The survey on my blog (which is about to expire in 2 days!) shows that not all B-school applicants have wonderful stats.
It's been years since you graduated college and now you're regretting all the partying and skipping class to sleep in or play video games in your dorm room. Well, it sucks (trust me, I know) when your GPA is outside the 20-80 range of your target schools, but there are some things that can be done to overcome a lower undergrad GPA.
The more work experience you have, and thus a larger time buffer between graduating and MBA apps, the less the UGPA will count. But the UGPA still counts for A LOT. Don't underestimate it, and don't ignore it during your essays.
Here are a few of the things I've done, or will do in my apps, to address my low UGPA:
1) Kill the GMAT
This is probably the best way to show the adcoms that you can keep up in B-school. For example, does a 3.0 in Electrical Engineering from MIT equal a 3.0 in Female Anatomy Study from Party State University? Probably not, and the adcoms know this.
The GMAT is called "the great equalizer" for a reason: it puts everyone on the same platform and levels the playing field. Everyone that takes the GMAT starts off on equal footing and must be pretty intelligent to do well. It's a good way of weeding out the fake high GPAs compared to impressive high GPAs. It also shows that applicants with low UGPAs aren't necessarily stupid, but rather very capable of performing well in B-school. There is a direct correlation between GMAT scores and performance in the 1st year of B-school and this is why the GMAT counts for so much.
As you can see from my last post, I'm Ok here.
2) Kick ass at work
Consistent and sustained high performance, and thus promotions, at work show dedication and hard work. Maybe you didn't work hard in school, but that was then and this is now. NOW you're working your ass off. Also helpful is if your workload is quant oriented. This will help overcome that D in Calc I as well as a lower GMAT quant score.
I think I've done a good job at this so far.
3) Build an alternate transcript
Take quant courses such as calculus, stats, accounting, and finance to show that you have the quant skills to handle B-school. Important: Get A grades in all of these courses!
I've taken accounting and finance so far and received As, so I'm good here.
4) Pimp a Masters Degree
Taking Masters courses and doing well shows B-school adcoms that you can handle graduate level courses and workload. Again, it's important to do well here. Try to get a 3.5 or higher GPA in grad school, especially since some school inflate their grad level grades.
So far so good here, my Masters in Electrical Engineering is rolling with a 4.0, I'll be done this year.
5) Address the UGPA in your optional essay
Don't make excuses, but tell the adcom that you've matured since your undergrad days and that you know you will do well at the school. Mention proof of your recent performances ("My GMAT score shows that I'm intelligent, now I work hard too..." etc)
Finally, keep you chin up! Remember, you can't do anything about the UGPA at this point. But there are other things you can do (GMAT, alternate transcript) to show the adcoms that you are a capable student. Like I said before, not all applicants at top schools have greats GPAs. That's what makes B-school so great.
Even a top school like Columbia had a 10-90% GPA range of 2.9-3.8. You read that correctly: 2.9! Try applying to top Med or Law schools with a 2.9 --- yeah right!
Any other suggestions for helping to minimize a low UGPA are welcome in the comments section.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
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5 comments:
Great blog. You're really doing a lot of people a lot of good. I have a 2.92 GPA in engineering from Purdue. I currently work as an engineering manager with >100 people in my department; 2 years as manager; 8 years as an enginner with supervisory experience. I wonder how much a good GMAT score would counteract the GPA especially if I don't have time to build an alternate transcript.
I too graduate from Purdue engineering with not so hot gpa. In fact, I came across a few Purdue grad with GPAs below 3 especially from engineering. I would claim that Purdue has a deflation policy on par with MIT or Cornell engineering.
My situation differs from you that after a year off, I went back to Purdue and pursued a Math and Stat and I graduated with around a 3.5. Since it is from the same school, it was aggregated with my engineering GPA. Not sure how adcoms are going to view this. I am just going to try nonetheless
Thanks--I really needed this--as someone applying to a few top schools--I was a bit concerned about the weight that would be place don my gpa--you've just injected me with new confidence....nedded that right about now!
thnx mannn... I was looking 4 such condolence... I believe im intelligent but unfortunately did bad in ma undergrad... now Iwd like to go 4 GMAt. pls pray 4 me... my email add is: lubdhok@hotmail.com will be very happy if gimme ur mail or contact wid me. waiting 4 ur mail...
The post about not likely getting into law or medicine with a 2.9 is highly inaccurate. Many, I said many people get into law schools with GPAs around a 2.5, and these are not necessarily crappy law schools either. Someone even got in with a 1.6 GPA many years ago with a 170+ LSAT. Anything with around a 2.5+ with a 150 LSAT will get you into a decent state school, not top notch but decent. Even some top schools like Wash U continually admit students with poor undergraduate GPAs well below 3.0 with 160+ LSAT. As for medical school, people get in every year with undergraduate GPAs below 3.0, I believe about 155 per year or more. Many of these people however spent considerable time working on their profiles by taking masters courses, supervision science courses, or special masters programs. Some people get into Osteopathic schools with horrible GPAs, even around that range right away, or they retake courses and the ADCOMS for those type of schools only take the last grade earned in a course, and a DO is equivalent to an MD in all areas of practice. But as for top MBA programs, those are definitely possible with sub 3.0 GPAs but you must totally rock the graduate admissions examination. I have seen profiles of successful people get into Wharton with a sub 3.0, although I don't think it would work for Yale or Harvard.
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