Any Hope? Dropped out but started successful business.

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>I'm in a sticky situation at this point in my life, and I want to go to business school, but I feel like my options may be limited and my previous mistakes may have sabotaged my chances. </p>

<p>My back story:</p>

<p>Started attending UCLA in 07 as a business-econ major, my first few years were pretty good and well rounded, and I cruised with a 3.7 GPA with hope to attend a business school later on. </p>

<p>On my 3rd year due to personal issues and a traumatic experience my grades started to slip. I changed from Business Economics to Political Science because it was an easier major and even then I tanked most of my classes. At the time of dropping out my GPA was a mere 3.3 after a round of Cs and Bs. Finally on the tail end of my 3rd year I dropped out of school completely so I could reflect on what I was doing, etc.</p>

<p>After a few months of reflection and meditation, I decided to start an online business. That quarter of dedication I was able to work my business out and had $100,000 of revenue in 2009, and already at almost $500,000 in revenue for 2010. </p>

<p>I returned to school and so far everything is going great. I learned to enjoy Political Science, and I have a private tutor and the work ethic to make sure I get a 4.0 from here on out. I want to attend business school in California (UCLA, USC, Stanford or Berkeley), but I wonder if there's any hope for me still.</p>

<p>Going against me:</p>

<p>-Dropped out of college.
-I calculated that if I get a 4.0 from now on, the very best I can end up with is 3.6.
-Took 5 years to graduate.
-Political Science with no bells and whistles.</p>

<p>Pros:</p>

<p>-Successful business with great revenue. Co-sponsoring a USC panel next week.
-Dedicated to get a great score on the GMAT because I can hire a private tutor.
-No real need for financial aid as I can finance myself.
-Had strong leadership positions before I dropped out.</p>

<p>My question is essentially, will me having good work experience (starting a successful business on my own) make up the fact that I was for a time a college dropout, with an uneventful GPA and very basic major that most students can complete within 3 years?</p>

<p>I must stay in CA for business reasons and I won't settle for a 2nd rate business school because it probably won't be worth my time. </p>

<p>Thank you all for any input.</p>

2

<p>I think you have many options.</p>

<p>I am a bit of a retread myself and went to get a MBA after many years out in the world.</p>

<p>What I found is that most business schools have multiple tracks to get your degree and that the admission tracks are different. At my school, all degrees regardless of the track result in the same degree.</p>

<p>In my school, they have the full time graduate track. Then there is the executive MBA track which has school on Friday and Saturdays. There is the Professional school track which is part time and occurs at night Mon thru Fri and finally there is the online track which occurs 7 days a week.</p>

<p>I am sure that Stanford has multiple programs and perhaps the others do as well. If you take your course online, you can stay in Calif and still get a degree from an out of state business school. This would put U of Chicago, Wash U, and some of the East Coast schools in play (I don’t think Wharton is on line yet)</p>

<p>In regard to your acceptability, I think you would be a great catch for the schools. Business schools in my experience what people that make money more than those who get A’s. </p>

<p>Hope this helps</p>

3

<p>I’d say your experience is better than most people’s. Dropping out for a time shouldn’t be an issue if you finish your degree. You should definitely apply to a very high number of schools because adcoms will vary greatly on how they view your resume since it is not typical. But you’ll get into a solid program.</p>

4

<p>First of all, why do you NEED to go to business school in the first place? If you claim that you are generating over 500k in revenue for this business of yours, great! You should probably focus on expanding that to make more $$$ and then invest your money wisely. B-school is 100k down the drain to land a 90-110k position after graduating.</p>

<p>B-school is for people who want to break the 100K ceiling in their career after having work experience…clearly, after you have started a successful, profitable business of your own, you already know what it takes. IMO, it makes no sense to me. The whole point of going to b-school is to make more money, and from what you’ve posted, it looks like you’re doing a fantastic job of doing that already.</p>