Mr. Emporio Armani

Well, you seem to have a strong justification to nudge aside your low GPA and you clearly offset any concerns about it with a eye-popping 780 GMAT score. In general, the top schools don’t love people in sales but you moved up to manage people at the high end. Your choice of schools is solid and Cornell is your stretch choice. You will be getting in, thanks to that GMAT, in at least two of these targets and any of them will get you where yo want to go. Kelley is especially strong in the CPG space.

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. You have an interesting and diverse profile for certain “marketing” heavy schools. Having worked your way up is a definite plus point for the companies you want to recruit into post MBA. Likes of P&G, Mondelez, J&J and even Nike and Adidas will love this facet of your profile. If you have a genuine story to justify the low GPA, you should be an attractive candidate. And if you can show leadership skills via your professional roles and via the extra curricular activities (Iron Man is a great achievement btw) you should have a good shot at Cornell. And am just curious, is there a reason Kellogg isn’t your number one school choice ? Good luck

Hello there, Jen Kedrowski, Senior Consultant at mbaMission here. Congrats on the standout GMAT; having worked in the MBA admissions industry for over 18 years I rarely see 780+, so that will certainly be a plus in your application profile. And glad it worked out that way since you struggled with your undergrad GPA. (You can and should include a brief note of explanation regarding your personal challenges during that time by the way.) While retail professionals are less common in top MBA classrooms, that does not have to be a negative… it can mean you are competing directly with a slightly smaller applicant group than some applicants in more over-represented groups are, and given that you’ve really progressed with your 3 promotions and management position leading teams, plus you obviously have gained sales and marketing skills as well, as long as you can articulate exactly how and why the MBA will help you in those next career steps, I feel hopeful about your chances at Cornell and the other schools listed. In working with a Columbia client with a career at two major retailers (competitors to Armani) last year, for example, I helped him emphasize the strategic management decisions he made, such as re-launching product lines and motivating his team, as well as highlight how the MBA would potentially help him manage rapidly-changing consumer products in the future and prioritize talent development in the industry long-term. I’m sure you have a variety of stories you could draw from to show how you’ll both contribute and gain from the MBA experience as well. Good luck!

Hi, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. While bricks and mortar retail is not as common a background for MBA programs, I think you can build a compelling case of how you want to grow through an MBA program. And your experiences in retail can add to toolkit as a brand manager. Your GMAT score helps punctuate your dedication to getting an MBA (very few 780’s out there!). You will want to do an optional essay to explain your experience at the end of undergrad and what you’ve learned from that experience. As you are working through your stories, you will want to talk about your leadership experience and how you have grown through these experiences. I think you’ve chosen good range of schools to consider – you may want to add NYU Stern’s Fashion and Luxury MBA to your list.