Hey, I have 2 questions:
1) What does the consensus say about the schools that focus more on general management? For example, I understand that Harvard, Northwestern, and UVa-Darden are management schools and Columbia, Wharton, Chicago and NYU are finance schools. Since the finance-heavy MBA programs are fairly obvious and well known for it, could some of you list out the top programs that are specifically known as general management programs?
2) What are the schools that are more "lenient" on GPA and focus more on a candidate's GMAT? For example, I understand that Harvard and Stanford are GPA whores. Since my GPA (mid-2s) was nothing short of utterly abysmal and since my GMAT is pretty darn high (710) and resume is pretty sick (elite, well known firms; sweet job titles and accomplishments), I really don't have a choice. So, could some of you list out the MBA programs that focus more heavily on the GMAT?
Thanks.
Tuck seems like it's a bit more general?
1) Darden, Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, Tuck
2) First off, your GMAT is excellent in the overall scheme of things and among the whole pool of test takers, however it is average for the top schools. If you think you can pull it off, getting a monster score in the range of 760-790 will certainly help your case.
There's nothing you can do about the GPA at this point. You should probably enroll in a few quant courses at a local college and get A's in them -- something like 4 courses, Calculus, Statistics, Accounting, Economics or so.
Most schools focus more heavily on the GMAT once you are 4+ years out of school. If you have 2-3 years of work experience, they will look for a great GPA AND a great GMAT. If you have a 4-6 year track record of success at work, then the GMAT can easily make up for a lackluster GPA. As far as I know, there are no schools that particularly weight the GPA less... most of them weight the GPA 1/3 and GMAT 2/3.
Candidly, you have no shot at H/S/W. Put together a solid application and get a higher GMAT, and you may get lucky at Chicago, Columbia, Kellogg. More likely, you'll have to apply to a range of 7-8 schools and include places like Cornell, UVa, NYU, Duke.
Lastly, stay away from UC Berkeley and UCLA. If you have under a 3.0 at those schools - their adcom has to gain special permission from the Dean to admit you. Not worth going through the hassle.
Don't be discouraged. I know a guy who had a 2.4, 780 GMAT and got a full ride to a school ranked between #10-15. He also had admits to 2 other schools in the #10-15 range. However, no admits to top 10s.
That's good 'cause location-wise, Darden is best for me. And I want a general management MBA because my finance background is strong. Any other thoughts?
EDIT: by the way, thanks for the advice on UCLA and Berkeley. UCLA was on my preliminary list.
Glad I could be of help. I'm not sure I have much more to say. Definitely take the remedial courses at a local college, and if you can, retake the GMAT and bump it up 40-60 points. Apply Round 1 / Early Decision / Early Action wherever possible, put together stellar essays, and hope for the best.
Also, networking helps somewhat. If you know current students or can get others to write additional letters of rec on your behalf - that will be helpful.
Cornell, Duke, Michigan, and UVa all have pretty high acceptance rates (30% range) and they also have average GMATs around 690-700, GPAs closer to 3.3/3.4 than 3.5. Definitely look at these schools pretty closely.
Also, Michigan is a general management program too - forgot to mention that.
Darden is a great school, and they weigh "fit" and communication skills pretty heavily. Therefore, they will invite a lot of people to interview and do a bit of weeding out at that point. If you can get an interview invite and then shine during your interview - you should have it in the bag. This is contrary to some other large schools which invite tons of people to interview, knowingly fully well that they'll probably be rejected due to stats or their application package.
F***. So my GMAT is going to have to rise significantly. Good. Great.
Most people have some area of weakness in their application. Your goal should be to demonstrate awareness of your weakness and the proactive steps you've taken to address it. A low GPA is one of the easiest weaknesses to address. As more time goes by, it "matters" less, and as patekphillipe recommended, you can take quant classes and do very well in them, which will reinforce your good gmat score. Here's some more detail on addressing weaknesses:
As to which programs you should think about, it's really important that you consider more than just whether it's a general management program or not, or you could easily waste $100K and not get what you want out of it, especially if you're not going to a top 10 school. Think as deeply as you can before you go about the type of work you want to do when you leave and even some of the firms you're interested in. For each of the schools you're thinking about, make sure that they recruit from those schools for those types of opportunities. Look closely at the placement reports and dig deeper to find out if those firms recruit for the kind of job you want. Take a look at this for more detail on how to think about choosing MBA programs to apply to
Here are a few more things you might want to factor in during your application process
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