Am I a stronger applicant for R3, please advice.

[oiiscotland]

First of all, I apologize if my English really confusing you. I really hope that someone can give me an honest advice of my situation.

I would like to start with a little bit about my background,
I was born and raised in Asia (English is my second language) 35 years ago, founded a company when I was 15 yrs old in architecture, engineering fabrication and construction. I sold the company after 10 years in business to continue my education in the UK. I graduated with architecture and fashion degree in one of the prestigious art school in the UK (while working at the same time to support my education). After finishing my school I migrated to the US. In the past 6 years, I have been practicing in one of the top architecture firm the US and led on many pinnacle projects around the world. I recently started a small business in floral and architectural services with my husband as a part-time business. I have plenty of community services (as we are both actively involve since 4 years ago) and led the community outreach program, extra curricular activities from college, involved in a film, arts and theater club while in the UK, as well as a director of student associations in the UK and US.

Anyway, my spouse and I were ready to apply to R2 together this week, but I had a bad day on my GMAT, which I took few days before the deadlines. It was extremely bad. I hate to confess, I have a test anxiety and I'm not prepare as much as I should on the test. So, I decided to hold on to my application for R2 and apply to R3 in March/April and hope to improve the GMAT score in a couple of months. Other components of my application are ready, including most of the essays, and all recommendation letters are already submitted by the recommenders. My husband (Caucasian, with 740 GMAT and 3.6 GPA) on the other hand went ahead applying to 3 out of 6 top business schools that we were committed to apply. He is going to wait to apply for other 3 schools in R3 with me to make the final decision less complicated. At the end we have to make sure we are both admitted to the same school. We also went to school visits, events and have done enough research on all the school choices. Long story short, everything else was prepared except my bad GMAT score.

And know my questions are:
1. Please help me on what is the best way for me to improve my GMAT in the time constrains?

2. As an older applicant, with a background mentioned above, am I stand a chance for R3 or should I wait for next year? The schools we are applying are; Stanford, Booth, Kellogg, Wharton, Haas and Tuck.

3. If he is admitted in R2, do you know if there is a way for him to hold on his decision until R3 decision comes out?

I really appreciate your time. I know this is a complicated situation otherwise I won't be seeking for advice. Please help!

Thank you.

[humblebee]

1. Please help me on what is the best way for me to improve my GMAT in the time constrains?

2. As an older applicant, with a background mentioned above, am I stand a chance for R3 or should I wait for next year? The schools we are applying are; Stanford, Booth, Kellogg, Wharton, Haas and Tuck.

3. If he is admitted in R2, do you know if there is a way for him to hold on his decision until R3 decision comes out?

I really appreciate your time. I know this is a complicated situation otherwise I won't be seeking for advice. Please help!

Thank you.

1. You haven't actually told us what your deficiencies. So I have to give you somewhat of a useless answer. Ask your husband. If he got 740, surely he must have mastered the techniques enough to help you out? Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you, don't stress about the situation - which is easier said than done because the situation sounds incredibly stressful i.e. your husband has applied and basically 'left' you behind and now you're trying to play catch up.

2. At 35 years of age, I dare say it would make very little difference between R3 this year and R1 next year. You're just simply way over on the older side of the curve. It's not impossible to get admitted, and you certainly have an interesting background where it sounds like you are successful. Inevitable question the admissions committee will ask is, why an MBA now? Is this just so you can share the experience with your husband? As in do you really need the MBA? Also bear in mind for Stanford, you can't actually use any anecdotes that occurred more than 3 years ago in your essays except maybe for the first one.

If I were in your shoes, I'd basically be applying to the programs which are more open to older applicants (i.e. probably not Stanford). Perhaps call up the admissions department for each university and have a chat with someone? Perhaps even consider hiring the services of an admissions consultant.

3. I wouldn't think so. I'm hypothesizing the whole reason they have R3, is because after R1 and R2, there are a couple of spots left. And you won't know how many spots are left until R1 and R2 are over i.e. people have accepted/declined offer.

At the end of the day, what you're trying to do is not impossible, it's just really really really hard.

Best of luck.