Rigour of Undergrad Programs

[Guest]

Hi There,

Just wondering if you can help me understand this, perhaps this might be beneficial to other international applicants on this forum who are concern with the reputation of their undergrad programs.

Context
I graduated from a Canadian university with a BBA. Specifically, I went to York University - Schulich School of Business. It's not the best program in Canada but it's generally regarded as ok among the Canadian schools.

I understand adcom takes into account the academic rigour of the applicants' undergrad program. However, in my case, York's not usually regarded as a strong university although my program has a stronger reputation than the university itself.

My Question
Given that my school is a school outside of US, I'm concern about how adcom will view the academic rigour of my program, since what they know about the program would likely be limited. I didn't do particular well in my undergrad, a 6.1 GPA out of 9.0. That's about a B-, not sure how that translates to a 4.0 GPA scale. I'm concern I will be hit with a double whammy 1) bad undergrad GPA, 2) weak school

I do intend to take additional course work to bolster my marks. However, in the mean time, please help me understand if my school and my program is a liability to my candidacy in comparison to schools of similar caliber in the States.

Much Thanks,

DZ

[MBAApply]

For those who graduated from universities outside the US, they tend to look more closely at the GMAT than your undergraduate record. Also, they tend to care more about the overall rep of your university than the grades themselves - that's why amongst the international crowd, a far greater percentage went to their countries' respective top schools. Amongst Canadians, you'll see a lot of Queen's and McGill alums, or Oxbridge alums from the UK, Grande Ecoles amongst the French, IITs amongst the Indians, PekingU and Tsinghua amongst the Chinese, etc.

In your case, just focus on doing the best you can academically, and make sure to do well on the GMAT. After that, it really comes down to the quality of our work experience and your overall application package.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

[Guest]

Thank you so much Alex!