Unique Profile Evaluation Please

[pscher31]

Hello,

I'm a US Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Uganda I just took the GMAT and scored a bittersweet 600 (40Q 32V). I know if I had access to the proper resources in the US I could score higher. I literally studied by candle light and relied on these forums and the gmatprep software for study materials as none are available here.

As a volunteer (for past 2 yrs) I work in micro-finance and started an agricultural cooperative for over 10,000 rural farmers and now we have moved to exporting their harvests to neighboring countries.
Previously, I worked for Citi as an operations analyst for a year prior to leaving to serve in UG.
GPA of 3.4 in International Business and Chinese from small top 50 undergraduate school.

Target schools: Notre Dame, Georgetown, Babson, Wake Forest, Northeastern

[Jon Fuller]

Thanks for reaching out to Clear Admit for some advice. You have a number of positives to your profile that will get you a hard look by the schools that you are considering. It is an interesting mix of schools, though, and you'll want to be sure to clearly articulate why each individual program is a good fit to your background, future goals, personality, etc. From my experience working in admissions, we frequently saw candidates with Peace Corps experience, and we loved that kind of work since those candidates frequently demonstrated resilience, the ability to deal effectively with ambiguity, and generally had a different view on the world than many MBA applicants with more traditional pre-MBA backgrounds. It also appears that you have experience that shows quantifiable impact.

However, a pitfall for many of those candidates often stemmed from a usual lack of more traditional work experience and not being able to frame their experiences in a way that resonated with the adcom. They had trouble articulating a clear connection between that pre-MBA work and how that would be valuable in the classroom, was intuitive to their post-MBA aspirations, and how the MBA itself would be an integral part of being successful in achieving their goals. Your additional work experience at Citi will likely serve you well by further differentiating you and in helping you to articulate your goals and "why MBA" in a way that will click with the adcom.

So that's the good part.

You already know this, but the GMAT is going to be the main liability for you at this point. It's not necessarily a deal breaker since you do have a healthy GPA and a transcript that likely has many quantitative courses that will hopefully show evidence of your quantitative ability. Your analytical work at Citi will also help give the adcom confidence that you'll be able to hack it academically.
I think your school selection is pretty reasonable at this point with Georgetown and Notre Dame probably being in more of a reach category, primarily due to your GMAT.

I know that the process for preparing for a GMAT retake and actually taking it again is no small feat at this point, but it's advisable for two main reasons. First, and most obviously, there's the hope that you'll be able to improve your overall and subscores to be within the 80th percentile range for your target schools and closer to their average overall score (at the moment, you're outside of the range of Georgetown and Notre Dame, but still below average for all). Second, it sends a positive message to the adcom that you're aware that your first score wasn't quite up to snuff and that you needed to do better to increase your competitiveness. It was always frustrating to me to review an application where the GMAT was outside of the low end of our range and the candidate had only taken it once. Regardless of the extenuating circumstances, that doesn't leave a positive impression.

Thanks again for contacting us through Beat the GMAT, and I wish you all the best in your application process.

Regards,
Jon

Jon Fuller
Clear Admit, LLC
215.568.2590

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