Hello,
I was hoping to get some advice in terms of how to position my application and essays for some competitive MBA programs. I also wanted to see what you think my chances may be for my target school list which are HBS, Stanford, Haas, USC, UCLA Anderson and Columbia.
School:
NYU Undergraduate 2004. GPA 3.55 with 3.7 in my major - Film and TV Production
GMAT:
680. 41 Verbal. 41 Quant. 6.0 AWA
Work experience:
2004 - Co-Founder and Producer at a small startup media company
05-06 - Executive Assistant at top 5 Talent Agency
06-07 - Executive Assistant to Academy Award Winning Producer
07-Present: Product Manager at a small, but highly trafficked social networking website. I have led engineering teams to develop tools and products utilized by millions of people on a daily basis and which have received some outside recognition. Have some moderate management responsibilities.
Outside Activities:
During College - Had a leadership role in fraternity. Spent a lot of time producing short films (many of which had up to 50 people working on them). Lived abroad in Italy for a semester.
Post college: Involved in a few business networking organizations and volunteer with a charity. I also participate in some team sports.
My interests are in the areas of entrepreneurship, specifically in the area of the convergence between media and technology. I acknowledge that I may not appear to have the strongest math/analytical skill-set due to my college major, but I think that I excel in interpersonal and "soft" skills and can demonstrate leadership ability. I know that I have a different background than most people applying to MBA programs from finance and consulting backgrounds, but I think that I may be able to add a little diversity to their classes.
Do you have any advice for how to best position myself in the admissions essays, and do you think I might have a shot at the schools that I mentioned above?
Thank you in advance for your help.
GMAT Forum
3 postsPage 1 of 1
- mhalpert
- Course Students
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:32 pm
- mbamission
- Students
- Posts: 1118
- Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:20 pm
Re: Request for profile evaluation
Hi and thanks for your inquiry. While you do have an unusual background, I see that as a positive not a liability - as long as you manage it and present it correctly! But first I wanted to direct you to a recent post of ours on this very topic. If you go to www.mbamission.com/blog and scroll down to 12/22 there's a post called Admission Myths Destroyed: The "Right" Path, which discusses alternative professions.
I also wanted to suggest that you download our free personal guide statement, found on the Store tab of our blog. That 16-page document will take you in depth over how to show a logical flow from past to present (MBA) to future. Demonstrating how your past experience ties logically to your future goals (enhaced by the MBA) is key. Now given what you wrote, I don't think that will be difficult for you, but it's important to keep in mind as you write. I generally advise my clients to do the following: think about your future goals and list what characteristics/knowledge/personality traits/etc. you need to be successful at them. Then go back through your past - jobs, personal experiences, community activities - and notice where you developed those future traits. You don't have to cover all of them of course, since there's always more to learn, but what that technique does is emphasize for you what particular attributes in your past you would want to emphasize in your essay. For example, in a career involving Media and Technology, you may need to learn to make decisions with imperfect information. Now go back to your past - as a personal assistant, were you called upon to do that as well, maybe if you couldnt' get ahold of the person you were assisting and had to make a judgment call? You may never have thought of highlighting that particular job or experience, but once you've made the list of what you need, including that event might become more obvious. You're trying to show transferable skills. It also helps you clarify exactly what skills you need the MBA (and possibly your short-term goals) to enhance.
The other key for you, coming from an unusual background, is to focus on the business-oriented skills you developed: Leadership, initiative, motivation, driving results, multi-tasking, etc. You may need to be more explicit for your admissions readers about how particular experiences in your past jobs taught you those traits than, say, an investment banker would have to be.
In terms of your school choices, I think you have a reasonable shot at all of them (with one caveat noted below). In particular I see MIT, Haas and UCLA as being very good fits for you. You may also want to look into Wharton because of their Media Initiative.
The caveat: what % does your quant score represent? (And the verbal too, while you're at it.) If that % is particularly low, then I may scale back a bit on my assessment, but it also may be a question of writing the optional essay and explaining what steps you're taking to improve your quant skills.
I hope this helps. Best of luck.
Jessica Shklar
Senior Consultant
mbaMission
www.mbamission.com
for a free 30-minute consultation: http://www.mbamission.com/consult.php
I also wanted to suggest that you download our free personal guide statement, found on the Store tab of our blog. That 16-page document will take you in depth over how to show a logical flow from past to present (MBA) to future. Demonstrating how your past experience ties logically to your future goals (enhaced by the MBA) is key. Now given what you wrote, I don't think that will be difficult for you, but it's important to keep in mind as you write. I generally advise my clients to do the following: think about your future goals and list what characteristics/knowledge/personality traits/etc. you need to be successful at them. Then go back through your past - jobs, personal experiences, community activities - and notice where you developed those future traits. You don't have to cover all of them of course, since there's always more to learn, but what that technique does is emphasize for you what particular attributes in your past you would want to emphasize in your essay. For example, in a career involving Media and Technology, you may need to learn to make decisions with imperfect information. Now go back to your past - as a personal assistant, were you called upon to do that as well, maybe if you couldnt' get ahold of the person you were assisting and had to make a judgment call? You may never have thought of highlighting that particular job or experience, but once you've made the list of what you need, including that event might become more obvious. You're trying to show transferable skills. It also helps you clarify exactly what skills you need the MBA (and possibly your short-term goals) to enhance.
The other key for you, coming from an unusual background, is to focus on the business-oriented skills you developed: Leadership, initiative, motivation, driving results, multi-tasking, etc. You may need to be more explicit for your admissions readers about how particular experiences in your past jobs taught you those traits than, say, an investment banker would have to be.
In terms of your school choices, I think you have a reasonable shot at all of them (with one caveat noted below). In particular I see MIT, Haas and UCLA as being very good fits for you. You may also want to look into Wharton because of their Media Initiative.
The caveat: what % does your quant score represent? (And the verbal too, while you're at it.) If that % is particularly low, then I may scale back a bit on my assessment, but it also may be a question of writing the optional essay and explaining what steps you're taking to improve your quant skills.
I hope this helps. Best of luck.
Jessica Shklar
Senior Consultant
mbaMission
www.mbamission.com
for a free 30-minute consultation: http://www.mbamission.com/consult.php
- mhalpert
- Course Students
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:32 pm
Re: Request for profile evaluation
Thanks for your advice. It's very helpful.
Total 680 = 86%
Verbal 41 = 92%
Quant 41 = 60%
A.W.A. 6.0 = 90%
I think that I could have potentially done better on the quant section of the test as I was scoring in the 75% on practice tests, but for some reason I get test anxiety on the math section of the GMAT on a live test. I know that these quant scores aren't terrible, but at the same time they aren't top notch for a competitive school. It has also been about 10 years since I have taken AP Statistics and Calculus.
I was actually thinking about writing the optional essay about how heavily I use analytics tools in my current position, in addition to some new analytics and business intelligence tools that I helped develop at my company to steer our marketing decisions. In addition, I am more than willing to take refresher math classes over the spring and summer to catch up. Do you think that this is a good use of an optional essay? Also, in terms of tone - should I position it in such a way where I acknowledge that it doesn't look like I may have quant skills on paper but in fact I do or should I just say I am eager to catch up to the rest of the class?
Thanks again for your help.
Total 680 = 86%
Verbal 41 = 92%
Quant 41 = 60%
A.W.A. 6.0 = 90%
I think that I could have potentially done better on the quant section of the test as I was scoring in the 75% on practice tests, but for some reason I get test anxiety on the math section of the GMAT on a live test. I know that these quant scores aren't terrible, but at the same time they aren't top notch for a competitive school. It has also been about 10 years since I have taken AP Statistics and Calculus.
I was actually thinking about writing the optional essay about how heavily I use analytics tools in my current position, in addition to some new analytics and business intelligence tools that I helped develop at my company to steer our marketing decisions. In addition, I am more than willing to take refresher math classes over the spring and summer to catch up. Do you think that this is a good use of an optional essay? Also, in terms of tone - should I position it in such a way where I acknowledge that it doesn't look like I may have quant skills on paper but in fact I do or should I just say I am eager to catch up to the rest of the class?
Thanks again for your help.
3 posts Page 1 of 1