MBA profile evaluation - U.S. schools

Hello everyone.

So, I'll be honest, I just discovered this forum and have been lurking half the day. I saw some posts asking for applicant evaluations so I figured I'd post one and see what y'all think.

Age at application: 27

Parents never went to college, they are minority refugees from the Soviet Union. I'm the first one to be born in the U.S., first to go to and graduate from college, and my education was half paid for through scholarships and me working. My family was impoverished as hell until I left for college and my dad's business took off.

undergrad GPA: 3.91 (summa cum laude honors) STEM major (neuroscience & biology), had to transfer away from a top 15 U.S. uni to a no name public school due to financial circumstances).Oh, and my first 2 years of undergrad I was actually a business major before switching to medicine.

Masters of science in medical physiology: GPA 3.6 (average was like 3.3 and curved so that a 3.0 equaled the medical school average) GMAT: attempt 1: 730, attempt 2: 780. I only took it a second time because I was extremely ill during my first attempt and with about 20 minutes left of the verbal section I had to quit and run to the bathroom. GMAC said they would reschedule my exam for free. MCAT (I know it's irrelevant) but I got 99th percentile critical analysis and reasoning and 90th percentile overall.

During college I worked as an executive assistant to a CEO of a company with about 40 employees, learned a lot - worked with companies like JnJ, GE, Bosch, and was involved in strategy meetings and such. Was forced to work bc I needed $ to pay for, well, being alive. I'm applying to get my MBA because I've been working as a clinician for a few years and want to move into management/administration of healthcare policy. I figure directly after my MBA I will get into healthcare management consulting (or just simply management consulting). I have 2 years work experience as a practice manager before I got my masters (I ran an extremely busy cardiology clinic with over 20,000 annual visits before getting my masters, and got us rated as the #1 clinic in the state for both years I managed the clinic, I did contract negotiation, managed the expansion of the facility, oversaw the budget, etc etc). Currently working for the domestic peace corps doing Rural Opiate Recovery Programs where I'm creating treatment standardization protocols which will hopefully become the national gold standard, working in statewide opiate policy, meeting with state senators, governor, etc. I work closely with the directors of the clinics and CEO and have received incredible praise from the CEO (who has a reputation of getting people into some of the best medical schools and residencies in the country) and she will be providing one of my rec letters.

I'm coming from a strong science and clinical background, with only about 3 years in administration/health policy/healthcare management. Nobody wants to hire someone without any official business degree, even though I have all the experience so I want a degree to aid in getting a job.

So with my career goals and stats, honestly, what's the ranking tier of schools I should be looking at?

3 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Wow! What an incredible story. I've worked with dozens of applicants who are in various roles in healthcare and looking to get an MBA to make a bigger/different impact from what they are currently doing. I've been waiting to see someone who wants to address the opiod crisis!

I'm curious as to how you ended up on WSO since I don't see any connection (past or future) to finance.

In any case, I think your personal story combined with a 780 GMAT will make you a very compelling candidate. I would encourage you to stick with the healthcare story and look at programs that have strength in this area - Wharton, CBS, Duke, Kellogg, Ross, UCLA come to mind. If your vision were to change the world by crushing the opiod crisis I think you would have a shot at Stanford.

Good luck!

Susan Cera Director of MBA Admissions Stratus Admissions Counseling - www.stratusadmissions.com FREE Profile Evaluation - www.stratusadmissions.com/consult
 

Awesome! That's good to hear I'm competitive for some of the schools I was looking at already.

I heard of WSO because I have a lot of friends in PE and IB. Personally, not my shtick, but I made a lot of friends while I was still a business major and have kept in touch with all of them. They told me to check this site out to learn more about post-MBA careers, consulting, business schools, etc.

 

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