GMAT 650, where to apply

[dbhughes]

Hi all, wanting to see my chances at getting into my choices. I'm an incoming senior Mechanical Engineer (minor mathematics) at the University of Vermont.

GPA: 2.81 (Had extremely extenuating personal experience freshamn year, and troubles with the medication for the first two years, led to bad bad grades. 3.3 GPA Junior year)
GMAT: 650

Have held a high ranked summer internship for the past 3 summers at a fortune 100 Aerospace Engineering company. Glowing recommendations from my boss, and VP. Also had an eng. internship at local snow sport company, known globally. Also am the Engineering departments mentor for incoming freshman.

HBS: Dream school, not expecting anything
Oxford: Maybe being international will help
Boston University: (Father received EMBA here)
Northeastern: They feed their grad students to my workplace for mid study internship
Babson


What are my chances at these? I figure my work experience may help counteract my gpa issues.


Thanks!

[essaysnark]

Hey dbhughes - welcome to Beat the GMAT! You've come to the right place for support on the MBA application process.

All the schools look for lots of things in a profile, not just GMAT and grades, but you probably know that you're well below average for Harvard in general, and especially so for their 2+2 class. It sounds like you have a good explanation for what was going on with the grades and the schools will need to know that story. They'll also see the whole track record - it sounds like your grades have improved radically since then, which is important. If you make a priority of getting top marks this year it will help a lot. Certainly getting a 3.3 last year is a big boost but it's still not quite in the zone for what most people in 2+2 bring in. But you've got a fresh start coming up -- you might even want to delay a 2+2 application till you have a straight-A record for your Fall semester to report. Be sure to also take challenging courses - don't just coast through - and keep moving forward with your extracurriculars; the mentoring stuff is good, and look for other ways to add value around campus too.

The internships is where your profile starts to look interesting. HBS looks for evidence of achievement throughout the profile, and if you have impressive stories to talk about from that work experience, it could help you a LOT. They don't stop looking at a candidate if the GMAT and GPA are lower, but it means you need to impress them in other ways. Perhaps you can do that? It's impossible for anyone to answer the "what are my chances" question without knowing more about the full profile (shameless plug: we offer a service that does exactly this! https://www.essaysnark.com/tutorial/comp ... le-review/ )

Oxford could be a good target too and they sometimes are open to younger candidates. You may be aware that Yale has what they call the Silver Scholars program - it's structured sort of like 2+2 but it's also different. They get the same caliber of candidate so it's not really less competitive, but it's another option to consider.

BU and Northeastern are both good schools too (not in the same category of these others we're discussing obviously, but good). Babson is excellent for entrepreneurs - they attract students interested in other stuff too but that's their core strength. All these three have more flexible requirements and might be interested in an app from you, particularly since you seem to have more work experience than most fresh grads. In all cases you'll need to explain in your essays why it's important for you to go do an MBA now (some schools will grant a deferred admission similar to how 2+2 is structured - not familiar with the specific policies on these three schools but you can inquire about it to see what they say).

The good news is you're starting early - you have plenty of time to plan things out. It will be important to know why you want an MBA - the career goals and what you intend to do with are the most important thing for many schools to know about. Let us know if you have follow-up questions - it sounds like you could have a lot to offer to these schools and we'll be curious to see how things go for you!

EssaySnark