School Suggestions and Profile Evaluation

[FLMBA2011]

Stacy,

I was wondering if you could provide some advice on other potential U.S. schools that fit my general criteria in addition to Northwestern (Reach), Duke (Target), and UCLA (Safety) as well as how competitive my profile would be.

School Criteria
Mixture of teaching methods
Collaborative culture (non-cut throat)
Down to earth with strong community ties
Prefer cohort structure, but not a necessity

Profile
Age: 26 at matriculation
Undergrad GPA: 3.85 in finance and real estate from public state school
GMAT: 680 47/37 (admittedly weakest part of my application)
Extra circulars: current leadership role in non-profit (avg. 10 hours a month), very strong leadership involvement in undergrad (founded a fraternity, TA for two classes, lots of community service)
Recommendations: strong letters from Harvard alum co-worker and a direct supervisor
Work Experience: real estate development/investment company - 2.5 yrs as financial analyst mostly on an acquisitions team and 1.5 yrs as a senior analyst (at matriculation) predominately working on sustainable community project designed to be run completely from solar energy (plan to emphasize this experience in essays)
Post-MBA: sustainability/energy and social entrepreneurship

Thanks for your help!

[Stacey Oyler]

Hi FLMBA,

Thanks for your post. It's great to see you're getting a head start on school selection before new applications are released in June/July. Taking the time now to do school research and visits is a great way to not only narrow down your list, but also to learn more about the schools which you do apply - thus adding some great details to your essays.

I agree that you need to add to your current list of 3 schools, however, I do have a concern about the "ranking" which you've applied. Duke actually has a higher acceptance rate than UCLA and thus you're likely to be more competitive at Duke than at UCLA - thus the idea of UCLA being a safety may not be realistic.

I agree that your weak spot is your GMAT score - the average GMAT at the schools on your list. The average at UCLA is 719. While I certainly agree that the GMAT isn't the only factor in admissions decisions, it is an important one. A score below 700 could make admission to any top 20 school challenging given the competition these days. My advice to you would be to strongly consider retaking the GMAT. A score of 700+ would help to round out the rest of your profile (which by the way looks solid).

In regard to your question about other potential schools, Darden and Yale are great ones to consider (although keep in mind the idea of retaking the GMAT).

Regards,

Stacey

[FLMBA2011]

Stacey,

Thanks for your candid response! Unfortunately, taking the GMAT again is not really an option for me as I don't have the time to prepare (took the GMAT two years ago) and even on my best practice tests I was just hitting 700. I also have a history of under performing on standardize tests (though I didn't plan to address this in essays). I was hoping that my undergrad GPA would very slightly offset my GMAT to prove my academic competency.

As to your comment about UCLA, I completely agree and I think I need to research a new safety school.

Again, thanks for your response!

[Stacey Oyler]

Hi,

All that matters is that you are comfortable with your GMAT score. As long as you know you did the best that you can, then you won't have any regrets down the road. Good luck with your school research.

Stacey