Hi - I am a 27-year-old female and want to apply round 1 to several "sweet 16" schools for Fall 09. My dream would be Stanford, although I would be absolutely thrilled to go to UCLA, NYU, Yale, Duke, or a number of others. I was wondering if you think I'd be competitive for any of these schools and, if not, which schools may be within my reach.

Undergrad: 3.38 GPA from UCLA, degree in English.

GMAT: 640 (planning to retake, want to break 700 but don't know if it will happen)

Work experience: I have worked for 5 years in online/e-commerce marketing. Started at a specialized travel website (the largest in the niche) for 3 years, and in that time I had several major accomplishments: I was promoted twice (once to a manager position where I had two direct reports), spearheaded a project that directly contributed to a significant revenue growth, among others. Had excellent reviews and a 60% base salary growth (overall earnings growth including bonuses was about 150%). Currently I have been at my job with a major "brand name" telecom for 2 years, have been have been promoted twice during this time, have had excellent reviews as well as a 30% salary growth. My current position involves solely overseeing one of my company's major online marketing channels.

Extracurriculars: In college was heavily involved in music, a member of four performing groups including leadership roles, which totaled about 30 hours/week. Also participated in intramural sports in college. Post-college, I have been very involved in intramural sports, started one team and was captain for a charity league, took part in a community music group, and have also been an active participant in my school's local alumni club.

Goals: I aspire towards senior marketing management at a major e-commerce company, or else starting my own online business. Need the actual MBA degree and management skills to help with the former (most of my superiors have MBAs), and the fundamentals and contacts that will come along with the program for the latter.

Strengths: I see my work experience/accomplishments as a great strength - I literally took a nothing position as a copy writer and quickly turned it into a career path I was excited to pursue. I'm a good writer so not concerned about my essays, great at interviewing, very creative, and although my quant stats are not very impressive, I am very adept at understanding computer technologies, data flows, etc. My undergrad school might be considered a strength.

Weaknesses: GPA, lack of quant or business related courses in college (took only one calculus class, got a B+), extracurriculars since college (although I am hoping to focus on those during college, especially since the music one is a bit unique - I play a very uncommon instrument that most people have never even heard of), and GMAT if I am not able to score higher.

Thanks!

I think you stand enough of an outside chance that it's worth at least giving Stanford a shot -- with UCLA, NYU, Yale and Duke being the kinds of schools that I think you'd be competitive for. Getting as close to 700 as possible will really help though, otherwise with the GPA/GMAT combo you have, it'll be a big enough handicap that you'll need a bit more luck on your side in addition to putting together a stellar application. Not trying to put too much pressure on you for the GMAT re-write -- just do whatever you can. I hate the GMAT personally as much as anyone else, but unfortunately it's a necessary evil.

As for your profile, it seems like you're well on your way - you should be able to put together a pretty strong written app (+ interviews) so long as you are good at being clear and specific in everything you write.

P.S. Let me guess -- I would say a sitar or a mandolin, but that's probably too obvious. It's probably either a folk instrument (Hurdy Gurdy, Dulcimer, Harmonium, Dobro) or something East Asian (Gu Zheng, Er Hu), or South American? Or a Didgeridoo (those things absolutely rule). Now you got me curious.

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

Thanks so much, I really appreciate your reply!

The instrument I play is the euphonium... I guess it's probably more common than some of the ones you listed but most people have no idea what I'm talking about if I mention it. My brother actually plays the didgeridoo though!

Not sure if this happens to you, but when you listen to someone playing a didgeridoo live for an extended period of time (i.e. 20+ minutes) it can give you a bit of a buzz... must be the sound frequencies, or... I'll leave it at that :-)

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

That's funny... I'll have to try out some extended listening time :)