Mr. Associate Director

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. Lots to like in your profile including the diverse educational and professional experience. So you have finance skills (via CFA), marketing and tech (via with your professional experience) and seems you have worked across start ups and big companies. While impressive, it all needs to tie in together in some way. Thats going to be key to increase your chances at all schools. Additionally love the EC activity of mentoring 100 students and manning a helpline. That’s showing personal leadership via real “skin in the game”. Now, for a few more things which would need to line up – not sure of your reasons for opting for a distance program and GPA attained in program seems out of place with rest of your stellar academic achievements. Is there a hidden story there ? Also you indicate 10 years of experience and this profile reveals 2 of those 10. Would be interested to see what transpired in other 8. And my last thought is around your age and why now is right time for your MBA. If you connect dots on these , you have a good shot at CBS. Reach out to me at deepakp@mbaexchange.com in case you need more clarity on my feedback. Good luck

Mr. Associate Director, I’m Lisa Cummings of Stratus Admissions. Adcoms will love that 790 GMAT and that fact that you have passed all 3 levels of the CFA. Those stats will help partially mitigate that 2.5 via distance learning but it is going to be tough to overcome, especially since you are coming from a very competitive demographic. If there were extenuating circumstances that attributed to your GPA, you will want to briefly mention them in the other or additional information section on the applications. Top schools have their pick of applicants with near perfect stats so let’s focus on how you can stand out to them – your work and volunteer experience. I realize these are just short blurbs and there are many years of work experience missing here. You will want to flesh out your startup experience to show the committees what professional innovation and impact you have had as well as leadership opportunities. Your volunteer and pro-bono work will be a good place to demonstrate your leadership and teamwork qualities. If you are keen to to get an MBA, you might want to consider expanding your list of schools – have you thought about Kenan-Flager, Tepper, Goizueta or McCombs? They might be worth a look for you and increase your odds. Best of luck!