What to do increases chances of admission to McCombs?

[Rastis]

Hi all!


I am applying in the first round to a few schools in Texas with my dream school being McCombs (U of Texas). At the time of admission (if admitted) I will have over 6 years of post-college experience. I have hooked up with a admissions consultant who actually served on the adcom for McCombs for a few years and also served in the admissions office for 6+ and my essays are looking outstanding. I have my two recommenders who are ready and excited to assist in letters. The only thing I'm worried about is my extremely low undergrad GPA (under 2.5) and my GMAT score (that I'm taking in a couple weeks) that I feel will not be up to snuff with McCombs' class averages. Is there anything that I can do to help "smother" those two respective scores and gain admittance into McCombs?

[wmalum2006]

1. If your GPA is below the 10th percentile, and it is for both the full time and part time programs, then your GMAT is almost certainly going to have to be above the median of 700 (full time) or 640 (part time). The 90th percentile is 740 (FT) and 700 (PT) so you are going to have to get a score closer to that level than the median to even out the "loss" Texas takes with your GPA. The 75th percentile is 720 (FT) and 670 (PT) so that's probably a good target. Essentially with many of these grad school types, a good number of students have low GMAT/high GPA or low GPA/high GMAT. But that is the best advice I can give, and I think many admissions officers will say something to the same effect as well.