Mr. Small Biz Leader

My first question for you: are you thinking the Exec MBA? That’s what I’m basing my assessment above on. And if you’re not thinking the Exec MBA, I think you should! You’re the perfect Exec MBA applicant in my mind – you’ve got clear, strong leadership skills and a track record of results behind you. Working in your favor is that Exec programs are in general more open to less-than-stellar stats: in the 2 year programs, the stats are on equal footing with your professional experience (which most applicants only have had several years to acquire); in the exec programs, the schools weigh the experience much more. I’ve worked with several EMBA applicants with either a low GPA or a low GMAT who are accepted into the best schools. If location isn’t an issue, I’d also encourage you to check out Booth, Haas, and CBS – all of these schools’ exec programs are great. I’m excited for you!! You’ve clearly learned on the fly and blazed forward when things were undefined – I think the schools will take note of this too!

Hi Mr. Small Biz Leader! This is Kate Richardson, Senior Admissions Consultant and fellow Illinois grad! With your age and CEO title, I’m going to assume like Liza that you’re looking at the Exec MBA at Wharton. I agree that the Exec format would be a great fit, given that you’ve recently taken on a CEO role and are looking to grow the business, not switch careers (2 year programs are more geared towards career switchers). For the Exec MBA, I think your work experience, progression, and experience in CPG and retail would be a great fit. I also really like your community involvement at the board level. My successful EMBA clients at Wharton all have very different functional/industry backgrounds but share a strong track record of leadership, a deep curiosity and desire to learn/grow, and an entrepreneurial skillset. Not all of them have had stellar GMAT/GPA stats, so hopefully your low GPA won’t be too prohibitive. I would encourage you to write an optional essay about your college transcript and address any circumstances that impacted your GPA. Acceptance rates for EMBA programs tend to run fairly high, like in the 40-50% range, so that’s where I’m putting your odds since I think your work experience and leadership are very strong, but the GPA could be a slight challenge.

Hi, Lisa Cummings of Stratus Admissions here and a former rugger myself. I loved the game but a broken nose and several broken fingers (and perhaps age?) eventually pushed me out of the sport. But I still love to watch! Given your background I agree with my peers that an EMBA may be the best way to go. I really like the fact that you chose to highlight your failure along with your success; schools know that you often learn so much more from a failure than you do from a raging success. Happily, it seems you have also been able to move on and enjoy true success as well. While your GPA won’t necessarily be a dealbreaker, your quant ability may be a sticking point for the committee. Top programs will look at your course list to see if you have taken calc and or stats and if you haven’t that can be a flag for them. Seeing that you were an English major you quant aptitude will be a concern, if you took quant and did a B or better on those classes, you are okay. However, when I was on the Sloan EMBA adcomm, we would encourage potential candidates with less than stellar GPAs to take an online course to show that they could cut the mustard in the core. If they had no quant sometimes that would be a requirement so you may want to address this now so when you apply you will be in better shape. That can go a long way to help offset a low GPA. Also even though you aren’t looking for a big career switch or pivot as many traditional MBA candidates are, you will still need to answer the Why MBA question. You will need to convince the committee that an MBA program is what you need and not just a few courses to round out your skill set. Given your entrepreneurial bent, I would suggest you also add Sloan to your list. The start up culture permeates the campus and could give you access to valuable resources and people that could help you grow your business. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to chat more. Best of luck!