Profile Evaluation- Appreciate the insight!

[ty.mcguire4]

Undergrad: 3.48 political science major at Northwestern University
-Leadership positions on campus, including senior team leader for a campus AmeriCorps program

Work experience: Teach for America corps member
-taught secondary mathematics in Detroit (2 years)
-led ACT prepwork on weekends
-Varsity basketball coach

GMAT: 650

I'm interested in returning to Texas for obtaining an MBA. Ideally, that school would be University of Texas, but I'm also looking at SMU, Texas A&M, Rice, etc. If you have any suggestions for schools I should target in the state, please let me know.

Also, if you could shed some light on how business schools would view a recent Teach For America alum (entered the program straight from college) as far as "business school readiness," I'd appreciate it. I know that's a pretty vague request, but I'm struggling to figure out whether or not I need to gain some some other experience before applying

Thanks!

[mbamission]

Hi Ty

Thanks for writing in. If TFA directly feeds into your reasons for getting an MBA and your post-MBA goals (for example, apply your new business skills to your education background to open a charter school) then I think you can make a solid application now. If you go work for a consulting company for a year but that has no implication on your career goals, then I'm not sure you get much added value out of that. As far as Texas schools you hit on the big ones -- for UT-Austin you may want to retake the GMAT to get your score closer to their median.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[ty.mcguire4]

Thank you for the response!

I should have been a bit more clear in my first post, but the reason I want to obtain is an MBA is actually to launch a career in business (specifically consulting) that is not necessarily related to education. I have little business background, so I feel like this would be the way to go.

My biggest problem, then, would be explaining why I want to obtain an MBA, as you mentioned earlier. After my two year commitment with TFA, what would be the best way of approaching this? I have no doubts that my experiences to this point will help me, but it is hard to directly tie teaching in an inner-city with a shift towards a business career.

Thanks again!

Ty

[mbamission]

Hi Ty,

What I think you want to do is pull the pieces from your teaching experience that opened your eyes to why you would be good in business, or that inspired you to pursue an MBA.

Our Personal Statement Guide should help you think about all the factors that could come into play here.

http://mbamission.com/guides.php?catego ... -statement

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (14 individual school titles)

Visit the mbaMission Blog

Follow mbaMission on Twitter