Mr. Low GPA To MBA

I love your personal narrative and I think it is a strong one. While a 2.9 undergraduate GPA is a tough place to start an application to an elite business school, you have a perfectly acceptable story to put context around those grades. So even though your GPA is well below SOM’s 3.64 class average and below the 80% middle of scores that is 3.3 to 3.91, I believe Yale will overlook it based on your solid GMAT score of 730, what you’ve accomplished as a Native American who grew up on a reservation and your political involvement which demonstrates your leadership potential. I also think your post-MBA goals are totally achievable. The admit rate at SOM is 29.6%. I think your chances there are at least double that overall rate. But you do need to explain that low GPA and make your explanation convincing. Good luck to you. And by the way, if Yale passes on this for whatever reason, I feel pretty confident you will get into at least one or two of your other choices.

I’m reviewing this for HBS only, I think your odds at Yale are real solid and I agree with John Byrne about what you got going in terms of Native American and then doing what sound like two selective jobs. I am not fully sure what

Title: Credit Trader
Industry: Banking & Finance
Company: Boutique Firm
means and in general

Just how selective those jobs were could be an issue at HBS,
As a rule, trading is not considered as selective job at an IB than being an analyst. so you got some explain’ to do. But if you can support this story with strong recs, that can overcome working in trading and esp. for a possibly less than known boutique firm.
730 GMAT puts to rest a lot of possible cynical doubts about your resume.

Hi Mr. Low GPA to MBA – this is Julie-Anne Heafey with mbaMission. I agree with John that your story is inspiring, and your GMAT of 730 is super impressive for the hurdles you’ve faced. While your 2.9 would normally be a problem for Yale – I think you have a chance with the context you’d give. I assume you’re applying through the Consortium for Yale and Tuck? Take advantage of their streamlined application process to tick off some other apps to top schools – Tuck is definitely an amazing match given your background and Dartmouth’s commitment to supporting Native American applicants, but also look at Haas (which is placing huge emphasis on diversity and makes sense with your California/political ambitions) and Darden (which has a great consulting pipeline). Your other schools are a little more uncertain in terms of odds, but I’m rooting for your success at Yale, and hope you get some scholarship money out of it to boot! Best of luck!!