Hey All,

I've used the other parts of the forum, now its time to put this part to use.

I’m moving to Chicago after the turn of the year and am in the preliminary stages of looking into an MBA. Here’s my info.

White Male
Age: 26
GMAT: 760 on 3rd try
Undergrad: Electrical Engineering at Purdue University
GPA: Overall 3.8
Work: Lab assistant in college, retail work for 1 year post grad, engineering design work for a defense contractor 3 years post grad. I have done a fair amount of subcontractor management.
Extracurricular: Started a nutritional consulting company, worked as a personal trainer, worked as a dating coach (probably shouldn’t mention that), worked as youth minister for high school students at my parish.
Other: I’m personable (extraordinarily so for an engineer I'm told) and I have very strong mathematical skills.

I’m looking at behavioral finance. I’m not really interested in Northwestern. I would love Chicago but I think with my lack of experience I’m going to have to go for DePaul. What are my chances of either Chicago or DePaul? I probably need to put some sort of spin on the lack of experience and management; any suggestions to help out with that?

Thanks guys and gals.

You'll be competitive for Chicago. Doesn't mean you're a shoe-in, but you're in the mix. Just put together a strong application and hope for the best. You have enough work experience (middle 80% is around 3 - 7 years post-college), and most incoming students don't have formal management experience anyhow -- what you need to show is that you have leadership/management potential (read: interpersonal skills, decisiveness, critical thinking skills, etc.)

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

If possible, I'd like feedback on my chances of getting into a top program.

I just took the GMAT and scored 680 (M42, V40)--I had scored 48M on the GMAT prep test the day before. I must have made a couple silly mistakes.

Anyway, I graduated from Cal -- Haas with a 3.5 GPA.

I have 8 years of work experience including 5 at Bear Stearns in their commercial mortgage back securities group where I left as a VP.

I have various extracurricular activities, but nothing that would knock somebody off their feet.

Given I already make good money, I'd only go back if I can get into a top 7 program.

Any constructive feedback would be appreciated?

Thanks

In your case:

Kellogg/MIT/Chicago/Columbia/Tuck: you'll be competitive, but you need to put together an exceptional application; given where you're at in your career, you have to spend a lot of time crafting a compelling story that outlines why you need an MBA now.

HBS/Stanford/Wharton: you're a real stretch. Wharton is probably the only realistic stretch. Unless you have some exceptional achievements/talents (i.e. nationally ranked athlete, mucho awards in the arts, community service, etc.) then these schools particularly HBS/Stanford are likely going to be out of reach.

Your GMAT/GPA isn't the issue at any of these schools (it's all good enough; of course if you can boost the score by 40+ points without much additional prep time, it may be worth a retake so long as it doesn't eat into your essay writing in the summer/fall, so prepping for a re-take this spring may be a good idea just so you can be 100% sure that your GMAT/GPA won't be a factor at all).

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

Thanks Alex. I appreciate the solid feedback.

I'm considering applying now -- round 3. It appears you crafted your reply assuming I'd be applying next fall. Can you quantify how much more difficult it is to get in round 3 compared to round 1? Do they only accept the 4.0 / 750+ applicants in this round or would I have a shot at Tuck/Chicago?

Round 3 is a lot more difficult, simply because by the time Round 3 comes around, a good majority of the admits/accepts have been settled - there simply aren't many spaces left to give, and it becomes more of a lottery ticket. Also, it has less to do with your GMAT/GPA and more to do with your background. Since there's so few spots left by Round 3, it really comes down to rounding out the class -- as such, those from less usual backgrounds (nonprofit, military, etc.) are at less of a disadvantage. For someone like yourself, they would've have admitted enough people with similar profiles as yourself in Rounds 1 and 2 that it makes it much harder to put forth a case why you would really add value to the class when there are others in Round 3 with more unique professional backgrounds.

If you want to go this year, then by all means apply in Round 3 (you have no choice) but be prepared for a reapplication if it doesn't work out.

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