Profile Evaluation - Non-Traditional Background

[SarasotaMBAApp]

Hello,

I am beginning my MBA program research and would greatly appreciate some insight on my profile. At this point, I don't know how high my reach is in regards to top tier business schools.

GMAT: 690 (Q44;V40)

Undergraduate Experience/GPA:
The University of Texas at Austin, GPA 3.9/4.0
--BA: Plan II Honors (This is a comprehensive liberal arts degree for top performing students. It covers everything from calculus to philosophy)
--BA: Theatre and Dance
--Business Foundations Certificate (6 courses from McComb's business school including accounting, management, and MIS)

Work Experience:
Upon graduation from UT, I began interning at a professional regional theatre with a budget of +$4 million which serves over 10,000 subscribers. After eight months, my boss left the company, and I was promoted to department head. I work in the literary/programming department and manage a number of interns. Upon entering an MBA program in Fall 2012, I will have worked full time for 2 years. My biggest accomplishment is spearheading a new online forum which reached over 2,000 households and which will be expanded in the coming year.

Goals:
I have reached the highest level that I can attain at my current company. I would like to enter an MBA program to gain additional skills which will make me more competent and competitive in both the business world and the for-profit sector. I am interested in using my experience to create a fruitful relationship between business and creativity in my future career.

My background is non-traditional (which I believe is a strength more than a weakness), and my work experience is on the low side, but I am curious as to my chances to schools like NYU, Dartmouth, Michigan, UCLA, and UT. I plan to apply through The Consortium, as I highly value diversity in the workplace and in life, and have ample experience in promoting diversity in my community. (I'm a Cuban-American woman, by the way.)

I would appreciate any thoughts or advice.

Thank you,
Amanda

[essaysnark]

Amanda,

You have some very strong elements in your profile that many schools will appreciate (the awesome GPA for one), however with just one year work experience currently, you're going to have a tough time convincing many of the schools on your list. Tuck and NYU in particular are pretty adamant that more work experience is necessary in order to benefit from, and contribute to, the bschool experience. You may have more luck at schools that are more open to younger candidates (Harvard is famous for having a younger student body; Booth and MIT might also be good targets). Check the average age and average work experience data on BusinessWeek for any schools you're interested in.

Many schools like the liberal arts background, and your "non-traditional" profile could be an advantage. However, you'll need to do more work to define the career goals. What, exactly, do you want to do with an MBA? The "create a fruitful relationship" comment you have is a little vague. You'll need to nail down a clear set of career goals, and show how your past experience has prepared you to make that transition.

Here's a couple posts that may help out:
https://essaysnark.blocked/2010/10/ ... -know.html
https://essaysnark.blocked/2010/12/ ... -life.html

To answer a question you didn't ask: Your GMAT might be fine (depending on the career goals), though as you know, the quant is low. But, your GPA is amazing, and the fact that you took classes at McCombs is excellent. And, a Consortium application can be a real advantage. You'll need to find ways to demonstrate your quant abilities in other parts of your app if you're not planning to retest (you should consider retesting if you can stomach it though, to get that quant score up).

Without having a better handle on what you want to do after bschool, it's tough to recommend any particular programs. We started off talking about the age thing, in terms of which schools will be more open to getting an application from someone younger,, but obviously a question that's even more important is, which schools are the right fit for YOU based on what you want to do? We'd need to know more before we can offer suggestions or feedback on the list you've got.

You have the advantage of a differentiated profile that you likely will be able to position in a variety of ways. The challenge of course is that you could position it in so many ways!

Hope this is helpful - you're clearly doing your research and that's great. Let us know if we can help with other questions.

Best of luck!
EssaySnark

[SarasotaMBAApp]

Thank you EssaySnark for your thoughtful comments and advice.

This has given me a lot to think about. I appreciate your comments and links about defining my reasoning for pursuing an MBA. Honestly, this is something I am still defining--though I know that this is crucial to both my application and reasoning for spending the money and time on an MBA in the first place.

I know for sure that I want to have both non-profit and for-profit experience in my career and am looking to learn more skills (business analysis, management models, etc) to help me in the for-profit world. I am very interested in HR, but also my skills and experience lean towards the Entertainment and Media Management concentrations (hence UCLA, USC, and NYU). I will definitely take the questions from Ross' website and research more information about these areas of study and how these programs are defined in various MBA programs.

Thank you for the GMAT advice, as well. I meant to ask that, but worried that my profile was becoming too long. I'm thinking I may just have to hunker down and spend more quality time with combinatorics.

Thank you again for responding.

Best,
Amanda

[essaysnark]

Hi Amanda,

Just a quick confirmation: NYU Stern, UCLA, and USC are obviously the best picks for a media/entertainment MBA, though Columbia has some good focus there too (Jonathan Knee is a prof with some standing in that area). Unfortunately all these schools do have the preference for more work experience. That doesn't mean it's impossible to get in with limited experience, it's just something to be aware of -- we don't want to discourage you from this!

There actually aren't that many MBA programs with a specialization in HR (at least, not as far as we've seen - maybe someone else will chime in on that). There's plenty of "organizational behavior" and that sort of thing in bschool which can be pretty interesting and is obviously related to the "people" side of management/processes.

You've got a lot to like in your profile so keep going with the research and let us know if you have more questions!

Best of luck,
EssaySnark