Carnegie Mellon Admissions Advice

Hey gang - I'm hoping to get some advice from the WSO community. I am attempting to gauge if my aspirations of attending Tepper are realistic. I'll outline my credentials (or lack thereof) below:

I graduated from a large state university (Tennessee, Iowa, etc) in 2009. Unfortunately my undergrad GPA was abysmal - around 2.2. To put it simply, I was young, dumb, and immature.

After graduation, i spent a a year working for a start up then managed to get an offer at a BB (JPM, Citi, BoA, etc) as a Financial Analyst. My work received high praise and I made a name for myself.

Now I am hopeful to continue my progression with an MBA (a la Tepper) but I won't bother if I can't get into a Top 20 program. I have not yet taken the GMAT.

So my question pretty much boils down to: can my work experience combined with a solid GMAT cancel out my undergrad performance? If so, what score on the GMAT do you think i need? Please be honest if you think I dont have a shot.

Thanks!

4 Comments
 
Best Response
Angus MacgyverI'm no admissions consultant, but I'd say that based on the fact that you're at Deloitte S&O now and can presumably get some solid recommendations, you could certainly get into Tepper. Hell, it seems to me like if you had a good enough set of recommendations, GMAT, etc., even a top (i.e. M7) school isn't necessarily out of the question.

Thanks. Appreciate the feedback. In order to maximize my chances, I'd want to make sure I do my best on the GMAT (which still might not be great haha) -- but I'd hate to "waste" my time preparing if I'm setting myself up for failure. At this point, I'm tempted to give it a shot. We shall see.

 

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