Profile Evaluation Request

[bmd125]

MBA Mission -

I will be applying to schools first round for Fall 2011 admissions. Please evaluate my profile and provide candid feedback. My top schools are Chicago, Stanford, and Northwestern. However, I am working on a list of 3 second choice schools knowing that I may not get into any of my top 3 choices - most likely Notre Dame, Indiana, and the third is TBD. I plan on studying finance and strategy in business school.

My main question is if I should retake the GMAT a third time? Also, do you see any other areas that may be weaknesses for me (other than the GMAT) - specifically surround my work experience?

GMAT:
I have taken the GMAT twice and both scores are below my target.
Q47 V35 - 660
Q43 V35 - 630

Undergraduate:
University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management
GPA 3.92

Work Experience:
I have 6+ years of experience all within Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain in a few different capacities.
5 years at #2 3PL (Fortune 300)
- Intern in HR/Recruiting - 9 months
- Recruiting/Staffing - 1 year 9 months
- Account Manager/Sales/Operations (lateral move from previous role) - 1 year 8 months
- Team Leader - 10 months

1 year 6 months at top CPG (Frotune 100)
- Account Specialist/Inventory Planner (lateral move from previous role) - 7 months
- Logistics Specialist - 1 year (current position)

Extracurricular Activities:
American Red Cross Volunteer
- Volunteer Lead and Client Coordinator for Fire Safety and Prevention Progam
- Started about 7 months ago and dedicate about 15-20 hours per month.
Employer Community Volunteer
- Volunteer at least once her quarter through current employer activities in a variety of areas depending on the events going on
- Volunteered about the same amount at my former employer
Night Ministry Starlight Suppers
- Coordinate teams of 6 friends to prepare and serve dinners for about 75-200 people via a bus that goes to the areas of Chicago with the most need
- Plan to do about 3 events this year

Thank you in advance for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

Brenda

[mbamission]

Hi Brenda -

To answer your first question, my initial response is yes, pulling the GMAT up by another 30-40 points could help your profile a lot...but please let me know the % breakdown on verbal and quant before I confirm. With an excellent GPA from a good school, the committee has evidence of your academic ability but why give them any hesitation? Don't worry about taking it 3 times - the schools usually only ask for your top score, and expect applicants to take it multiple times.

Other than that, I think you have a great profile. Schools are particularly interested in applicants from manufacturing backgrounds since they don't have as many and like to build a diverse class, and your experience is both rich and varied. You also have very good community involvement.

I guess my biggest question is why such a big gap between your top three schools (all ranked in the top 5) and your back ups, ranked 15th and 20th (on BusinessWeek). What about a few schools in between? Ross, Duke, MIT, Cornell, NYU, Tuck, Darden all are schools that I see you being competitive at (if you can pull up the GMAT).

Please let me know and I'll be happy to discuss more,

Best,

Jessica Shklar
mbaMission

[bmd125]

Jessica -
Thank you for your response. I definitely think I will retake the GMAT a third time. I need to come up with a strong study strategy to improve my score. Below is a breakdown of my first two attempts.

First attempt:
Q47/78%
V35/73%
Overall 660/82%

Second attempt:
Q42/62%
V35/73%
Overall 630/74%

I know I can get my quant score back to the upper 40's if not 50. My main concern will be verbal. I am a native English speaker and read constantly. Do you think I will be able to improve my verbal score enough?

Also, thank you for the feedback on my profile. I was actually thinking that my transportation and manufacturing background was a disadvantage because I see so few schools showing students from these areas. I guess I was looking at that from the wrong perspective. Thank you for that insight.

Lastly, have been considering NYU and will definitely look more at some schools between the top 5 and the top 15-20.

Thank you for your time and feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

Brenda

[mbamission]

Thanks for the follow up Brenda. Your 680 score, with a 78%/73% breakdown is so close to what they look for - pulling it up even just a bit would be great. But still apply even without that; it is a solid score and very close to "ideal".

Your thinking about manufacturing at business school fell into a common trap: "If I don't see them there, schools must not want them" rather than "I don't see them there because they're not applying in great numbers"! (That's actually one of the myths we talk about in an "Admissions Myths Destroyed" presentation we give for free periodically - you can check the website for details).

Best of luck - I really think you'll be an interesting candidate for them.

Jessica