Mr. Asian Tech

Hi Mr. Asian Tech,
This is Debbie Choy, Senior Consultant at mbaMission. As a Mandarin speaker myself, I have to applaud you for learning Mandarin enough to work at a Chinese venture firm. That’s impressive! I think your work experience is quite unique. That said, your GPA and GMAT score could be a concern for CBS. Have you looked into other standardized tests that Columbia accepts, such as the GRE or the Executive Assessment (EA)? The knowledge from studying for the GMAT is mostly transferable to the GRE and EA tests, but the formats are a bit different. I recommend looking into these as some candidates perform better at these other tests. Beyond that, I also don’t have information on your extracurriculars. If you are involved with any community organizations, that could round out your profile to show leadership experiences outside of work. Overall, I think if you could address the academic weakness, that could go a long way to making your profile more competitive for CBS. Wishing you the best in your MBA journey!

Hi Mr. Asian Tech, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. It sounds like you’ve had some really interesting experiences across VC and technology. And your work internationally, especially in Chinese when it is not your native language, would be highly valued as well. However, with the limited information we have here, it feels like there are some gaps that both Columbia and Stern would be concerned with. Both a low GPA and test score is a bit of a double whammy – normally you can offset one with the other – but schools look at this combination as evidence that you can handle the academic rigor of the program. While it sounds like you’ve had really interesting experiences, I would want to know more about your leadership roles – either professionally or extracurricularly. Sometimes titles can be deceiving in start-ups/technology, so it will be up to you to highlight your impact. And both Columbia and NYU value extracurricular involvement as an indication that you will be an involved student. So much of business school is experiential through projects and clubs. Other things to think about: is there a story behind your GPA? Was there an upward trajectory? You will want to explain if there is. As mentioned, you should consider trying another test format to see if you can achieve a higher score. Depending upon your timing and if you want to be involved in the IPO, you might consider J-term for Columbia to take some extra time to sit for an exam again. Wish you the best of luck!