Handicapping Your Odds: Mr. Teach For America, Mr. Consulting, Ms. Startup, Mr. Emerging Markets, Ms. Marketing

 

Ms. Marketing

 

• 650 GMAT
• 2.5 GPA!
• Undergraduate degree in marketing from a state school
• First generation college student
• Internships with a non-profit museum in sales and with a large real estate investment trust company as a marketing assistant
• Work experience includes five years at a big bank in retail marketing, including two years before graduation and currently as a commercial fraud analyst, with three promotions
• Extracurricular involvement as a volunteer for 15-20 hours per year for in a work-related area, including six months as an organizer for a young professionals networking group; member of a Women’s empowerment group in college; first year class treasurer, and Honda All Star challenge participant
• Goal: To transition into either a general leadership program or a marketing job in a consumer products goods company such as Procter & Gamble
• 28-year-old underrepresented minority female

Odds of Success:

Duke: 30%

Emory: 40% to 50%

Indiana: 40% to 50%

Georgetown: 40% to 50%

Washington: 40% to 50%

Vanderbilt: 40% to 50%

UNC: 40% to 50%

Texas: 40% to 50%

Sandy’s Analysis: What we have here is a 28-year-old URM female with a very low GPA and a serviceable GMAT. You also have solid work experience that is proof that you can thrive in a corporate environment. What you need to do is explain that GPA. You have to give schools assurance that you can do the work given your low GPA. Your GMAT helps. It means you can get through the quant stuff in an MBA program.

As a first gen grad, you are an attractive candidate with a likable story, a consistent marketing focused narrative with three impressive promotions, along with a comfortable GMAT for your target schools. Many business schools are looking for candidates just like you and many of them will even give you a scholarship to attend their MBA programs.

If you can get a school to blink at your low 2.5, you’re in. Being a first generation college grad helps a lot, especially if you can show a rising GPA in the last two years. An important question for you is what was your GPA in years three and four? You could explain away the low grades by confessing to immaturity and being unfamiliar with college life. That is one of the better explanations for a low GPA and that plays because it is often true. If the admissions people like you, they will buy into that explanation. Especially if your recs from work stress your new focus, diligence and ability to handle long, analytical problems and write reports, e.g. just like you will be doing in business school. Try to tilt your rec writers into saying things like that, amid the usual stuff about communication and being well liked.

At Duke, your reach school, the average GPA is 3.4 and the average GMAT is 700. There you need to present yourself as a first-generation college student who can become a smart future female leader at a company like P&G. That being said, I think your chances are about 30% at Duke. I think your chances at Emory and most of the other schools you’ve targeted are very good, in the 40% to 50% bracket.

One parting piece of advice: You might consider schools between Duke, which is currently ranked ninth at PQ and Emory which is ranked 20. Pick one or two schools in the middle. including Michigan, Cornell, and NYU. Although it might be an open question if you would be better off at, e.g., Michigan than Emory. A good deal depends on whether companies like Proctor & Gamble interview at Emory. That is worth checking out.