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[ivana.king]

Hi,
Am applying to business schools and wanted to know how I should "sell" myself.

I received a low GMAT score, 620, 39q and 37 v, and it was the quant that I really messed up in. I only had about 2 1/2 weeks to prepare and it was my first test. Not that I could tell them in my essays without sounding whiny. Anyway, didn't have time to re-take.
My GPA at an Ivy League was a 3.1 but last two years at college was a 3.6 so I'm not too worried about it. I don't have that much experience working, I worked in the sports marketing department at Nike in Beijing for about a year, and left to pursue my passion as a professional athlete (I trained since I was 8 in this sport) I played professionally after working in Beijing for about a year. So one year of corporate experience and one year as a professional athlete. I am registering for math courses now because my degree was anthropology (I just got the math requirement out of the way my 1st year in college). The field I want to get into is marketing which is not as quant based as other fields.

I'm not sure how to describe why an MBA now. As a female, it is a better time to do it now then do it when you're 27, just because of marriage and kids. And then personally, I don't feel that another year or two in marketing would give me anything more than what I've experienced working internationally for a year and playing professionally all over the world. But I'm just now sure if that's good enough for the schools considering my low quant score and almost non-existent math classes taken in college. What should I do?

Thanks!

[mbamission]

Hi Ivana,

Thanks for writing in. You definitely have an interesting story to tell and with the right approach you may be able to overcome the GMAT score, although I'm not sure what caliber of programs you are looking at.

I don't recommend including the marriage/kids issues as a reason for getting the degree. Instead you can point to the rich world experience you gained working for a large company overseas and being a professional athlete. You can point to the math classes as evidence that you can do advanced math despite your Quant score.

And I think your "why now" makes sense -- you have some marketing experience and want the MBA to learn about marketing concepts that you don't think you'll get in a new marketing job. My overall advice is to acknowledge the low GMAT via the optional essay and attack it head-on, rather than ignoring it and hoping your other strengths are obvious.

Good luck!
Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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