Handicapping Your B-School Odds

Mr. Health Clinic Entrepreneur

 

• 660 GMAT (4^th attempt)
• 3.4 Undergraduate GPA
• Undergraduate degree in health sciences
• 3.3 Graduate GPA
• Graduate degree in physical therapy
• Work experience includes three years as a physical therapist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Extracurricular activity includes leadership roles in several community and professional organizations
• Hopes to use MBA to transition into a management role at an integrated healthcare system company. Longer-term, he’d like to develop a chain of health clinics to provide wellness services to the elderly
• Planning to take two UC Berkeley Extension courses in accounting, finance, or microeconomics to build quant skills
• “How much will admissions officers value the alternative transcript when evaluating my quantitative aptitude/ability to handle academic rigor?  Should I retake the GMAT and aim for a higher quant score.”
• 29-year-old African-American male

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 10%

Wharton: 10%

Kellogg: 20%+

Duke: 30%

Michigan: 30%

Vanderbilt: 50%+

Sandy’s Analysis: An alternative transcript would be viewed positively as just showing them you want it, and might give them some assurance you will not be a math wreck. I’m not seeing this as HBS or Wharton. Your jobs are too remote from management, and while they will be supportive of your very fine goals, fine goals don’t always score high in the total picture, because, well, anyone can come up great goals, and that gets discounted more than most folks want to believe.

At Duke and Michigan (and probably much more so at Vanderbilt, where your stats are close to its median) you got a shot: you’re a minority, you have an OK GMAT (they don’t care how many times you took the test), and you seem like a big-hearted guy.

As to retaking GMAT, dunno. A 700 would get you into Duke and Michigan for sure, IMHO, but that may be asking a lot.  A 680 would up your chances.  So five could be the charm.

Short-term goals are excellent, you might do better planning out a career in healthcare management with the kind of innovation you propose above as an option.

Handicapping Your MBA Odds–The Entire Series:

Part I: Handicapping Your Shot At a Top Business School

Part II: Your Chances of Getting In

Part III: Your Chances of Getting In

Part IV: Handicapping Your Odds of Getting In

Part V: Can You Get Into HBS, Stanford or Wharton?

Part VI: Handicapping Your Dream School Odds

Part VII: Handicapping Your MBA Odds

Part VIII: Getting Through The Elite B-School Screen

Part IX: Handicapping Your B-School Chances

Part X: What Are Your Odds of Getting In?

Part XI: Breaking Through the Elite B-School Screen