Top 10 School out of reach?

[Fastnhappy]

Hello,

I'd appreciate any thoughts you could give me about whether a top 5 or 10 school is out of reach.

particulars:

Would apply to class of 2014

8 years in the Air Force (at that time)
30 years old
3.0 GPA; BS in Engineering Physics from the Univ of TN
3.8 GPA; MS in Finance from Webster Univ
Long history of leadership experience; directly managed as many as 70 people
Several awards for top performance #1 of 50+
Hoping to be deployed next year
Essays should be good bc I'm a very good writer
Elected treasurer and professional development coordinator for a military volunteer organization. 3 years of work with that org.

questions: what would i have to make on the GMAT in order to be in the running for the following schools? Can a great GMAT counteract a 3.0 GPA from a state school (even though it's in physics)?

HBS
Sloan
Fuqua
Darden
Tuck
Ross
Keenan Flagler
GA Tech
Emory

thanks a lot!

-brent

[Scott@VeritasPrep]

Hi Fastnhappy,

I do think that you have the makings of a competitive profile for a top-ten MBA program. Your age would normally be a hindrance at some of those schools (like HBS, which is trending younger in age), but they do tend to be more open-minded about older candidates when they come from the military.

Yes, your undergraduate GPA is low, although it's great that you went out and earned a finance degree later on. There's no such thing as a hard GMAT cutoff, but if you can reach 700 (with Verbal and Quant scores that are at least in the 80th percentile), I expect you'll be able to get into at least one of these schools.

Good luck!
Scott