Profile Review & Targets

[wls016]

I'm 2 years out of college- I went to a very good liberal arts college (not elite like Williams/Amherst, but a tier below), and graduated with a 3.1 in economics. My academic track record was really spotty- with some terrible grades in really easy classes, and my best grades in my hardest financial and quantitative classes.

Career: throughout college I had good internships with some big names, but never really picked an industry (media, advertising and finance). After school I went off the beaten path a little bit and took a job working for a B2B tech startup. I started as an intern, have been promoted 3 times, and am now have responsibilities and compensation that are in line with someone with 5 years of experience. I'm confident that my recommendations will be strong and reflect this.

GMAT: took once and got a 730. V41/Q49.

What I want to do: go to a top 10 business school and get a job in finance- hopefully with a focus on technology & media, which I think will be a decent story given my background.

Am I crazy to think I can get into a top 10 school? My GPA could be better, but I have some really good grades in hard classes that prove I can do it. I'm young. I feel very comfortable backing up my experience when given the opportunity- but I worry that a lack of name recognition could hamper me.

I'm planning on submitting most of applications for round 1. Help!

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your profile. Congrats on a solid GMAT performance. That said, to be honest, a 3.1 can make it tough at top 10 schools, especially with some poor grades as you described, unless your work experience is just extremely exceptional, and I don't know much about your actual accomplishments, impact, and leadership experience based on the info you shared. Feel free to sign up for a free 30 minute consultation if you are interested at any point, at www.mbamission.com/consult, where you can submit a resume as well, for deeper feedback along those lines, or continue to chime in here. You may wish to aim for a few top 10, and then a few in the roughly 11-25-ish range for better chances overall. Good luck!