Handicapping Your Business School Odds: Mr. Real Estate Consulting

Business woman

Ms. Federal Consultant

 

  • 650 GMAT
  • 2.8 GPA (started out with above a 3.0 my first year, then plummeted my sophomore and
  • junior year, eventually started coming back up my senior year)
  • Undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech
  • Work experience includes four years at a large federal consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
  • Extracurricular involvement as a teacher and performer of classical Indian Dance; also volunteer with various organizations through work and outside of work.
  • “I’m trying to decide if B-school is something that is a realistic goal for me. I am really ready for a career change and would like to broaden my skill set and find new positions and opportunities but I’m realizing its difficult to get out of the federal consulting realm when that’s all I’ve done for 4+ years now”
  • 25-year-old Asian/Indian female

Odds of Success:

Georgetown: 30%

North Carolina: 30%

Wake Forest: 30%

Sandy’s Analysis: As often noted here, schools sometimes blink once but rarely blink twice. That means they will blink at a low-ish GPA if your GMAT is okay, but they will not blink at low-ish GPA and low-ish GMAT.

On the other hand, you do have what seems like a solid job, and 650 is a GMAT that does not look good at H/S/W, but which also means you can do the work at most B-schools (assuming splits are not out of whack). I also note that 650 is the average GMAT score at schools ranked ~45-50 by U.S. News, e.g. Wake Forest, Michigan State, Purdue, George Washington, and the University of South Carolina. My guess is, with proper execution and some explaining about your GPA, you could a viable candidate at those schools.

The GPA needs explaining. That is a greater worry of mine than the GMAT. You could do yourself a favor by developing an alternative transcript. Four years of working for a federal consulting firm is proof positive that you can

1. sit still,

2. eat s***,

and

3. spit it back.

The ability to do those three things is what B-schools usually prize about applicants with a 3.8 GPA — and if they like you, they will credit your later proof of those virtues.

All that said, developing an alternative transcript will show them in addition to 1. sitting, 2. eating and 3. spitting, you are also 4. sorry you got that 2.8 at Virginia Tech.

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