Hi,

I a 29 yr old male MBA hopeful strongly interested in the Jan term at Columbia. I have one area that really get me concerned when I think of MBA applications - my undergrad GPA. I had a 2.85 GPA from Penn State.

However I feel like I can compensate my low undergrad GPA with the following areas:
- I am CPA,
- I have been working at a Big 4 for the last 7 years hired out of college
- I lived and worked in the Cayman Islands for the last 4 year primarily focused on audits of asset management clients
- I have 2 years of management experience
- My performance reviews at work have primarily indicated that I exceed or significantly exceed expectations
- I work with a Partner in the firm who is a Columbia MBA and would be happy to write me a recommendation letter
- I have travelled extensively throughout the world including Europe, Africa and Asia.

I have not take the GMAT yet but based on practice test, I am scoring 680 on average. I still have some more time to study so could hopefully push it to 700.

Based on the above info could you kindly help me understand if I could/should even consider applying for the program or should I give up the dream of going to a top 10 MBA programme (primarily interested in Columbia).

And if I am a possibly a good fit, would it hurt for me to consider UPenn and LBS?

Thank you for your assistance.

Hi--thanks for your post. You appear to have a strong profile given the limited info you put in the email. As for your GPA, the advantage you have is the amount of time that has transpired since completing your UG degree. The farther out you are from finishing college, the less the GPA really matters, and the other bonus is, your degree is from a great school. B-schools put stock in not just what you acheived in college, but where you achieved it. In your case, having gone to a top UG institution, they will let you slide a bit more on GPA, plus the GPA is not as important to them in general as the GMAT is. Finally, they will naturally be more lenient on any international student who studied in the US for their UG degree, assuming classes were not in the student's native language.
Overall it's a good time for international students to apply to US business schools, since applications are down from that pool. The poor economy has kept many international students from spending the money to come to the US to study, yet business schools still need their classes to be diverse. You should emphasize in your application not only your unique perspective as an international student, but someone who has worked in the US as well. You are the kind of classmate that can be very helpful bridging the cultural divide in your class. This is very attractive to b-schools. Please let us know if you need help with your application. I have personally helped scores of students from Asia and Europe craft winning applications. The schools you are targeting are very competitive, so we would also give you access to people who actually graduated from Columbia, Wharton, etc. I would recommend at least 5 applications if you have time to do them all. Even though the odds are better this year, it's still very competitive, but I don't see any glaring reasons why you shouldn't be able to crack the top 10.