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American white male, 27
I'd really appreciate any input on my chance at my target schools. I have two primary concerns about my app: undergrad GPA and LOR (which I'll explain).
Education:
BBA in Marketing from decent school (ie Maryland/Georgia/Ohio State)
GPA: 3.0 (Don't have any real excuse for this. Have Ds in classes like Film but got As in classes like Accounting and Econ. Worked 25-40 hours per week every semester to pay for school if that's relevant.)
GMAT:
695 -- I believe I could get higher if I pushed but felt like I should focus on other aspects of my apps
Career:
- Started at a very well known consumer products brand as a marketing associate in their early careers rotation program.
- Wanted to mix things up a bit and get a different perspective on marketing and 'brand building', so took an advertising strategist role at an agency where I worked with primarily CPGs.
- Jumped jobs to another agency (not well known) after a year, for step up in responsibility and pay. Worked across lots of client industries, led projects autonomously.
- Unfortunately was laid off after less than a year; am now an Associate Marketing Manager at a telecom.
Extracurriculars:
In school, I ran a radio show at our student station for 4 years. Was also active in our marketing club. Not really an extracurricular but did multiple in-semester (?) internships, one of which involved a lot of organizing and collaboration with school clubs.
Outside school, I participate in athletic activities but have not done much else.
Why MBA:
Although getting laid off was against my will, jumping roles across industries and client-agency side was not. I wanted to get a holistic perspective on how marketing is done, and feel like I've achieved that. My goal in the long-term is to shoot for a CMO-type role, so I'm now seeking an MBA to supplement my marketing-specific experience and knowledge with a broader business acumen. So, my short-term goal would be to either start working at a consumer-facing company with high growth/potential, or to join a consulting firm for a few years to develop my overall strategy chops before exiting to something similar.
Concerns:
Again, my GPA is a big concern for me. Any perspective on how much that will affect me would be appreciated.
My second concern is LORs. My boss and I have a great relationship. I'm sure in a vacuum she would write me a great rec no questions asked. However, I have worked here for less than a year so my concern is she may balk a bit at my request. However if I wait until next year to ask, I'm confident she'd be willing to write me an excellent reco which I feel may be necessary given my poor GPA. I'm wondering how much a great vs. average reco would impact my application given the schools I'm targeting.
Undergrad GPA is low, but I won a scholarship for the highest GPA in my MA program (~90% average).
~3 years experience as a Senior Manager
Stanford GSB is my dream MBA program for multiple reasons (entrepreneurship focus, location, size, social impact) to the point where I'm considering doing a 'Stanford or bust' approach to MBA applications. With that in mind, I want to think about how to bring my best application forward when I apply Round 1 in 2025 (for a 2026 intake) and/or if I should be rethinking my app strategy.
Age: 27
Nationality: American
Race: Mixed (Asian/Pacific Islander/White)
Gender: Female
Current Title:
Senior Program Manager at a B-Corp, public edtech company; trying to pivot to a Senior Product Marketing role right now
Also an educational content creator with ~200k followers on YouTube; will likely have at least 500k by the time of applying (I approach building this channel as a full business, and while I own the creative production and strategy, I also collaborate with others including freelance editors, brand teams, and a management team)
Undergrad: Top 10 Undergrad in US
GPA: 3.6 (majors were media & business - little to no quant background)
Extracurriculars:
- YouTube channel (a job and extracurricular, I guess)
- Volunteer admissions interviewer for my undergrad for past 4 years
- Volunteer alumni mentorship program
- Digital nomad - past 4 years I've spend 25% of the year traveling, mostly abroad, while working
- Hobbies include improv comedy, yoga, and tennis but not sure if any of those would be captured in an application?
GRE: 325 (Verbal 162; Quant 163) (I think I'm going to take these again to try and get those scores up)
Post-MBA Goals: Starting a larger media brand/company that would create digital education content; or working at a very early-stage startup in a marketing leadership role (ideally at a social-impact focused startup)
Misc:
- I started a video marketing company in undergrad that I ran for 3 years; had lots of large hospital clients
- I was a part-time professional voiceover artist for 2 years (side business I started during COVID when I was bored)
- My Youtube content has been featured/I've been interviewed on multiple national news sites
(PS. I actually submitted one of these entries back in 2020 when I was first thinking of doing an MBA! At the time you all told me that if I didn't get into my top programs that I should hold off for a future intake, and I'm glad I have! I think my career has grown a lot since then; I've gotten to work on really interesting projects at my company; I've grown a business outside of work; etc. and now I'm feeling like it might be close to making sense for an MBA)
Updated resume and LOCI
Waitlisted at NYU Stern and CBS. Accepted off the waitlist at Duke Fuqua. Rejected from UCLA Anderson.
Opted to take the Executive Assessment for my applications.
Updating from previous post. Got another 5k/year from McCombs, will be enrolling there. Can't justify the 50k difference in tuition between the two. I grew up in Austin and would like to work there full time after graduation. I think it'll still give me a shot at MBB, but am open to other companies as well.
No scholarship at Fuqua. Consulting outcomes between Tepper and Johnson in my situation seemed like a wash. Not interested in banking. Prefer to live in a city instead of rural. Very excited for Pittsburgh!
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