldwide Top 10 business school. Especially I like Wharton, HBS, LBS, Stanford.

What are my chances ?
Should I apply now or wait and work two years ?
What else could I do to make my to make my application more competitive ?
The undergrad business program at Johns Hopkins is not ranked and relatively unknown. Does that hurts me ?

[Eliot]

Onkey,

Thanks for your note. I am impressed with your 3.95 gpa at Johns Hopkins. Your gpa is well above the 3.5 gpa average for competitive applicants at top business schools. In addition, Johns Hopkins is a well known school. If you can get a solid GMAT score, you will be very competitive academically at top MBA programs.

The key issue you face is to add to your work experience. Most business schools expect you to have a few years of work experience. You mentioned that you want to work either in consulting or in a large corporation. Either of these options would be fine as long as you perform well in your job. Thus, I suggest that you focus your efforts on landing a full time job beginning next summer. You would then apply a year from now and head off to school 2 years from now. This is the most likely scenario.

Having said this, you might consider applying to the HBS 2+2 program which has a deadline on July 1st. This is a chance for rising seniors like yourself to apply. If they get in, they can start attending HBS after completing 2 years of work experience. Thus, you might consider applying to this program.

Wharton and Stanford also accept a very limited number of applicants straight after college. These schools tend to prefer applicants with very high academics (gpa/gmat) and demonstrated leadership during the school year. Given your high gpa, you clearly meet the gpa criteria. If you can get a high GMAT (720+), you might consider applying this fall to schools like Harvard and Stanford. Again, this is a bit of a long shot.

In conclusion, I encourage you to apply to the HBS 2+2 program right now. Of course, I also suggest that you work on lining up a full time job starting next summer. This way you will be in a great position to apply 1-2 years from now.

Sincerely,

Eliot Ingram
Clear Admit LLC