What to do 2 years in advance to make myself a better cand?

[thecalifornialife]

I've officially decided that I am going to go to B-school in 2 years or so. What I want to do now is set myself up for success for a top 10 B-school. Since my GPA in my undergrad was below par I want to do what I need to now to make myself a more desirable candidate. I graduated with a 2.8 GPA. I currently work as an assistant manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I've thought about taking some continuing education courses on business and statistics at USC or UCLA. What do you all think? I want to demonstrate that the grades I got in college are not reflective of what I am capable now. I am highly regarded by those in upper-management. I will have great recommendation letters. Should I work more with local organizations to build upon my extracurriculars? I use to work with a local political organization but my time has been consumed by my work (11.5 hour work days). I have been studying for the GMAT slowly now so I can take it successfully at the end of the year without any reservations about how much effort I put into the score. My dream is to get into Kellogg, Haas, or Stanford GSB. I know what I am capable of. I want to do what I can now to get into one of these schools. I don't want to look back 2 years from now and say that I didn't do what I could NOW to get myself into a great school.

[brianlange77]

Good that you are thinking about this in advance -- given your time window, you do have the benefit of time that other candidates might not. IMHO, it's always about painting as complete of an application as possible -- but the admissions process is as much art as it is science.

A few thoughts/examples -- what types of classes brought your GPA down? Was it one particular semester? Certain types of classes? Take classes that will help show that the types of classes that tripped you up in undergrad don't and won't do so anymore.

Rounding out your personal profile to be about more than just GPA + work + GMAT is never a bad thing. Ensure you get GREAT work experience that helps paint a story about how you will contribute to the classroom AND why you want to pursue an MBA to do whatever it is you want to do after business school. Reco letters are great -- but they are just one part of the process. The best way to show you are highly regarded by senior management is to get promoted, get more responsibility and show you have impact at work.

Hope this makes sense.

-Brian

[thecalifornialife]

It was an accumulation of a multiple amount of things. I did amazing in community college. I had a major amount of stresses in my life during my last year. I basically tanked my last year. I've grown and matured since my last year in college. I want to demonstrate this growth to the admissions officers. I won't apply for B-school unless I know that I will get into a school like Kellogg, Stanford GSB, or Haas.

[brianlange77]

It was an accumulation of a multiple amount of things. I did amazing in community college. I had a major amount of stresses in my life during my last year. I basically tanked my last year. I've grown and matured since my last year in college. I want to demonstrate this growth to the admissions officers. I won't apply for B-school unless I know that I will get into a school like Kellogg, Stanford GSB, or Haas.

Got it -- so then (and there is not a 'one size fits all' answer here) you need to figure out how (or if) you want to 'explain' that year. You might decide to do it directly, you might decide to take some similar classes that show your ability to do much better when what that year indicated, or perhaps you can find some logical examples from your life since then that show your accomplishment, etc.

Ultimately, it's about the whole story, and if there's a big enough red flag/question mark, ensuring that there's an understanding that it was an anomaly versus a predictive warning.

Thoughts?

-Brian

[supermario]

A few things for you to think about doing in the next couple of years: to get promoted at work, to accumulate impressive achievements at work (especially leadership-oriented), to try to get to a situation where you manage people - preferably regular direct reports (and if that's not possible, then on a project or in a matrix), to boost your community contribution, to consider initiating/co-founding/setting up a project/department/organization (either at work, or outside of work) and making it successful, to mark a few potential recommenders and deepen/strengthen your relationship with them.
Good luck!