<p>After you graduate from undergrad, your transcript is sealed and that is generally the one used in admission purposes insofar as analyzing "a gpa" goes. What I wanted to know is if we did not have a great gpa and would like to get into a top business school, would enrolling in economics, business, and math courses at a JC, and exceeding in those classes, do any justice for getting you some more chances to get into a top b-school? I don't know if I want to do business school but I know I'd have to nail the standardized tests if I do, but as far as gpa goes, would creating this 'alternative transcript,' with the fact that you never took econ/business/math classes as a social science major in undergrad, help somewhat counterbalance your undergrad gpa with this new JC gpa that has a bunch of econ/business related classes? I hope this made sense.</p>
<p>Absolutely it will. They will look at the new classes, possibly weighting them more than your old classes if there is some time between them. Actually this can fit very well into your “story” if you want to portray yourself to the adcom as someone who has matured, and would consequently perform better as a grad than you did as an UG - preferably this should actually be actually true if you’re going spin things this way though…</p>
<p>I did fairly well as an UG, but wanted some more math after graduating, I took a few extra courses afterwards and managed a 4.0, and I think this helped in my application a bit (it helped give my “story” credibility). For full disclosure, I’m currently doing a masters at a b-school, not an MBA, but the same rules should apply.</p>
<p>Couple points: I would advise you do it at the best school possible, preferably somewhere better than a JC. For ex., in Boston you can open enroll at Harvard extension, Tufts GCAP, and BU met. Also, I would recommend that you take quantitative/business related courses (sounds like your planning on this already). Some examples (in loose order of preference) would be: econ, stats, finance (an intro, possibly derivatives if you can), accounting, math (calc, linear algebra, etc); basically just courses that show you are interested and can handle a bit of math. An added bonus is that these might help your gmat a bit.</p>
<p>Of course this will mean very little if you can’t accumulate some good work exp as well.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the response. I’ve only been a year out of undergrad so I don’t know how that would factor in. When you said do it at the best school possible you mean a regular 4 year university through its extension program? That sounds good, but the problem is I think that a single class can run up to 800 dollars to enroll, which is why i asked about taking them at a JC since it is so cheap. Did you pay that much for extension? So if you still take those classes at a JC then you won’t have a good chance to impress adcoms in admitting you since the rigor isn’t there?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that post college community college classes with help at a top MBA program to be honest.</p>
<p>So you disagree with what he said above then, right</p>
<p>My work paid for mine, I don’t think they were horribly expensive, a couple grand each as I recall.</p>
<p>It is important that they are from a decent school, getting an A when other students in the class can barely read doesn’t mean much.</p>
<p>I heard about that! A friend I know told me that her work is paying for her extension courses…how is that so? Your work just generously pays your personal classes you want to take? Please describe!</p>
<p>Assuming they are work related courses, yes they do. Generally there are limits per year though, varies from company to company.</p>
<p>they might help somewhat, but keep in mind that the top MBA schools are more concerned with your upper-division classes from a 4-yr college</p>
<p>Large companies will often pay some to all costs for post-graduate courses related to your current work - engineers taking engineering courses, for example. In general, however, taking classes cross-disciplines is not allowed unless there are special circumstances.</p>
<p>My company in particular prohibits non-“business function” employees from taking business courses. They do not want to pay for people to become managers at another company.</p>