Overcoming a disastrous freshman year GPA
Hi
I will be 30 y-o on applying to business school. I have 7 years experience.
My first year in college did not go well. I attended a top-12 national university as a STEM major. My gpa was roughly 1.8.
The context: one of my parents died at the end of high school. my sister, several years younger, became suicidal and started using hard drugs. my father, not close to the family, was ineffective at bringing things together.
i moved home, took classes at the local state college for a year, then graduated from a top 12 LAC. My last four years I have a 3.6
My question is: Is this a total dealbreaker for a top-10 school? I am ashamed of it but it doesn't reflect who I am today (10+ years later) or my skill level.
Thank you.
I think you have a pretty legitimate reason for the low GPA. On top of that, you went to a good school and majored in STEM. On top of that, you have shown an upward trajectory in your GPA. On top of that, your overall GPA is pretty darn good. I wouldn't worry about it and probably would use that story in an essay in order to show how you grew as a person while facing significant adversity. I'm sorry to hear about your family and hope everything is better now.
It's not a total deal breaker. I had pretty bad GPA (2.3) but good gmat score + 6 yrs leadership experience. Admitted to two M7 schools. It might be a problem if you apply to Harvard/Stanford.
There's a few things here:
You have a pretty good reason for getting such a low GPA. You weren't just dicking around, you had legitimate family problems that caused you distress and your GPA suffered. The downside to this of course is that you'll have to explain the situation to the admissions committee so you should get comfortable talking about it if you're not already.
Admissions committees are not like banks where GPA is just a number that they use to limit the number of applicants. They will review not only the reason for the poor GPA, but also trends. You clearly showed, later in school, that the low initial GPA was an isolated incident caused by your family issues and won't be repeated.
You're a 30 year old applicant. Your freshman year was so long ago that, while they will look at your GPA and you should explain what happened, they will be much more interested in your seven years of work experience because not only is it more recent but it's more applicable to how you will be able to serve the mission of the school upon graduation. Also, because your undergrad is so far removed, they will probably weigh your GMAT much more heavily than a normal applicant that is younger with less work experience.
So my recommendation would be, first stop feeling ashamed about your undergraduate GPA. It was an isolated incident caused by your family issues that you clearly got over relatively quickly, and business schools will understand this. To make you feel better about it, you should knock the GMAT out of the park. If you're really interested in sealing the deal, take a course or two prior to applying to build an alternative transcript (though TBH I don't think this is necessary for your situation).
This won't necessarily preclude you from getting into a top 10 school, but your age is on the high end for applicants to those schools and also it'll obviously depend on what you've been doing and at what companies you've been spending the past seven years.
I was 29 with a much lower (sub-3) GPA and weaker mitigating factors than you when I started my MBA at an M7. Check the GPA/GMAT plots of applicants at gmatclub.com. Your GPA and age won't disqualify you anywhere.
You can list a second GPA measure on your res/app especially since you're 7 years out. Put a major GPA or GPA ex-freshman year right below the cumulative GPA number which will be lower. Readers will notice the discrepancy and it will be a conversation starter that transitions well into telling your story.
@"Khayembii" hits the nail on the head here. They look at what courses you take, trends, and all sorts of things that put it in perspective. If it helps any, I personally took courses to make up an alternative transcript -- although I had no reason to get a low GPA. I was just unfocused at the time and got my act together later. Anyway, it worked for me, and has for others I know as well.
Anyway, times a-wasting! 7 years is right on the edge of maybe a little too much experience to be taken seriously by admissions officers.
7 years is above-average, to be sure, but I wouldn't say it's "too much to be taken seriously." Even the schools that skew young like H/S (avg. years exp = 4) admit candidates with up to 12 years of experience. Several of the M7 skew older like Booth, Wharton, Columbia (avg. years exp = 5+). That said, Betsy is right when she says times a-wasting; there is no time like the present and in my experience, admits with 10+ years tend to be veterans.
@"brj" Yeah, that seemed like a ponderous thing to say. It's a question for another thread about the maximum age before schools start discounting you, really.
There are many threads on WSO with the "maximum" age question, but the best approach is to research the numbers. In this blog post you will see a clickable graph with a histogram of ages for students matriculating at Harvard Business School over a 3-year period http://masteradmissions.com/wp/2014/01/06/apply-now-or-later/
The visual is pretty clear, and 7+ years represent a smaller percentage of the class than, say 4-5 years. @brj is right that a lot of the military candidates tend to be older because of their service requirements.
Having said all that, we all know people who apply and get in to a range of schools with that amount of experience -- and indeed, the quality of the experience, the trajectory and how that experience informs your goals are all more important than an age on a piece of paper.
@"Betsy Massar" Thanks Betsy. I plan to apply in the Fall! No time to waste, no time enough to save.
Thanks for your replies, everyone. Looks like I might be able to make this work..
Freshman Low GPA (Originally Posted: 02/13/2012)
Hi WSO,
I'm currently a freshman at a semi-target. I've been applying to a bunch of internships for this summer, but am not having that much luck. Unfortunately my GPA for the first semester was pretty low (3.33). Without going into any explanation as to why that happened, I'm wondering if finance related internships are out of the question for this summer. I have pretty good extra curriculars at this point (consulting internship first semester, top five placement in investment competition, etc.) but am feeling pretty depressed since I obviously should have done much better academically. Am I completely screwed?
Also, if anyone has had a similar experience (low freshman gpa), could you provide some incite as to how it affected your gpa going forward? I'm very worried that I've permanently damaged my prospects going forward.
Thank you for the responses.
rock out sophomore year. (4.0 + 3.33)/2 = good enough.
Finding any meaningful finance internship as a freshman is going to be tough anyways. If you already did an internship first semester then you should be pretty well set to find something next year. For freshman summer I'd do a study abroad program. Study abroad classes are pretty much a guaranteed A as long as you put in reasonable effort. You'll have a lot of fun, have interesting experiences to talk about in interviews later, and have 6-9 hours at 4.0 to boost your GPA.
finding an internship as a freshman thats worth it is impossible unless you have connections or Network, Network, Network. I agree wit above...take some summer classes or study abroad to boost GPA
IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING
I got BB SA and diff BB FT in S&T after a 2.7 my first semester at school ... I think upward trend is most important ... pull off a few 3.7s and you'll be fine. Also consider knocking off AP credits you may have and taking classes to boost GPA as replacements.
Quo aspernatur sed provident et est delectus. Deleniti odio est quaerat rerum eos. Omnis quo deleniti consequatur quam in nisi in molestiae. Nostrum voluptatem saepe quia nihil suscipit. Qui qui provident omnis sequi in recusandae enim. Quo quia laudantium impedit magni sunt aut. Dolores eius enim est sunt cupiditate.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...