<p>Posted this before in wrong thread.. First of all I am a Hispanic majoring in finance and marketing and in my Junior year. I transferred from a community college to a better known 4 yr university (not top 100) but tier 1. My GPA upon graduation at the 4 yr state university should be 3.87 ish. My community college GPA for two semesters should be 3.2. The CC GPA brings my overall down to 3.73 ish. which I think is still competitive for the likes of HBS, Wharton.</p>
<p>GMAT> I'm the type of person that if I study properly I don't get below a 95%..+ written and verbal come easy to me. so the minimum I expect to get is a 700 GMAT.</p>
<p>A successful African American that I met had a 3.5 and a 700 GMAT and got into HBS but decided to go to Colombia.. I believe that a 3.7 and a 700 would get me into elite schools.
What do you think? BTW I am aware of good work experience, leadership and extracurricular activities. Have that all covered.</p>
<p>I would shoot for a slightly higher GMAT if possible. It’s all going to depend on where you go to work before you apply so focus on getting a solid name on your resume.</p>
<p>If you’re a junior, I’m not sure this is a particularly relevant question for you yet.
You still have a number of years you need to work before applying to business school.</p>
<p>Recruitment for junior year internships have by and large started so get on that.
Obviously aim for the top companies in whatever industry you’re looking to get into (mbb for consulting, BB or top boutique for finance, …)
This will be the #1 factor in which mba program you eventually get into. </p>
<p>I’m guessing ocr at your school is relatively limited so you’re really going to need to start networking now (if you haven’t already) to have a shot at getting interviews.</p>
<p>Also, Colombia is a country, Columbia is a school.
Not knowing the difference tends to be a dealbreaker when in comes to applying for graduate school.</p>
<p>Thank you for your insight… I know its early but I like to plan ahead… have an ultimate realistic goal I can aim for… as to internships I’m going through Inroads which can get me quality internships for this coming summer. (I am applying within the next week) I believe I will be competitive when the time comes for actual work and I should get into a good company. I don’t know why I wrote Colombia instead of Columbia.</p>
<p>The scores you have as goals would open lots of doors for you. The average GMAT for hispanics is about 490 and for african americans is about 430. Anything approaching 700 puts you in the top echelon of test takers in this group. For reference the average for all test takers in 2010 was reported as 545.</p>
<p>It isn’t playing a race card, but just as international applicants are considered against the entire pool as well as the pool from their region, underrepresented minority groups can also have review from multiple perspectives.</p>
<p>A study of performance and graduation rates I read out of Stanford indicated that the best benefit to minority groups is when they’ve got GMAT scores which are less than 93 points below the median for the school. My point being that if your score is comparable to the others in your school then you should totally go there. But if, for example, your GMAT is below 640 then the study results would suggest that you would be making a bad choice in going there. But, if you get 700+ you should be able to succeed anywhere.</p>
<p>If you qualify for seo, that is a much better program with much better placement.
INROADS tends to place people into second tier companies, which ultimately make getting into top mba programs much more difficult.</p>