First things first—Alex and Graham, I listen to your podcast every week without exception. You guys are incredible, and I truly appreciate the work you do. It has helped me tremendously. My name is Flavio Amboss. I'm originally from Brazil, and I moved to the United States in 2021 to pursue my master's degree in Construction Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago. During school, I received a job offer from a general contracting firm, where I currently work. As an immigrant, I’ve been facing some challenges with the visa process. My green card application was rejected earlier this year, and I had to restart the entire process. My company will enter me into the H-1B lottery in February 2026, and if selected, I will finally be able to pursue my dream of attending the Booth Part-Time MBA (unfortunately, full-time is not an option for me). Sports have always played a major role in my life. I competed in and won several events throughout my childhood and adulthood—including soccer, judo, and tennis. More recently, I began training for triathlons, and in my first year, I placed 4th in my age group at the Tri Gravel Lemont event. I have also always been very involved in volunteer work. In my latest experience, I joined the Willow Creek Church choir in September, singing and serving with children with special needs. Since then, I’ve been performing regularly at the South Lake campus. Professionally, I bring nine years of experience at the largest development and construction company in Brazil, where I worked primarily in the field as a civil engineer. I also spent three years at a mid-size construction company as a preconstruction manager. Given my background, my short-term goal is to transition toward the real estate development side to strengthen the areas where I have less experience. In the long term, I aspire to become an entrepreneur and build my own development and construction company. I’ll admit that I’m not the strongest standardized test taker, and with my first son arriving in May, I don’t expect that I’ll be able to retake the GRE. Please see my GPAs and GRE scores below:
GRE Q: 165 V: 145
UERJ – Civil Engineering GPA: 3.2 (Google conversion from Brazilian GPA 7.22/10)
FGV – Project Management MBA GPA: 3.9 (Google conversion from Brazilian GPA 8.75/10)
UIC – Master’s in Engineering and Construction Management GPA: 3.77

Is there any way I could also attach my resume and essays for you to give me your thoughts on my application?