5 Comments:

 Marina said...

My $.02 on the topic:

I have a 3.1 from a state school (UCSB), did not explain it on the application and am in at CBS. Though I did fill out all the jobs I had while I was in school so maybe they figured that was part of the interference. Also, my GPA started out as a 3.7 my freshman year and spiraled in a downtrend through the 4 years. I did manage to graduate a quarter early by taking a full load and summer school every year.

12:25 PM  

 Dave for MBA said...

Awesome comment Marina. This is a much needed comment to help create a full picture of this issue. I would add that your GMAT score would probably be important to know in assessing the impact of your GPA, what school you were at and classes you might have taken since you graduated.

I say this because a high GMAT score nullifies a lot of low gpa's the longer you've been out of school. Secondly, the school you graduated from has a big impact on your gpa valuations. For example, it is my understanding that students who received their undergraduate degrees from Ivy leagues automatically get a .2 to .4 bump in their overall gpa's when being assessed in comparison to other students.

I might add that race and what sex you are also plays a factor in this. Statistically, women tend to have lower stats than men as a whole on a per school basis. I say this lightly as there are some exceptions.

For the most part, I didn't want to get into all the exceptions and caviates when I wrote my original entry.

4:28 PM  

 Anonymous said...

Funny thing is, I constantly hear about grade inflation at Ivy schools. And then adcomm add a quater of a point to that, how's that benig fair?

11:23 AM  

 Dave for MBA said...

Tragically, this is evidence of the socio-economic layers in our US society. The rich can send their children to private schools where they receive an incredible education. One private High School in San Jose, California for example two years ago had 117 graduating seniors. 105 of them received perfect SAT scores. This is one of the best schools on the west coast. Many of these students had strong candidancy for Ivy League colleges or other colleges of their choice.

Over the last several years, the more I learn about our top 20 MBA US Schools and the people that go through them, the more I see the bitter reality of how a great education seperates people. God bless those who studied hard and had great intelligence genes and achieved great academic success regardless of their financial upbringings. More often than not however, those with money have a clear advantage in getting into top MBA Schools.

I haven't really heard mention of this hard reality of our society in my fellow Blogger postings or mainstream media that focus on Business Schools. I rather think it's an understood issue by most trying to get into a top school.

Having said this though, I clap for schools like Wharton, Ross, Kellogg, Tuck, and Johnson who have a reputation for giving those with less than stellar stats a more wholistic review.

12:06 PM  

 Anonymous said...

You mention that writing a 200-word essay explaining your low gpa is overkill. Could you explain why? Many schools offer an additional essay specifically to address weaknesses in ones application (such as a low gpa) and usually allows 2-pages. How would you recommend someone use this 'optional' essay to address a low gpa?

8:25 PM  

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