Profile Eval: 770, 3.25 gpa, 24 y/o

[nicknick]

I would love some help evaluating my chances at the following schools:

yale, nyu, uva, emory

Profile
gmat: 770 (Q50/V44)

ugrad: top 5 engineering school, 3.25, chemical engineering

we: 1 year, ethanol producer,
manage small area of the plant, manage teams of up to 10 contractors and company employees doing day long jobs, prepared proposal and cost estimation for $400,000 construction project, successfully troubleshooted failing equipment. Work on design of operational software and I have done a number of other things.

I think my recs will be average, I have a very independent day to day job, so I feel it is unlikely I should expect to receive exceptional recs, but I have gained great experience at this job and I feel I will be able to show this in my essays. I think my experiences lineup nicely with my post mba entrepreneurial goals.

ecs: played amateur soccer during college, took martial arts and taught children's martial arts for a year

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear nicknick,

I think you have a competitive profile for your schools, but I'm concerned by your comment on your recommendations. You need to have good, strong recommendations. If you don't, it will give the schools a reason to reject you--and you don't want to do that.

Ideally, you want your direct manager to give you a recommendation. If you don't believe this person will speak positively of you, then find another manager who will. You can ask a co-worker, vendor, or customer to be your second recommender, but whoever it is needs to give you a glowing recommendation. I would suggest you think a little more on who you could ask and then talk to these people to determine which two are the best choices.

Good luck,
Lisa

[nicknick]

Thanks so much for your response. Hopefully I am just being paranoid about my recs, sometimes I do that sort or thing. Maybe they know me better than I think.

Just a small question. What exactly does competitive mean?