Hi there,
Outside of work, I have taught adult GED writing courses (~2 years) and volunteer regularly at a women's schelter. However, I haven't started any glamorous new philanthropic ventures, partly because I haven't had the time, but mostly because I've preferred to support successful existing organizations - but I worry that this makes me look insufficiently leader-like in the eyes of admissions officers.
My dream schools are Sloan, Wharton's Lauder program, and Stanford. I'm also looking at Haas and Tufts. Friends at Chicago and Harvard urge me to apply to their programs, but I imagine those schools are far reaches.
Thank you for reading my long post, and thanks again for your thoughts.
GMAT Forum
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- rachel.balsham
- Course Students
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:43 am
Profile Evaluation
Last edited by rachel.balsham on Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- mbamission
- Students
- Posts: 1118
- Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:20 pm
Re: Profile Evaluation
Hi Rachel, thank you for your inquiry.
You have a really interesting background! I don't see any glaring weaknesses that can't be addressed fairly easily. What I do see are solid grades and presumably a solid GMAT, international exposure and language skills, positions of increasing responsibility in one agency, which presumably means you will get strong recommendations. Community activity or volunteer work becomes less of an issue with a candidate like you who works in a social services type of field. I think overall your profile is strong.
What will be important is increasing your self-confidence around a business vocabulary, and being able to articulate clearly thought out long term goals. (If you achieve a solid score on the GMAT Quant section you can rest easy on that concern, although for your own piece of mind you may want to take a more quantitatively rigorous economics or accounting class before matriculating. Some schools might require that - not to get in but to start). A couple of basic business books may help you start to clarify that goal and give you some of the terminology you want to help you express those goals. Also, spend a lot of time on the websites of the schools you're interested in, particularly on the career services page. They offer a wealth of information - Sloan for example has 4-page booklets on each of about 10 major "concentrations" (Sloan doesn't require majors, hence the quotes) which describe what people do in the field and Sloan resources (courses and clubs). Also talk to anyone you know in the fields you're interested in to articulate your thoughts and get feedback.
Leadership skills can be shown in many ways and you seem to have demonstrated them through teaching and also at work.
Finally, this is a bit self-serving but I really encourage you to read through all of our blog posts. There are many there that may help you, regarding career goals, community involvement, etc., and we also post interviews with admissions directors and essay analyses for top schools.
As for your school choices - did you mean Tuck instead of Tufts? Your list is ambitious and you may want to add one or two safety schools, but in general I believe that if you can articulate your goal clearly and compellingly, you would be competitive at all the schools you list, yes, including Chicago and Harvard. There is no guarantee of course, but I don't see major weaknesses in your profile.
Best of luck.
Jessica Shklar
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
You have a really interesting background! I don't see any glaring weaknesses that can't be addressed fairly easily. What I do see are solid grades and presumably a solid GMAT, international exposure and language skills, positions of increasing responsibility in one agency, which presumably means you will get strong recommendations. Community activity or volunteer work becomes less of an issue with a candidate like you who works in a social services type of field. I think overall your profile is strong.
What will be important is increasing your self-confidence around a business vocabulary, and being able to articulate clearly thought out long term goals. (If you achieve a solid score on the GMAT Quant section you can rest easy on that concern, although for your own piece of mind you may want to take a more quantitatively rigorous economics or accounting class before matriculating. Some schools might require that - not to get in but to start). A couple of basic business books may help you start to clarify that goal and give you some of the terminology you want to help you express those goals. Also, spend a lot of time on the websites of the schools you're interested in, particularly on the career services page. They offer a wealth of information - Sloan for example has 4-page booklets on each of about 10 major "concentrations" (Sloan doesn't require majors, hence the quotes) which describe what people do in the field and Sloan resources (courses and clubs). Also talk to anyone you know in the fields you're interested in to articulate your thoughts and get feedback.
Leadership skills can be shown in many ways and you seem to have demonstrated them through teaching and also at work.
Finally, this is a bit self-serving but I really encourage you to read through all of our blog posts. There are many there that may help you, regarding career goals, community involvement, etc., and we also post interviews with admissions directors and essay analyses for top schools.
As for your school choices - did you mean Tuck instead of Tufts? Your list is ambitious and you may want to add one or two safety schools, but in general I believe that if you can articulate your goal clearly and compellingly, you would be competitive at all the schools you list, yes, including Chicago and Harvard. There is no guarantee of course, but I don't see major weaknesses in your profile.
Best of luck.
Jessica Shklar
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
2 posts Page 1 of 1