What are my chances? 29 year old, female, URM

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Profile/Stats:
Work experience: 5 years WE; all non-profit: 2 years as program staff, 2 years as development staff and 2 years as operations manager. No promotions, no real leadership/management experience besides volunteers for fundraising events

Extra curriculars: Exec director of an on-campus mentoring nonprofit during college and ESL tutor during undergrad; nothing really since then. However, I regularly volunteer for my friend's fundraising events.

Undergrad school/major: State school (not top 50-think UMass); Economics and Political Science

Other education/coursework: Thinking of taking a few community college courses in Calculus (I took Stats in undergrad), Financial Accounting, Corp. Finance to boost my profile

Race/nationality: Black

GMAT: Female

Just FYI: I'd be 31 by the time I matriculate

GMAT Score (include breakdown!): Haven't taken it yet but I understand that I would have to crush it to even stand a chance. Like 750 +

Undergrad GPA: 3.44

Goal of MBA: Career-switcher; looking to go into consulting or product management. I am disappointed with my career trajectory and want to get out of nonprofit sector.

Target schools: Kellogg, LBS, Anderson, Ross, McCombs, Stern, Haas

What should be my next steps (besides GMAT)?

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by MargaretStrother » Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:25 am
Great self-analysis there! Your clear understanding of the strong and weak areas of your profile as an applicant will be an asset in creating your applications, and attractive to top business schools as well.

It looks like you're aiming to applying in fall 2018, which would give you time to further strengthen a few areas. Yes, you want to crush the GMAT, but get that out of the way ASAP. In parallel, I'd want to see you crank up your community involvement in a leadership capacity, so that you can knock out both of those issues at once. Leadership, i.e. team leadership, is an important part of your holistic application profile, but it looks like you have enough experience so that you could tap into a past involvement and start sharing the professional perspective you've worked so hard to earn.

Coursework: that can be kind of draining, so you might want to take a practice GMAT to get a baseline number, see where you fall in the Quant/Verbal spectrum, and then add any coursework you might need that would be targeted both to increasing your GMAT (it does help) and also preparing for what you'll need to be doing in b-school.

At Stacy Blackman Consulting, we offer a "plan ahead" package that might be ideal for you. You can check it out here: https://www.stacyblackman.com/plan-ahead/
Making the most of the year before you apply is crucial for you as an applicant.

Good luck!
Margaret Strother
Margaret Strother
Senior Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting

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