People who have read through my old blog entries would know that I did this same sort of thinking about 13 years ago and ended up enrolling in a pre-MBA grad program in IT Management at UVA. At the time, I made the case that the degree would help me to advance in my IT-related role, but my real goal was to use it as a platform to make up for my weak undergrad GPA. Thank goodness that it worked out because I ended up with a Stanford MBA when it was all said and done. 🙂
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JE wrote:
Mr. Parker,
I really enjoy reading your blog, there is a ton of great information and I think its great you spend so much of your time to answer people’s questions. I am a USNA grad looking to go to Business school following my military service. Based on my training for the navy, I can get course credit at ODU towards a Masters in Engineering Management. In undergrad I didn’t apply myself nearly to the level I am capable and ended up with a lower than I would have liked GPA (2.7-2.8 range). I do not anticipate working engineering management, and if I were to get the degree it would be tot bolster my B-School application. My question is would you recommend getting this degree? Or would it be seen as Application filler by admissions? Thank you.
Respectfully,
JE
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My response:
Hi JE,
I hope this message finds you well. Thanks for reaching out to me with your question and, most importantly, thank you for your military service. I have several family members who served in the Army and the Marines and have a great appreciation for what you do to protect our country and our fellow citizens.
I hope that this doesn’t come across the wrong way, but I had to chuckle a little as I read your email because I was facing the same situation as you during the summer of 2001. I knew that I wanted to go to business school, but, because I worked almost full-time to help pay my way through college, my undergrad GPA wasn’t great. I worried that I wouldn’t have a shot at getting into a good business school with my undergrad grades, so I asked myself whether I should get a pre-MBA grad degree to help my chances as an MBA applicant.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen my bio on my website, but I ended up deciding to pursue the extra grad degree and earned a MS in Management of IT from UVA back in 2003. In reality, I didn’t want to be an IT Manager, but I needed something to give a different view of my academic potential than my shaky undergrad GPA. The Masters program at UVA fit the bill perfectly for that. I ended up finishing that program with a 3.7 GPA and decided to apply to business school soon after graduation from UVA. My strong performance at UVA became a big part of my overall MBA application story and used it to demonstrate that my so-so undergrad grades at Princeton weren’t representative of my intellect and work ethic. As you know, things didn’t work out too badly for me. 🙂
So, what’s my recommendation for you? In my view, if you don’t mind investing the time to earn the Masters in Engineering Management, then you should go for it. You could learn a lot in the program and leverage it to distinguish yourself as an applicant. This would be a chance for you to apply yourself and kill it in the classroom to earn a good GPA. This along with a strong GMAT score could do a lot to make up for the shaky undergrad GPA. Best of all, you can do it without having to pay anything out of pocket. Sounds like a great investment in time that could yield great benefits in the longer term.
Here are a few items to think about as you work through this approach as an option:
- It probably goes without saying that, if you pursue the program at ODU, you need to come out of there with a sparkling GPA and I’m not talking about a B+ average. You’ll want to have a 3.7 (A-) or above GPA in order to prove your chops at the graduate level. The goal here is to show that your undergrad GPA isn’t representative of how you’d perform in an MBA program and, if you don’t show that you can shine in grad school, there would be no reason for an Admissions person to believe that you wouldn’t stumble in B-school. A lot of people are applying to B-school nowadays and many of them will have great undergrad grades, so your competition will be tough. The last thing you want is to look like you won’t be able to handle the academic rigors of business school.
- Getting the Masters degree won’t be all that you need to do to build your applicant profile. You’ll need to do well in your day job, pursue leadership opportunities both at work and outside of work, become involved in activities outside of work, and figure out what your MBA story will be (which is much more difficult than people realize). Doing all of this will be tough when you have to balance it with maintaining your day job and taking graduate classes with a goal of high grades. It isn’t impossible (lots of us have done it), but, given the difficulty, I wanted to raise it as an issue that you must consider as you think through all of this.
- If you decide to get the pre-MBA grad degree, you’ll have to find a way to work it into your story for the purposes of MBA apps. You don’t want it to come across as a “get me into B-school” gimmick because that would counteract any positive impact that you could gain from it. There should be a story that somehow involves the idea of engineering management, whether it has to do with you wanting to work in a Tech in a leadership role or maybe in a Manufacturing environment. Whatever the story is, you have to make it make sense for you to have gotten a Masters in Engineering Management and then to be making an attempt to get an MBA.
- This last point probably goes without saying, but you have to absolutely kill it on the GMAT to complete the recovery/redemption story that proves your undergrad grades to not be representative of your intellect and possible performance in business school. Getting a 700+ would definitely hammer home that story. Something in the 670-700 range could work too, but getting your score as high as possible is crucial. Doing so would change you from the applicant with janky undergrad grades into the military guy who already has a grad degree and has a killer GMAT score. In other words, it will totally change your applicant profile for the top MBA programs.
I hope that the above commentary was helpful as you think through the choice ahead of you. If you have any lingering questions after reading all of this, let me know.
Take care and good luck with your decision.
Marquis
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