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($) What’s a good undergrad GPA?

by EssaySnark

First: We just published our MIT 2018 MBA essay guide — overhauled for the Class of 2021 to include the org chart requirement! For today: We recently talked about What’s a good GRE score for getting an MBA and we’ve done plenty of those “good enough?” posts on the GMAT — like, is a 710…

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($) Special Case Situations for MBA Apps: What if you dropped out of grad school?

by EssaySnark

As promised in our previous post on What transcripts do you need for your MBA apps, we’ll go into detail on a situation that can cause much consternation for certain BSers: What if you enrolled but you did not graduate? What if you (eek!) dropped out of a program? What if you started at law…

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($) Requirements for international applicants and non-English transcripts and recs

by EssaySnark

There are a lot of pieces to keep track of in your MBA applications, and international applicants have more than anyone. Some of these can really screw you up if you’re not paying attention. Case in point: We were rather surprised one year when a Brave Supplicant informed us – after the fact, no less…

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($) Which transcripts do you need?

by EssaySnark

In the category of YES IT’S TIME TO GET STARTED!!! we have today’s post about what types of documentation for past educational history do you need to submit as part of your MBA applications. Most schools have very standardized requirements on the transcripts you need to submit with your app, but there are some variations…

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($) So-called “alternative transcripts”: MOOCs, continuing education, and additional ed experiences in your MBA apps

by EssaySnark

In our impromptu series on gathering your docs for your MBA app, focusing on what transcripts do you need to submit, we’ll continue today with a question of strategy combined with tactics. The strategy is that, for some of you, your grades do not reflect your abilities (ugh please do not say that in your…

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($) What REALLY matters in MBA admissions?

by EssaySnark

There is no “one thing” that’s going to get you in to bschool. But there are many things that matter, in many different ways. We cover the common myths and misunderstandings here quite a bit and today’s post is yet another attempt to educate the next crop of eager Brave Supplicants who are pondering the…

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($) The very best messaging for handling an issue with low GPA

by EssaySnark

One of the most common statements that MBA admissions committees hear from applicants who have rocky academics is, “My GPA does not reflect my ability.” We have cautioned against this before as not quite the ideal. So then, what is? We’re reluctant to be too direct in making suggestions for what to say in an…

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($) One bad grade: Dealing with a D or an F on your transcript.

by EssaySnark

Oh nos! You flunked out of a class! Or just flailed mightily, and ended up with a very low mark on your transcript. What do you do about that now? First of all: Yes the adcom will notice if you got a D or an F – or even a C. Yes they’ll also notice…

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Do NOT convert your grades to the U.S. 4.0 GPA system when applying to bschool.

by EssaySnark 5 Comments

Used to be, many business schools required international BSers to figure out their equivalent academics in the American 4.0 scale when submitting their educational history. It always caused a lot of stress and we also saw many, many errors.

Now, the GMAC still requires this when you take the GMAT, which is a different crappy issue that we hope gets resolved soon.

For the American business schools, we can appreciate how useful it may be to know what your college marks look like on the 4.0 scale, since it lets you compare yourself to the class profile at your target schools. In fact, EssaySnark does a back-of-the-envelope conversion for international BSers when we do your Comprehensive Profile Review, for this exact reason. Knowing where you stand GPA-wise is very helpful as one metric in evaluating how you’ll make out in the admissions process.

This post though is a big warning to all BSers planning to apply today: In this day and age, thankfully the top business schools have now done away with the requirement that international applicants figure out their own 4.0 GPA equivalent.

But check it out: Not only are you asked not to convert your grades (because it’s way too easy to make a mistake), but some schools will penalize you if you do!!

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The moral of the story is, be sure to carefully examine all of the requirements for every single school you’re applying to. There are more and more divergences in how schools want details like these handled.

($) Talking about transcripts

by EssaySnark

If you’re planning on applying to business school this Fall then there’s at least one important area you should get moving on now: Ordering your college transcripts. This is particularly important for international applicants who may be subject to unwieldy bureacracies in simply getting the transcripts in hand, AND – very important – if your…

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