Hi,
It's been a great help to read the previous posts on this page: I'm hoping that there is also some good advice in the wings for those of us with non-corporate job experience!
My profile in brief:
27 y/o white female
4 year degree in American Studies from private liberal arts college in big city: 3.95 GPA
Phi Beta Kappa/Rhodes Scholar Finalist/multiple academic and leadership honors
Captain of rugby team
Multiple singing groups
Worked throughout college
GMAT: expected 700-730 range
Professional experience:
1 yr administrative position
1 yr internship at women's education/retreat center
2 yrs with non-profit social change think tank, beginning as program associate and promoted to institute's first full-time development/fundraising staff member (Development Manager)
Currently with national foundation as Corporate/Foundation Relations Manager with substantial responsibilities
Community involvement:
Active in college alumni activities (alumnae rugby team, vocal groups)
Volunteer for LGBT organizations
Consult on development for prior employer on a volunteer basis
I am looking for a business school that is friendly to students with non-traditional goals: supportive of non-profit/philanthropy careers, but still quite competively ranked.
My questions are these:
- What tier of school is my profile competitive for?
- What are any school recommendations you might have?
- What might help explain my meandering professional experience thus far?
Thanks in advance for any input!
GMAT Forum
5 postsPage 1 of 1
- MBAApply
Here goes:
It really all comes down to how you position yourself in the written application and interviews. If you do a stellar job of highlighting your leadership/interpersonal skills and experience, as well as showing that you can "fit in" to an MBA program, then the sky is the limit. You have a non-traditional background, so what you need to highlight is how you will fit in -- how your non-traditional experiences will really add value to the rest of the b-school community. And with a strong GPA/GMAT combo (your GPA is already stellar as you know which will help you), there will be no doubt that you can handle teh academics in b-school. So with that in mind:
HBS/Wharton/Stanford -- you have an outside chance at these schools. Assuming you score well on the GMAT (700+), I'd give at least one of these three a shot if you're interested at all in going to any of these three schools. You'll need a bit of luck on your side, but I think you have a fighting chance so long as you really put in a stellar application.
Kellogg/Sloan/Chicago/Columbia/Tuck -- you should be competitive for these schools, so long as you don't screw up your essays or interview.
Darden/Duke/Michigan/NYU/Berkeley/Cornell/Yale/UCLA -- you should also be able to get into these schools with a decent GMAT and strong application.
With that in mind, most schools are interested in people like you with non-traditional backgrounds, because they are trying to broaden the value of the MBA education beyond the corporate (or even business) environment. But schools that are in particular very keen on non-traditional and nonprofit are:
Yale - probably best known for its nonprofit mgmt, and where you'll find the largest % of students with pre-MBA nonprofit experience, and largest % who are looking into nonprofit post-MBA
Stanford - given the sheer number of nonprofits in the Bay Area and the school's ties to the community, this is also a school worth considering.
HBS and Wharton - these schools are huge, and will have their fingerprints on virtually every single subsector out there, including nonprofit. And given their sheer size, they do want to draw folks from all kinds of backgrounds.
Kellogg - also another school worth looking at for nonprofit.
I'm sure there's others I'm missing, but these are the big ones for non-traditional folks.
As for your professional experience, it's hard to encapsulate something in a short post like this. It's something you're going to have to spend time trying to figure out over many iterations and drafts.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
It really all comes down to how you position yourself in the written application and interviews. If you do a stellar job of highlighting your leadership/interpersonal skills and experience, as well as showing that you can "fit in" to an MBA program, then the sky is the limit. You have a non-traditional background, so what you need to highlight is how you will fit in -- how your non-traditional experiences will really add value to the rest of the b-school community. And with a strong GPA/GMAT combo (your GPA is already stellar as you know which will help you), there will be no doubt that you can handle teh academics in b-school. So with that in mind:
HBS/Wharton/Stanford -- you have an outside chance at these schools. Assuming you score well on the GMAT (700+), I'd give at least one of these three a shot if you're interested at all in going to any of these three schools. You'll need a bit of luck on your side, but I think you have a fighting chance so long as you really put in a stellar application.
Kellogg/Sloan/Chicago/Columbia/Tuck -- you should be competitive for these schools, so long as you don't screw up your essays or interview.
Darden/Duke/Michigan/NYU/Berkeley/Cornell/Yale/UCLA -- you should also be able to get into these schools with a decent GMAT and strong application.
With that in mind, most schools are interested in people like you with non-traditional backgrounds, because they are trying to broaden the value of the MBA education beyond the corporate (or even business) environment. But schools that are in particular very keen on non-traditional and nonprofit are:
Yale - probably best known for its nonprofit mgmt, and where you'll find the largest % of students with pre-MBA nonprofit experience, and largest % who are looking into nonprofit post-MBA
Stanford - given the sheer number of nonprofits in the Bay Area and the school's ties to the community, this is also a school worth considering.
HBS and Wharton - these schools are huge, and will have their fingerprints on virtually every single subsector out there, including nonprofit. And given their sheer size, they do want to draw folks from all kinds of backgrounds.
Kellogg - also another school worth looking at for nonprofit.
I'm sure there's others I'm missing, but these are the big ones for non-traditional folks.
As for your professional experience, it's hard to encapsulate something in a short post like this. It's something you're going to have to spend time trying to figure out over many iterations and drafts.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
- MBAApply
Congrats on the score! Well done!
For scholarships, they really only look at the composite score as far as I know, so the quant won't make a difference.
In your case, you're in an interesting position from an admissions standpoint though -- your GMAT score is very strong (above the averages of any school), which is a great thing. Ideally, your quant should be at the 80th percentile or higher, but it's not a huge concern either (huge concern = below 70%).
I personally wouldn't re-take the GMAT - just let it be. If you are a lib arts major with little to no analytical courses (stats, calculus, econ, etc.) then it may be a good thing to take a course in calc or stats at your local community college if you have time -- just to be safe. It's a judgment call depending on how much time you have -- it's not necessary, but it's a nice-to-have.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
For scholarships, they really only look at the composite score as far as I know, so the quant won't make a difference.
In your case, you're in an interesting position from an admissions standpoint though -- your GMAT score is very strong (above the averages of any school), which is a great thing. Ideally, your quant should be at the 80th percentile or higher, but it's not a huge concern either (huge concern = below 70%).
I personally wouldn't re-take the GMAT - just let it be. If you are a lib arts major with little to no analytical courses (stats, calculus, econ, etc.) then it may be a good thing to take a course in calc or stats at your local community college if you have time -- just to be safe. It's a judgment call depending on how much time you have -- it's not necessary, but it's a nice-to-have.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
5 posts Page 1 of 1