How forgiving are admissions teams about undergrad performance if you've been working for a while? My GPA was 2.9 (engineering major, rough adjustment to college), but I've spent the last decade building my career in operations and have strong progression. Will they focus more on my work or still ding me for the GPA?

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The evaluation is holistic, so both will be considered. After observing engineers with a similar background as you (GPA, professional trajectory) at a T15, here's what I recommend:

- If your GPA is meh, then you'll have to strengthen other parts of your application.

- Lean heavily into your GMAT/GRE score. To get the best chances, score as high as possible.

- Openly and thoughtfully disclose the reasons behind your GPA to add context.

- Think about what normal engineers write in their applications, and do things differently. Show how you're different from typical engineers in your goals, extracurriculars you'd like to be involved in, etc. For example, if you're Korean or Indian and say you want to contribute to those affinity groups on campus by hosting Lunar New Years or Diwali, that's not unique and you're not contributing anything new. What's unique is something like a different long-term career goal (ex. starting a travel company for low-income people vs. consulting).

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Depends where you wanna go. Mbas aren’t super harsh on gpa but I think stern didn’t admit anyone under 3.0.

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Overall the process is holistic. There are some schools that just don’t budge on grades no matter what (ie yale, NYU etc) but a good majority of them will overlook a bad GPA as long as other parts of your application are stellar! Ace the GMAT/GRE, perfect your story and goals, get high impact recommendations and show genuine interest in the programs, and you’ll do well. I got into 50% of the schools I applied to with a 2.7 GPA including 2 M7 schools

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A decade of experience means you should be applying to EMBAs

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