Deferred MBA Profile Evaluation Request - Where do I stand? : Ask mbaMission

I’m currently a junior in college and am looking to apply to deferred MBA programs in January 2024. My profile will be given in future tense as I am currently on track to achieve all these goals. I am trying to gain an understanding of how strong my application will be for the main deferred MBA programs I am interested in. I have strong leadership positions on campus and lots of volunteering. I have a target GMAT score. I have a lower GPA, but the number doesn’t do the justice as my low GPA isn’t a B+ average but rather two bad years mixed with 3 years of perfection. My current summer internship is at a smaller consulting firm, but I have a consulting internship at a larger company upon graduation next summer. One of my recommendations will come from my economic professor who is a faculty advisor for one of the clubs I’m president for. My other recommendation will come from the VP (who recommended me for the job) of the small/midsize consulting internship I have this 2023 summer. I have not written any essays yet but am currently thinking about how to craft my profile into a compelling story. From college failure, to exceeding grades, extracurriculars, etc.

•My target programs include: Booth Scholars, Kellogg Future leaders, Yale Silver Scholars, Columbia, MIT, Wharton Moelis, HBS 2+2, Stanford GSB, Berkely HAAS, UVA Darden.
•My target career is in consulting

Profile:
•White Male, 22 years old, Florida
•Double Major in Economics and Sociology at a top 50 university, Cum Laude
•GMAT: 740+ *Side Note* I am currently looking to boost this score a little more to make up for my lower GPA.
•Cumulative GPA: 3.23 *Side Note* I did very bad my first two years in college during 2019-2020 and failed out from a rank 250 university with a 1.5 GPA in Spring 2021. I wasn’t passionate about my major, Covid happened, was working, and just generally didn’t have any long-term plans so I didn’t care about school. However, Fall 2021, I started back at community college, took 12 classes, made straight A’s in all of them, and graduated with my associates degree with honors. Once I got my Associates degree I got admitted into a Rank 50 university. Starting in Fall 2022, I took another 17 classes and made straight A’s in all of them. So upon my application, I am currently on a 29-class streak (85 credits) of 4.00 GPA straight A’s. So, my GPA has gone from a 1.5 to a 3.23.
My transcripts look like this: (Rank 250 University) ACDCDCUUUUFFWFFWC ------> (Community College) AAAAAAAAAAAA ------> (Rank 50 University) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Extracurriculars:
•Entrepreneurship Club – Founder/President
•National Business Economics Association – President
•Student Government – Executive Branch Financial Assistant
•Financial Management Association - Member
•Foster Care Mentoring – 200+ Volunteer Hours
•Special Olympic Volunteering – 100+ Volunteer Hours
•University’s Scholar Society, University’s Leadership Honors Society, Economics Honors Society, Sociology Honors Society
•Quiz Bowl Academic Team – Top 5 Scholar

Work Experience:
•Summer 2023 consulting Internship at a small-mid size consulting firm (publicly traded, 150m Revenue, 1b market cap)
•Summer 2024 consulting Internship at a Fortune 500 company (Not MBB but slightly lower tier)

Entrepreneurial Projects:
•Created my own private software utilizing multiple programming languages that connected to the OpenSea API and automatically traded NFT’s on the OpenSea market, generated $135,000 in purchases and sales while maintain steady profit margins.
•Founded an Instagram Media Page that organically grew 40,000 followers, generated 50 million impressions and 35 million views on content, Collaborated with companies to generate revenue with sponsored posts/advertisements

Deferred MBA's have been a driving factor in my motivation for my grades, and extracurriculars. I passionately believe an MBA will accelerate me in the workforce and I want the security of having a degree from a top institution. I want to apply deferred so that I can have peace of mind going into the workforce after college knowing that I have grad school lined up. I also like the aspect that If I get denied from deferred MBA's I can apply again 2-5 years down the line for regular admissions with higher acceptance odds and more schools available. I'm all in on the idea of Business School and getting into a top institution has been a dream of mine ever since I started taking college and my long term goals seriously. I look forward to advice of how strong/weak my application stands for deferred MBA programs. Thank you so much!!!!

Hi gccfsu, thanks for reaching out with your profile. Quite the transformation in your transcript! It sounds like you have a strong story to tell about that turnaround in your grades and ambitions, which could work well for some of the schools on your target program list. But I worry that the overall GPA will still come out to be too low for most of these programs. In my experience working with successful deferred applicants, GPA is a big factor. The other concern I have is that when MBA applicants have low GPAs, some time away from school to mature and show top performance in the workplace can help increase their odds, so I could actually see you becoming a stronger applicant after a few years of consulting work. I would still give some deferred programs a try. You've got the other elements going for you of strong campus leadership, good recommendations, and work experience. As an econ major who is going into consulting, you fall into a pretty well-represented group though for business schools, so I think your personal story needs to be pretty strong for these top schools to bite early. Hope that makes sense! Not trying to discourage you, as I think you're on a great path, just want to make sure you understand the risk because these deferred programs are super selective.

Feel free to reach out if we can help further.
Kate

gccfsu wrote:I’m currently a junior in college and am looking to apply to deferred MBA programs in January 2024. My profile will be given in future tense as I am currently on track to achieve all these goals. I am trying to gain an understanding of how strong my application will be for the main deferred MBA programs I am interested in. I have strong leadership positions on campus and lots of volunteering. I have a target GMAT score. I have a lower GPA, but the number doesn’t do the justice as my low GPA isn’t a B+ average but rather two bad years mixed with 3 years of perfection. My current summer internship is at a smaller consulting firm, but I have a consulting internship at a larger company upon graduation next summer. One of my recommendations will come from my economic professor who is a faculty advisor for one of the clubs I’m president for. My other recommendation will come from the VP (who recommended me for the job) of the small/midsize consulting internship I have this 2023 summer. I have not written any essays yet but am currently thinking about how to craft my profile into a compelling story. From college failure, to exceeding grades, extracurriculars, etc.

•My target programs include: Booth Scholars, Kellogg Future leaders, Yale Silver Scholars, Columbia, MIT, Wharton Moelis, HBS 2+2, Stanford GSB, Berkely HAAS, UVA Darden.
•My target career is in consulting

Profile:
•White Male, 22 years old, Florida
•Double Major in Economics and Sociology at a top 50 university, Cum Laude
•GMAT: 740+ *Side Note* I am currently looking to boost this score a little more to make up for my lower GPA.
•Cumulative GPA: 3.23 *Side Note* I did very bad my first two years in college during 2019-2020 and failed out from a rank 250 university with a 1.5 GPA in Spring 2021. I wasn’t passionate about my major, Covid happened, was working, and just generally didn’t have any long-term plans so I didn’t care about school. However, Fall 2021, I started back at community college, took 12 classes, made straight A’s in all of them, and graduated with my associates degree with honors. Once I got my Associates degree I got admitted into a Rank 50 university. Starting in Fall 2022, I took another 17 classes and made straight A’s in all of them. So upon my application, I am currently on a 29-class streak (85 credits) of 4.00 GPA straight A’s. So, my GPA has gone from a 1.5 to a 3.23.
My transcripts look like this: (Rank 250 University) ACDCDCUUUUFFWFFWC ------> (Community College) AAAAAAAAAAAA ------> (Rank 50 University) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Extracurriculars:
•Entrepreneurship Club – Founder/President
•National Business Economics Association – President
•Student Government – Executive Branch Financial Assistant
•Financial Management Association - Member
•Foster Care Mentoring – 200+ Volunteer Hours
•Special Olympic Volunteering – 100+ Volunteer Hours
•University’s Scholar Society, University’s Leadership Honors Society, Economics Honors Society, Sociology Honors Society
•Quiz Bowl Academic Team – Top 5 Scholar

Work Experience:
•Summer 2023 consulting Internship at a small-mid size consulting firm (publicly traded, 150m Revenue, 1b market cap)
•Summer 2024 consulting Internship at a Fortune 500 company (Not MBB but slightly lower tier)

Entrepreneurial Projects:
•Created my own private software utilizing multiple programming languages that connected to the OpenSea API and automatically traded NFT’s on the OpenSea market, generated $135,000 in purchases and sales while maintain steady profit margins.
•Founded an Instagram Media Page that organically grew 40,000 followers, generated 50 million impressions and 35 million views on content, Collaborated with companies to generate revenue with sponsored posts/advertisements

Deferred MBA's have been a driving factor in my motivation for my grades, and extracurriculars. I passionately believe an MBA will accelerate me in the workforce and I want the security of having a degree from a top institution. I want to apply deferred so that I can have peace of mind going into the workforce after college knowing that I have grad school lined up. I also like the aspect that If I get denied from deferred MBA's I can apply again 2-5 years down the line for regular admissions with higher acceptance odds and more schools available. I'm all in on the idea of Business School and getting into a top institution has been a dream of mine ever since I started taking college and my long term goals seriously. I look forward to advice of how strong/weak my application stands for deferred MBA programs. Thank you so much!!!!