<p>One day I'd like to attend at least a top 15 business school or a similar graduate school program with an emphasis on marketing/communications. I studied business at the undergraduate level, and graduated from a pretty well-respected and selective university. However, I didn't perform too hotly in college and graduated with about a B average.</p>
<p>I'm thinking even with a 700+ on the GMAT or a high score on the GRE, it won't be enough to gain admission into a top graduate program. This is why I'm contemplating enrollment in a post-bac program in order to improve my chances at getting into grad school. Also, I didn't really enjoy the courses I took as part of my requirements in B-school and missed out on getting a traditional, liberal arts education. I'm hoping I'll get to do that post-bac.</p>
<p>My question is, have you, or anyone you know attempted to gain admission to a top grad program with a similar background to mine? Most of the info and programs I've found online are geared towards students who want to get into medical school but didn't take the right pre-requisites in college.</p>
<p>So far I've looked into Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania, both of which offer post-bac programs. I've also looked into Northwestern but it sounded like their program was more appropriate for working professionals (offer weekend classes only, no housing). Also, I read here that Penn doesn't typically offer very good counseling for current students for when they do want to apply to grad school after completing their post-bac.</p>
<p>Are these programs difficult to get into? Does anyone know what kind of background admissions counselors look for in a prospective post-baccalaureate student? I'm open to learning about other schools that offer this.</p>
<p>You won’t get into any remotely-top business school without significant professional work experience.</p>
<p>You don’t need a “post-bac” program. What you need right now is to go out into the “real world” and gain experience at entry-level jobs in your field of interest.</p>
<p>I have been working for a couple years now but I’m just not sure the average 5-7 years of work experience will be enough for me to gain admission to a top grad school.</p>
<p>For B-school your undergraduate GPA is not really going to matter after 5-7 years of work experience, especially if you have a B-average. If “B average” means that you have somewhere in the realm of a 3.2-3.4, you’ll be fine. Even with a 3.0-3.2, if you have outstanding work experience and good recommendations from the business sector, you will still be fine. MBA employers are not really interested in a 7-10 year old undergraduate GPA.</p>
<p>Even if you did do a post-bacc, I would certainly not spend the enormous amounts of money that it would require to do it at Columbia or Penn. Also, word of advice (may sound harsh): College is over. You may have not gotten a traditional liberal arts education, but that ship has sailed. Don’t try to recreate your college experience the way you wanted to do it. If you take post-baccalaureate classes, take them only to enhance your chances of getting into business school. Personally, I think a better use of your time is to take one or two graduate business classes as a non-degree student. You definitely should not be planning to take 1-2 years off to do a full-time post-baccalaureate program (it sounds like you are, since you said Northwestern’s program is for working professionals and doesn’t offer housing). Your focus should be garnering the best work experience you can do.</p>
<p>But the post-baccalaureate programs aren’t ridiculously difficult to get into. The reason why is because they are cash cows. You will get very little financial aid, because you won’t be an undergraduate. They will expect you to finance the program primarily with loans and out-of-pocket money, and you also don’t affect the school’s ranking at all, so the stakes aren’t that high.</p>
<p>Thanks, juillet. I’d like to go to grad school sooner rather than later and if I want to attend a selective uni I’m not sure my 3.0 will be enough, even with incredible recommendations. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any specific experience with post-baccalaureate programs offered either in the US or abroad?</p>
<p>I am an international student from Africa, with a bachelors from a university in my country(b.s.c Building), I don’t have a fabulous result, I want to apply for master’s or complete some bachelor in the U.S to increase my chances of getting a masters in an engineering related field the U.S, I also don’t want an expensive school as I can’t afford to pay for high tution, any advice on schools I should look to? Will I get the masters?</p>