Profile Evaluation Request

[AnthonyS83]

Hi, I'm a new applicant that will be applying R1 in October. Would appreciate any thoughts on my profile below. Thanks!

Interested in:
Anderson (target)
Fuqua
Haas

Hispanic male / Age 25 / Applying through The Consortium / Eagle Scout / Based out of NYC

GMAT: 680 (Q42 V40 ; AWA 6 ; IR 5)
*I believe I've hit the point of diminishing returns on the GMAT and think that my time would be better spent on app preparation for R1.
-I have one other official GMAT score from a test taken 4 mo. ago (560). Does this do anything to show adcoms my improvement or are they just going to ignore this and focus on the 680 or somewhat low Q score?

Undergrad Info:
-Texas A&M
-3.75 Magna Cum Laude
-BBA double major in Accounting and Business Honors
-Quant-specific performance: A's in calculus, multiple statistics classes, multiple economics classes, multiple accounting classes, and a finance class

Work Experience:
To date, approaching 3 years in management consulting in PwC's Advisory practice, serving both the media/telecom (1.5 years) and financial services (1.5 years) industries (4 years at matriculation). Most recent experience includes managing strategic operations and marketing analytics in the launch of a new multi-million dollar business for a Fortune 50 media/telecom's strategic development division. In this role, I have had the opportunity to manage five staff (interns and associates, although not all simultaneously). Additionally, I implemented and managed an offshore manager in India in order to increase the margin on a key client engagement. I also manage engagement budget and margin target analysis for several engagements. This past year, directly contributed to pipeline efforts resulting in $800K (trending towards $1M) revenue for the industry practice. Will be promoted to Senior Associate next month.

Recommender Strategy: planning to have both a client recommender and a recommender from PwC. Will be able to speak to quantitative ability.

Community Service:
-Involved with nonprofit organization that mentors highly motivated, low income, URM individuals who face barriers to employment. 2+ years involvement, volunteering 5 hours weekly. Mentored 3 individuals over span of 1.5 years, and most recently have served in an officer capacity for the nonprofit, helping lead a weekly volunteer mentorship site via job skill presentations & the management of 70+ mentors & program participants. Requested by CEO to speak on behalf of nonprofit's impact at donor events.
-As part of PwC's corporate responsibility efforts, I was selected to lead The firm's financial literacy relationship with a Brooklyn URM elementary school. Through this, I coordinate visits (to teach financial literacy) directly with the school administration. This position is typically reserved for PwC staff at the Manager-level and above.

Post-MBA Goal:
-Need an MBA to pivot into a product management role in either the CPG or e-commerce industry. My experience launching a new product/business at the media/telecom MNC has shown me that I want to have a direct impact on a product's performance, from idea conception to deployment implementation. Instead of focusing on both delivering client work and pursuing proposal work as I do in consulting, I want to focus my efforts on owning responsibility for product performance.
-The 10-year post MBA goal is to be a sales and marketing executive leading business development initiatives in either the CPG or e-commerce industry.

Thanks for your time!

[mbaMissionKate]

Hi there!
Thanks for sharing your profile. I definitely see a lot of strengths, especially your progression at work and team management experience + your awesome involvement in the non-profit outside of work.

Your overall GMAT score is not too concerning...yes it's going to be below average for those 3 schools but it's still in the 80% range and you have the great GPA to help offset it. But your quant score is concerning especially for a school like Haas, so that's likely to be toughest on your list. Keep it on your list but I think the other two are much better targets. So I'm glad you have quant courses in college and will have your recs mention that. You could consider another pre-MBA quant course, perhaps via UCLA extension, but since you've already done well in Calc and Stats I think that's less likely to make a huge difference. Do plan to write a brief optional essay addressing the low quant score.

Your goals seem clear and make sense to me but do keep in mind that making both a functional and industry switch can be tougher...so make sure you can demonstrate transferable skills and knowledge. Or could you pursue a product management role in media since you already have exposure?

One more thought -- are you planning on the early action option at Fuqua? Might give you a slight boost since it demonstrates commitment to the school early on.

Good luck, and keep us posted if we can help with anything else!
Kate

[AnthonyS83]

Hi there!
Thanks for sharing your profile. I definitely see a lot of strengths, especially your progression at work and team management experience + your awesome involvement in the non-profit outside of work.

Your overall GMAT score is not too concerning...yes it's going to be below average for those 3 schools but it's still in the 80% range and you have the great GPA to help offset it. But your quant score is concerning especially for a school like Haas, so that's likely to be toughest on your list. Keep it on your list but I think the other two are much better targets. So I'm glad you have quant courses in college and will have your recs mention that. You could consider another pre-MBA quant course, perhaps via UCLA extension, but since you've already done well in Calc and Stats I think that's less likely to make a huge difference. Do plan to write a brief optional essay addressing the low quant score.

Your goals seem clear and make sense to me but do keep in mind that making both a functional and industry switch can be tougher...so make sure you can demonstrate transferable skills and knowledge. Or could you pursue a product management role in media since you already have exposure?

One more thought -- are you planning on the early action option at Fuqua? Might give you a slight boost since it demonstrates commitment to the school early on.

Good luck, and keep us posted if we can help with anything else!
Kate

Hi Kate, thanks for your insightful comments! I agree with you regarding Haas-- this is a stretch school for me.
What are your thoughts on how Fuqua will view the lower quant score? My intuition is that the 680 carries more weight at Fuqua than at Anderson (given Duke's 80% range begins at 640, while Anderson's begins at 680). I think both Anderson and Fuqua are fantastic schools and I would view my profile as competitive for both, but what are you thoughts? I know everyone has different opinions-- I've heard from another consultant (not affiliated w/ mbaMission) that both Anderson and Fuqua are stretch schools due to my Q score (w/ around a 25%, 33% chance of acceptance), while I have also heard from an associate admissions director at a top 20 program (through a connection w/ a friend, not an official school visit), that these schools definitely are not stretches given my profile.

Another question I have is regarding my GMAT score. I'm glad to hear you're not overly concerned about this. My official 680 is on the high end of my performance range, and I don't think I could improve this score without sacrificing other elements to my R1 applications. If I were to take the exam again, it's likely that I would not show improvement. However, I have heard of cases when some applicants were ding'd from schools due to the fact that the applicants had taken the GMAT only once and their scores were below the school's average (one factor to the rejection). I have also heard of cases when students took the GMAT again, did worse the second time around, but were admitted with the adcom stating that the 2nd attempt actually helped the applicant in getting an acceptance.
In my case, I have two official tests on my record:
680 (May 2016)
560 (Jan 2016)
Do you think I should take the exam a 3rd time, even if the chances of improvement are minimal? As a follow-up, If I were to take the exam a 3rd time, and did worse, I'm assuming it would be best to cancel the score.
Obviously, I don't want to take the exam again because it's going to take away time I could be spending on apps and I don't really see the value. However, I also don't want to be in a scenario where the adcoms are telling me, "you should have taken a 3rd time since your scores are below our school's average". What are your thoughts?

Regarding Fuqua Early Action, I thought long and hard about this, but I don't think it is the right move for me. I visited Anderson last year and felt a true fit with the school and the students that I met. While I would love to gain acceptance to my all my target schools, I wouldn't want to be in the position where I would have to disregard Anderson.

Another question I have is with diversity and applying through the Consortium. In general, how do adcoms view applying through the Consortium? I understand that, on average, URM applicants have lower GMAT scores than the general applicant population does. Does this fact do anything to offset my lower than average GMAT score? In other words, and this is a loaded question, how much weight does diversity have at these programs?

Thanks again-- I appreciate your insight!

[mbaMissionKate]

Hi again!
I agree that Anderson and Fuqua are good target schools where you will be competitive (not reaches). And yes, I think your instinct is right that your 680 is a little more competitive at Fuqua just given their range.

I've heard similar things about GMAT attempts...schools have always told us they will always take your highest score so there is definitely no harm in retaking. And recently we're starting to hear that multiple attempts can look better, especially if you get a below average score on your first attempt. So yes, I think your multiple attempts will look good especially since you had a big increase. I don't think you need to retake again to prove anything to them about your willingness to retake (you've already done that), but if you thought you could increase your score ~20 points and this wouldn't detract from putting together quality applications, you could give it one more shot. But I'm not sure it's worth the investment either.

All schools are looking for diverse classes so yes that will help you a bit and ease some pressure off your GMAT. But there's no set formula or weighting to how important that is at each school so it's hard to say how much of an influence that will have.

Good luck!
Kate

[/quote]

Hi Kate, thanks for your insightful comments! I agree with you regarding Haas-- this is a stretch school for me.
What are your thoughts on how Fuqua will view the lower quant score? My intuition is that the 680 carries more weight at Fuqua than at Anderson (given Duke's 80% range begins at 640, while Anderson's begins at 680). I think both Anderson and Fuqua are fantastic schools and I would view my profile as competitive for both, but what are you thoughts? I know everyone has different opinions-- I've heard from another consultant (not affiliated w/ mbaMission) that both Anderson and Fuqua are stretch schools due to my Q score (w/ around a 25%, 33% chance of acceptance), while I have also heard from an associate admissions director at a top 20 program (through a connection w/ a friend, not an official school visit), that these schools definitely are not stretches given my profile.

Another question I have is regarding my GMAT score. I'm glad to hear you're not overly concerned about this. My official 680 is on the high end of my performance range, and I don't think I could improve this score without sacrificing other elements to my R1 applications. If I were to take the exam again, it's likely that I would not show improvement. However, I have heard of cases when some applicants were ding'd from schools due to the fact that the applicants had taken the GMAT only once and their scores were below the school's average (one factor to the rejection). I have also heard of cases when students took the GMAT again, did worse the second time around, but were admitted with the adcom stating that the 2nd attempt actually helped the applicant in getting an acceptance.
In my case, I have two official tests on my record:
680 (May 2016)
560 (Jan 2016)
Do you think I should take the exam a 3rd time, even if the chances of improvement are minimal? As a follow-up, If I were to take the exam a 3rd time, and did worse, I'm assuming it would be best to cancel the score.
Obviously, I don't want to take the exam again because it's going to take away time I could be spending on apps and I don't really see the value. However, I also don't want to be in a scenario where the adcoms are telling me, "you should have taken a 3rd time since your scores are below our school's average". What are your thoughts?

Regarding Fuqua Early Action, I thought long and hard about this, but I don't think it is the right move for me. I visited Anderson last year and felt a true fit with the school and the students that I met. While I would love to gain acceptance to my all my target schools, I wouldn't want to be in the position where I would have to disregard Anderson.

Another question I have is with diversity and applying through the Consortium. In general, how do adcoms view applying through the Consortium? I understand that, on average, URM applicants have lower GMAT scores than the general applicant population does. Does this fact do anything to offset my lower than average GMAT score? In other words, and this is a loaded question, how much weight does diversity have at these programs?

Thanks again-- I appreciate your insight![/quote]

[AnthonyS83]

Thanks for your insight, Kate!

One other point that I wanted to ask you about deals with my GPA and transcript.

I would consider my overall GPA and major strong (3.745 w/ Accounting and Business Honors double major) with good performance in most quantitative classes, but my transcript is starting to worry me some...

I was in the Business Honors program that admits approx. 8% of applicants and took 33 hours of honors business courses (this is denoted by "HNR" on transcript next to class name). What worries me, though, is that I have somewhat of an inverse trend in my academic performance throughout college.

Semester 1: 4.0 (Quant classes: "Business Math 2" (Calculus))
Semester 2: 4.0 (Quant classes: "Business Math 1" (basically Stats))
Semester 3: 4.0 (Quant classes: Honors "Principles of Economics" 1, Honors "Intro Accounting" 1, Finance Intro)
Semester 4: 3.57 (Quant classes: A in "Principles of Economics" 2, B in Honors "Intro Accounting" 2)
Semester 5: 3.75 (Quant classes: B in Honors "Business Finance", Dropped "Financial Reporting 1")
Semester 6: 3.4 (Quant classes: A in "Statistical Methods", C in "Financial Reporting 1" (weed-out class for accounting majors))
Semester 7: 3.6 (Quant classes: B in "Cost Mgmt & Analysis", B in "Income Tax", A in "Acct & Fin Info Systems")
Semester 8: 3.66 (Quant classes: A in "Auditing" B in "Financial Reporting 2", A in Honors "Strategic Management")

A few questions:

a) On the transcript, it sometimes is not clear what the class is based on the class name alone (i.e, "Business Math 2" is calculus, but calculus is not mentioned on the transcript). Are adcoms aware of the sometimes non-descript class names, and would more detail on the subject matter of these classes be something that would need to be mentioned in the optional essay when I discuss my quantitative undergrad performance as a counter to my Q42 on the GMAT?

b) Even though my overall GPA is strong and the degree is quantitative, will the fact that my transcript has somewhat of an inverse performance trend (due to honors classes and increasingly challenging curriculum) hurt my profile? I also started working part time (9-10 hrs/week) in semester 3 up through graduation.

c) How do adcoms view Honors Programs within undergraduate business curriculums? I plan to add a point to this on my resume.

d) Am I overthinking my transcript scenario, or is this a red flag to adcoms?

[mbaMissionKate]

Hi again!

So overall your GPA is excellent and that's what matters most so I do think you're overthinking it a bit Yes they will look at the details on your transcript but I think a drop in GPA as you take more challenging courses is understandable. The Business Honors program is great, definitely highlight that on your resume. And then I would explain the course names (especially Stats and Calculus) in the Optional Essay because those courses in particular are important and could get missed if they're not familiar with your school's course names. There is usually a place on most applications (either in the Education or Employment section) to list part-time / college employment so I think I'd mention it there rather than include an explanation of the optional essay, I think it may bring too much attention to an issue that's not really very concerning.

Hope this helps!
Kate

Thanks for your insight, Kate!

One other point that I wanted to ask you about deals with my GPA and transcript.

I would consider my overall GPA and major strong (3.745 w/ Accounting and Business Honors double major) with good performance in most quantitative classes, but my transcript is starting to worry me some...

I was in the Business Honors program that admits approx. 8% of applicants and took 33 hours of honors business courses (this is denoted by "HNR" on transcript next to class name). What worries me, though, is that I have somewhat of an inverse trend in my academic performance throughout college.

Semester 1: 4.0 (Quant classes: "Business Math 2" (Calculus))
Semester 2: 4.0 (Quant classes: "Business Math 1" (basically Stats))
Semester 3: 4.0 (Quant classes: Honors "Principles of Economics" 1, Honors "Intro Accounting" 1, Finance Intro)
Semester 4: 3.57 (Quant classes: A in "Principles of Economics" 2, B in Honors "Intro Accounting" 2)
Semester 5: 3.75 (Quant classes: B in Honors "Business Finance", Dropped "Financial Reporting 1")
Semester 6: 3.4 (Quant classes: A in "Statistical Methods", C in "Financial Reporting 1" (weed-out class for accounting majors))
Semester 7: 3.6 (Quant classes: B in "Cost Mgmt & Analysis", B in "Income Tax", A in "Acct & Fin Info Systems")
Semester 8: 3.66 (Quant classes: A in "Auditing" B in "Financial Reporting 2", A in Honors "Strategic Management")

A few questions:

a) On the transcript, it sometimes is not clear what the class is based on the class name alone (i.e, "Business Math 2" is calculus, but calculus is not mentioned on the transcript). Are adcoms aware of the sometimes non-descript class names, and would more detail on the subject matter of these classes be something that would need to be mentioned in the optional essay when I discuss my quantitative undergrad performance as a counter to my Q42 on the GMAT?

b) Even though my overall GPA is strong and the degree is quantitative, will the fact that my transcript has somewhat of an inverse performance trend (due to honors classes and increasingly challenging curriculum) hurt my profile? I also started working part time (9-10 hrs/week) in semester 3 up through graduation.

c) How do adcoms view Honors Programs within undergraduate business curriculums? I plan to add a point to this on my resume.

d) Am I overthinking my transcript scenario, or is this a red flag to adcoms?