Hi,

My path to applying to an MBA program is a little untraditional, and I was wondering how this would factor into my admissions chances.

I am a 27-year-old Asian-American female. I received my J.D. from UC Berkeley Boalt Hall in 2008, worked as a litigator for about a year in biglaw and volunteered at the Boalt/Haas Small Business Practicum during my years in law school and after. It is my work at the Practicum that led me to considering an MBA -- as much as I enjoy drafting contracts, warranties, bylaws and other corporate documents for non-profits, start-ups and fledgling small businesses that need a boost, I feel that my ability to advise the Practicum's clients on actual business matters is limited. I would like to move beyond just drafting documents and actually be able to work in-depth on the business side of things, rather than just drafting documents on the periphery.

My goal in bschool is to study entrepreneurship and private equity; my post-bschool plans are to work at a university technology incubator or at a start-up, possibly at a private equity firm if the finance sector will have me.

I received my undergrad degree in social sciences from UC Berkeley with a 3.97 GPA. I have not yet taken the GMAT, but from practice tests my scoring range is in the high 600s/low 700s. I realize that with one's GMAT score, the higher the better. But in the face of reality, I may not break 700 as desired, and I know that at some point I will have to make do with my numbers and scores and prepare the best applications that I can.

I'm a bit intimidated through the MBA admissions process because I don't have the typical background of a finance degree, 2-5 years of work experience on Wall Street, etc. Because of my lack of a finance/quant background, I plan on taking several econ, statistics and accounting courses at my local community college this fall and next spring.

My list of schools I plan on applying to:
Berkeley Haas
UCLA Anderson
Yale (b/c of their nonprofit mgmt program)
NYU
Columbia
MIT Sloan (my dream school)

I would really appreciate an honest evaluation of my admissions profile. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for writing in. You may be surprised to hear this but the idea of the "traditional" MBA applicant isn't as strong as it once was. In fact top programs are diversifying their classes to cover fields beyond finance, especially in the wake of Wall Street slowdown.

The best advice I can offer to a nontraditional applicant like yourself is to have a clear story on your goals (which you do seem to have, but you'll need to translate that to your essays). Lawyers tend to be found in MBA classes at all schools, but again you will need to emphasize why an MBA is the right move for you on top of another advanced degree.

Your GMAT score is going to be important to show that you can handle the MBA-level coursework. To apply to all of the schools on your list it would be ideal to break 700, but if you fall short of that, you have the right approach in mind already with your additional coursework.

Assuming you get around a 700, I think you can apply to all the schools on your list. Just keep in mind if you end up on the lower end of the GMAT range for the schools you are applying to, you will want to emphasize this extra course work in the your essays.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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