Marshall, Anderson (with $), Fuqua and Haas with a 660

[inspired12]

For all those out there who didnt join the 700 club, hoping my story gives people some hope. A bit of my background, I have 5 years of work experience working in the financial services industry at a very well known company. 3.74 undergrad GPA in psychology from a top 20 private university on the West Coast and that dreaded 660. My extracurriculars were moderate to good.

I applied to the 4 mentioned above and was dinged at Columbia and Stanford but was invited to interview at the 4, and accepted to marshall off the bat. I was then waitlisted at Anderson, Fuqua and Haas. Knowing that my GMAT was my obvious weakness, I immediate applied to a Calculus class and sent in an update to all 3 schools letting them know about my enrollment, a promotion I'd gotten at work and how this applied to my end goals as well as a leadership position I had taken on in an extra curricular.

When the first round of updates came, I was admitted at Fuqua and committed to them. I was further waitlisted at Anderson and Haas. I sent in another update discussing my completion of the calculus class and my desire to be in California. In the last 3 weeks I was admitted to Anderson and offered a scholarship and then last Friday was admitted to Haas, which Im still shocked about, but very excited to matriculating with the Haas class of 2014.

While I was initially worried about applying with a 660, I decided to focus on my applications and really put my heart and soul into them and I think it paid off. Granted I am a girl which may have given me a slight advantage as an underepresented minority, I think that it still says something that I was able to get in with GMAT scores outside the range of at least 3 of those schools.

Would be more than happy to talk with people who are concerned and discuss a bit more of my experience. I am by no means an expert, but I definitely learned a lot through this entire process and would be happy to share my thoughts.

[hifunda]

Congratulations on the multiple admits!

I too got a paltry 640 score and am a female, and decided to retake for a more competitive score. Can you throw some light on how long you took for the application process, amount of scholarship you got, etc.?

Plus, how did you go about selecting the schools that fit you?

Thanks

[inspired12]

Hi Hifunda,

I also did retake the GMAT a second time and got no increase in score sadly, and thats when I decided to go with the 660 and put my best efforts into the application. I applied to all 6 round 1 (Columbia in early Nov. I think I started writing drafts of essays in early August once they were published and then at first focused on Haas and Stanford since they were due in early October and went from there based on due date. I submitted Columbia the last one on Nov 4th.

I was invited to interview first by Haas in late November, and then by the rest of the schools on the interview dates they post.. Marshall was Dec 1st I think, Fuqua mid December.. etc. I cant exactly remember. I thought my interviews all went really well so that boosted my confidence. UCLA offered me 10k a year (not much but helps)after taking me off the waitlist in May. It was a fellow for people wanting to stay in finance.

As far as selecting schools, I went to Fuqua's admit weekend (BDW) and had a great time. I enjoyed the environment, people, etc, but was having a tough time deciding whether going to the East Coast to school when I wanted to be on the West Coast was a good idea. I ultimately committed after attending Marshall's admit weekend because I just found I enjoyed the people at Fuqua more. Haas had always been my first choice, so when I found out I was admitted it was a clear choice. I want to be in California, finance and focus on tech, so it was obvious in that regard.

[sieken]

Congratulations! I had a similar situation, a disappointing 640 after doing better in practice tests and a 3.1 GPA. Waitlisted at Haas for 3 rounds and ultimately dinged, but got an admit from Cornell. I pushed the application deadlines with the GMAT and couldn't retake for another month after my 640, and with the end or R2 quickly approaching, I poured all my efforts into the application. It absolutely paid off. I really wish more people would focus on a stellar application than a 700+ score. Congrats again!

[bandrews]

Congrats on the Haas admission! Now that you don't have a dog in the fight, what is your take on Marshall vs. Anderson?

[iamFP]

Hi Inspired12,

Congratulation! I'm sure you will have a blast in Haas.

I am currently preparing for 2013 admission, going to take my GMAT first week august and meanwhile i am preparing for essays and recommendation letter.

Can you enlighten me on how you write your essay? did you answer the additional question "anything else we need to know"? and where did you get your 2 recommendation letters from?


Thank you for sharing! Really appreciate your thoughts..

Regards,

FP

[Scol]

Hi inspired12,

You mentioned you sent updates regarding your calculus classes and promotion to these schools. Is there a specific channel through which you did that?

Also, I'm really in need of a scholarship. Any tips for the same which might have helped you for Anderson schol?

Thanks

[inspired12]

Hi All! So sorry for the delay. I thought it would notify me when people responded and it didnt!

@Scol - Once you are waitlisted they tell you in the waitlist letters that you can send updates to the school via a specific email adress. They emphasize quality of quantity so in total I only sent 2 to each school and the second one once I got rewaitlisted after round 3. As far as scholarships, really not sure. for Anderson I think they had some money left over and the one they offered me was for someone who had worked in finance and wanted to stay in finance so I fit that bill.

@ iamFP - I got my 2 recommendation letters from a manager and a mentor who had previously worked at my firm but had since left since I couldnt tell my firm that I was leaving. I wrote my essays very specific to each school, spending hours tailoring them on why I wanted to attend that particular school. Make sure you reasons for going to B school are very clear. Under "anything else we need to know" I discussed my GMAT score and how I did not think it accurately reflected my abilities.

@bandrews - I think at the end of it it comes down to personal preference and what you think is a better fit for you. Anderson is better known for finance and Consulting and Marshall is better known for Marketing. As per personal fit for me I think Marshall would have been a better fit. I had a few strange experiences with people at Anderson and people there seemed to point out a bit more to me how Anderson was better than Marshall, whereas people at Marshall had picked Marshall over Anderson because they really wanted to be there. (Just my personal experience). I think both are great schools and have a lot to offer but at the end of the day Anderson just can't beat the Trojan Network especially if you want to stay in Socal. Nationally Anderson probs has a bit more pull.

@Sieken - Congrats!! Im glad to hear so many other success stories. One of my best friends is at Stern with a 640 as well. I think not having a stellar GMAT score to fall back on made me work that much harder on having a killer app.

Hope this helps! Ill check this more often

[philip2012]

Hi, I would like your opinion on if I have a shot of getting in to my top choice MBA programs. I just took the GMAT Practice Exam at Pearson and received a 590. My real test is only 1 week away. This was a bit lower than I was hoping but still within the range that I had been testing wtih Kaplan's online tests (550, 580, 620, 590). I am not a very strong test taker, but am an avid reader/studier. Here are my stats: White, male, 8 years of work experience in aerospace engineering, physics undergrad degree with 3.1 GPA, and a masters in astronautical engineering with 3.1 GPA. I am only interested in the programs in California- Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine. Do you think I have a shot of getting in to any of the Full Time programs at any of these schools with this GMAT score? Also, any advice on how to improve my score quickly over the next week? I've done all the KAPLAN materials but I don't seem to be improving very much. Thanks.

[Jim@StratusPrep]

Congrats! Let's go Duke!