Assessment for MBA application season 06-07

A lazy dude finally made up his mind to share his own experience…

GMAT: 760
Toefl: 108
Undergrad: NCCU BA (GPA <3)
W/E: 3yrs (two foreign financial institutions)
Some extracurricular at college; a couple of awards deemed at work

Apply for: Chicago GSB, NYU, Cornell, UM, UT, Indiana, Rochester
Straight Dinged: Chicago GSB, NYU, Cornell
Admitted: UM, UT, Indiana, Rochester

Making the wish list
Picking the schools was a painful process. I had decent test scores, but there are three major red flags in my profile: poor gpa, mediocre extracurricular, and no managerial experience whatsoever. To make up my mind, I have my profile evaluated by Paul Bodine at gmatclub.com. Finally, weighting several factors such as odds, strengths in finance, recruiting, teaching quality & curriculum (some would say it’s bs,) I came up with this list.

One thing I regret was I did not read through those articles in this forum about choosing the right school and what elite schools can offer, so I would suggest those who are working on their applications spend some good time browsing this forum.

Grappling with Essays
I knew from the start I had an ordinary profile, so I tried to make it look a little bit different. For example, as I accounted for a project, I would begin with conversations between team members to illustrate the problem we were facing. Indeed, there is a fine line between being creative and being gimmicky, but I think I need to take chances since I don’t have enough “right stuff.”

To brainstorm for my essays, I read virtually all books on b-school essays available at PageOne. Also read some “self-development” books that I would never touch again in my life. Whenever I could not write something readable, I went to book store to search for ideas.



Finding What to Say
As mentioned in an earlier post, I would recommend “How to Interview Like a Top MBA.” The sample questions cover most of what you would encounter in interviews. Since I could not find an appropriate person to conduct mock interviews, I just made sure I had answers for all kinds of questions and rehearsed a few times.

I had two in-person interviews and two telephone interviews. I had the most productive interview with a UT alum because he kindly advised me to brag about myself instead of praising the school when asked “why xxx school?” I applied this lesson quickly to my UM interview, and it seemed to work.



In the end, I would not tell you “just keep faiths, you will get there.” However, I think it is extremely important to know yourself well – your needs, your strengths, your weaknesses, etc. Introspection about yourself may be the most exhaustive yet rewarding experiences in this whole journey. Enjoy!