Ms. Indonesian Tech

One of the problems in applying to a highly selective school with work experience in unknown startups is that you are competing against other candidates from well-known institutions and organizations. Admission officials like it when applicants have been able to pass through highly filtered screens at selective colleges and companies. Why? Because it minimizes the chance of an admissions mistake. The takeaway: You need to say something about the startup that makes it clear it wasn’t an easy job to get or to keep and that you were working at a company of consequence and not a tiny firm run with a shoe box full of invoices. So if you can’t do that, your chances of admission go down, especially when combined with a GPA that is below the class average at your target schools. Luckily, your GMAT score offsets your undergraduate transcript in a more difficult major at an institution that probably doesn’t have much grade inflation. You need to add a few sentences to your application to explain why your GPA wasn’t higher. I do think you have targeted two MBA programs that would be great for you–if accepted. Make sure that both Cornell and UCLA know clearly that you want to be there. Visit the campus and sit with admissions and students. Talk to alumni. In other words, you need to do some lobbying for your cause and bring the red flags in your application down the mast to make this a reality. You also should target a few more schools to increase your chances of success: How about UNC Kenan’Flagler, Emory Goizueta, Vanderbilt Owen, or Univerisity of Washington?