MBA ApplyWire

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)

I'm an Indian origin Chemical Engineering student from BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus. I have half a year thesis internship experience in Prague, in R&D work. However, post graduation, I have digressed to management consultancy after a brief stint in an Oil & Gas company and intend to pursue consultancy post MBA. I have a promotion due in some time so that could show progression in my career.
I have led a TEDx club during my time in college, and I have some volunteering experience as a freelancer where I have supported volunteer groups during the pandemic, and have conducted a tree plantation drive (plated 400 trees) to rehabilitate cyclone affected regions.
I am not sure how much it would impact my application, but I am also a French citizen. I am planning to take another try at my GMAT and apply for M7 colleges in R2, while focus on the other colleges in R1 to bolster my safe position.

Those who have a GMAT waiver cover all tuition and stipends for international students.

Currently a digital marketer with ~15 years of experience applying to EMBA programs. My company is financially sponsoring a large part of the program. I have a decent GMAT score (49Q, 40V), but slacked off my first couple of years in college and miraculously pulled out a 3.02 despite that.

My decision to pursue an EMBA program is primarily to 1) help booster my managements skills, 2) deepen my knowledge especially in finance, and 3) learn skills & techniques that I can apply real-time to my current job, as well as my real estate investments. I am passionate about historic preservation as well as sustainability and want to find a program that shares either or both of those.

About Me
Started out in campaign management for a company that sold innovative (at the time) crowsourced advertising campaigns to global brands. Within a few months, promoted to a Business Development position, working closely with clients such as Hasbro, IHOP, KIA, and Samsung. I ended up also developing marketing materials that I shared with the rest of the sales team and that turned me onto marketing. During this time, I was selected by the Miami Ad School as an Industry Hero and taught a weeklong course on crowdsourcing at their school.

Spent 7 years at an education consultancy, where I lead digital marketing. Worked with the company's other offices around the globe (22 locations) to build lead generation and nurturing campaigns with a small team I lead, leading to a 450% increase in qualified leads. Additionally, I developed and implemented an online delivery of their products and events, which proved to have a massive impact with Covid's impact on the in-person portion of the business. I also implemented marketing and project management automation - improving efficiency, eliminating errors, and minimizing duplication. The estimated time savings from this was over 50 hours of work per week.

For the past three years, I've worked as a digital marketing manager for a brand within the Nestle portfolio where I drive multi-channel marketing campaigns.
* Met or exceeded goals every year
* Founding member of our division's Culture Club and was selected as one of the committee leads within the club
* Won an internal global contest for best use of Generative AI - which was highlighted across the global organization
While I'm currently working on a single brand, my role is expanding to cover the rest of the division's brands - where I can make an even greater impact.

Assist my father managing his commercial real estate investments. This includes a mixed-use property with 450+ unit apartments, a historic hotel, and a large historic office building currently the headquarters of one of the largest food and beverage companies in the USA. I attend quarterly board meetings, and provide advice from my own expertise in marketing.

Volunteering Highlights:
Co-Founded ECO-Audit USA - the US branch of the Jane Goodall Institute's ECO-Audit program - partnering with businesses to have high-school students conduct environmental audits of their workplace.

Heavily involved in a hobby called fingerboarding - and have a semipopular YouTube channel (even selected by YouTube as a Creator on the Rise). I help fund and organize in-person events across the country and have even been featured in publications such as Paper Magazine for this hobby.

P.S. Big fan of the podcast! I've listened to dozens of episodes over the past few years... it kept me motivated listening to both of you during my arduous GMAT journey

-24, 4YOE on-matriculation.
-Asian-American Male.
-CS undergrad from T20 eng school.
-Looking to return to IBM in different org/role
-161V/165Q GRE split

6 YOE in Non-Profit/SI industry.
2 promotions, 1 emp of the quarter.
Extra-curricular during & post-uni in sports and net impact.

- Black woman
- Poor GPA was due to health senior year (was a 3.1-3.3 each year pre-senior year)
- Studied sociology at non-target
- National award/grant-winning, published author
- Strong volunteer experience (5 years at same position w/some leadership)
- Currently unemployed/"job hopping" background due to job market and post-COVID health situation (strongest/longest experience was 2 years in HR at Fortune 100)
- Strong background in academic research and writing
- Zero quant background
- Interested in ESG, consulting, or HR post-MBA, but still deciding