Are these schools within reach, or am I dreaming?


MBA Info

  • Primary reason is to learn valuable management/leadership skills that I can apply for the rest of my (hopefully) long career.
  • To position myself better for leadership opportunities at my current or future company.
  • To expand my network that I unfortunately did not do a great job of maintaining after undergrad. Would like to be able to, like every other PM that does an MBA, work for a tech unicorn or FAANG :).
  • Slightly unrelated to the MBA, but I'd also like to go live somewhere else for a bit. I've lived in the same area practically my whole life and think an MBA would be a good excuse for me to finally move away from where I currently am.

Background

  • Work experience (earliest -> current):
    • Software engineer for a year and a half out of college. Nothing prestigious; did contracting work for a well known PE firm which was pretty cool.
    • Strategy consulting for a year and a half at a not for profit (FFRDC) working with the US Census Bureau on an IT modernization roadmap. Some smaller contracts like working with the IRS on ways to make their data analysis processes better.
    • Associate product manager at a well known global research and advisory firm working on a "Yelp for software" to help small to medium sized businesses find software to help them manage their business more effectively.
    • Product manager for a little over a year and a half at Capital One working on an internal fraud detection platform. Moving to a growth PM opportunity there shortly.
    • 5 years total of WE
  • Extra curricular and other experience:
    • Vice president of the management information systems association at my university for two years. Helped multiple students with resume reviews and setting up networking opportunities with professors and companies in the area.
    • Co-founder of the powerlifting club at my university.
    • Recipient of best data visualization in the 2016 ASA DataFest (not sure if this should be highlighted?)
    • No note worthy extra curricular activities outside of school, but I'll be working on that!
  • Race/nationality: Middle Eastern / White
  • Sex: Male
  • Age: 28

Stats

  • GMAT Score: None yet. Targeting at least a 740+
  • Undergrad GPA: 3.3
  • Undergrad school/major: Information Systems and Operations Management (all one major) with a minor in data analysis at university currently ranked #143 worldwide (based on USNews)
    • Also did two years at community college (3.6 GPA) before transferring over, total time it took to complete my A.S. and B.S. ~ 6 years (wasn't working full time, my only excuse is that I was not nearly as motivated as I am now in life)
  • Other education/coursework: Post-bacc work in math and computer science (ended up with a 3.8 GPA total for these courses). Two courses towards the OMSCS at GATech (Both A), but decided the coursework was not really relevant for what I ultimately want to do in life.

Where I'll Be Applying:

  • Reach
    • Hass
    • Stern
  • Target
    • Anderson
    • Marshall
    • Foster

Other Info / Questions:

  • Not looking to apply until Fall 2022 with the goal of matriculating Fall 2023.
  • Fully expecting to be promoted no later than end of year and have already talked to my manager about opportunities to lead my own team once that happens.
  • Man, I'm pretty frustrated at myself over this, but I did not try, like at all in any of my core business classes and ended up with not great grades in them (C in accounting, B- in Economics, B- in Finance). Would it be worth it to retake these classes?
  • I'd be happy staying in FinTech, but think it'd also be really cool to work for a streaming service (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+), does this mean one of the CA schools would be best? If so, would Anderson edge out HaaS in terms of which school I should choose?
  • Is my target GMAT score sufficient to have a shot at my reaches? Or should I be aiming higher?
  • How important would extra curricular activities be / how much time should I be dedicating to them?
 

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