Cheney, Good MBA programs see your GMAT and GPA as only a small part of your total application. Every year, top schools like Harvard and Wharton accept people with 650 GMAT while rejecting people with 750 GMAT. Frankly, you don't have to be a genius to do well in an MBA program or to succeed in business, and AdCom knows this. So they will not necessarily accept the smartest people, or even the people with the most impressive work accomplishments. Rather, they accept the applicants who make the most convincing argument about why they deserve admission. A convincing argument explains why and how you will achieve some impressive career goal by using your MBA degree, provides evidence of a wide range of relevant qualities to support this claim, and also demonstrates that you are aware of and able to address your weaknesses. The relevant qualities I mentioned above can be divided into the following: Intellect: raw intellect, analysis, and creativity. Skills: management, leadership, and industry specific knowledge. Interpersonal: cooperativeness, communication, and social involvement. Personal: maturity, ethics, and uniqueness. Drive: goals, determination, and initiative. My point is that when you base your decision of what schools to apply to on your GMAT, GPA and company name, you are really not thinking about this decision correctly. You need to think about yourself as a whole person, complete with your goals, developmental needs, and current qualities. I know my summary above was brief; I'll be glad to explain this in more detail. -Alex Grove Alex.grove@.net www..net |