Married Couple Accepted to Georgetown’s MBA Program and Other Top Schools Despite Low Test Scores
While Greg was completing his MBA at Georgetown on a full scholarship, his wife, Nicki, received her Georgetown acceptance letter for Fall 2020. With two bottles of champagne, one for Greg and one for Nicki, this married power couple celebrates their accomplishments!
“I am beyond excited… I finally got to my number one choice. It’s really amazing,” Nicki shared.
Greg and Nicki had a plan. Greg would attend graduate school first, since Nicki could do her job remotely. To kick off their plan, Nicki encouraged Greg to reach out to The Art of Applying® for a Breakthrough Call. As a chemical engineer, Greg was unfamiliar with the business school admissions process.
“The whole idea of going to business school was foreign to me,” Greg explained. “What kind of essays do I need to write? What kind of skills do I need to showcase? What sort of background or test score do I need to do any of this stuff?” Nicki further explained, “We didn’t have any idea what we were getting into, so we needed help.”
Greg enrolled in the Application Accelerator® program and was one of the first five clients in the program. With help from The Art of Applying®, Greg leveraged his work with the Young Men’s Business League and applied to MBA programs through The Consortium. Greg was successful. He received a full-ride scholarship from The Consortium to Georgetown’s MBA program!
“When I think back, I was really nervous about the whole process and like, not knowing what to do or not knowing if it was right. I would tell myself it is 100% worth it on every front to work with Kaneisha and The Art of Applying®,” Greg explained. “Talking to your consultant and really like working with them. They will work with you to the very end of the deadlines, and they will help you out as much as they possibly can. Throw yourself all in.”
Once Greg graduated, it was Nicki’s turn. Having observed Greg go through the application process, Nicki had an idea of what to expect. She knew she had a lot of good experiences, but she didn’t really know how to showcase them.
“I have a business background, and I obviously had seen Greg’s experience. So, I wasn’t really concerned,” she explained. “But, I have a really demanding full-time job and I knew that I wasn’t going to spend my time looking at all of these different things.”
As far as the application process, both Greg and Nicki said they learned so much about themselves. They also felt supported by consultants and fellow applicants as they went through the Application Accelerator® program.
When it came to writing the essays Nicki had this to say: “I think then when you read that essay prompt, the immediate answer I would give was nowhere near specific… But, that’s the difference between a good application and a great application.”
She further explained, “It is the specificity and I honestly wouldn’t have known that unless [my consultant] pushed me on it.”
Greg had the opposite problem writing his essays. “I valued brevity, and that’s not exactly what you need when trying to tell someone who you are,” he said. “So, I think my consultant was really focused on expanding the narrative.”
Overall, both Nikki and Greg are glad they joined the Application Accelerator® program to complete their MBA applications in a refined and intentional way.
“You know, there’s a quick and easy way to apply to an MBA. It’s super easy to just open an application, send it off and not put any thought or effort into it,” Nicki said. “ But, I think that it makes the difference to have a team around and have experts around you. It saves you so much time and so much headache, the process is already completely emotional and crazy.”
Nicki and Greg both said that one of the biggest strengths of The Art of Applying® was the space to be yourself with your consultants and your fellow applicants.
“It was the best decision we could have made,” Nicki said.
We couldn’t agree more. Congratulations Greg and Nicki!
Applicant Information
Greg
Start Date: May 2017 | End Date: May 2018
- Age: 26 at the time of application
- GRE: 310
- Work Experience: 4 years in engineering
- Undergraduate Major: Chemical Engineering
Acceptances
- Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business
- Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
- University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler
- University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
- University of Washington Foster School of Business
Scholarships
- Georgetown University McDonough School of Business – Full Tuition Scholarship through The Consortium
Nicki
Start Date: February 2019 | End Date: May 2020
- Age: 28
- GPA: 3.6
- GMAT: 650
- Work experience: 6 years in supply chain management
- School: Gonzaga University
- Major: Business Administration
Acceptances
- Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
- University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Notable Quotes
On how the weekly Q&A calls helped them navigate application process with The Art of Applying®:
“The question and answer calls were great because my peers were asking questions that I didn’t even know I had until they were asked. I was very inexperienced with the whole process… They would ask things about, ‘If you need financial aid, how would you go about applying for stuff like that? Or ‘You know, what is the best way to showcase this kind of thing?’ Things like that were questions I had no idea I wanted the answer to those questions.” — Greg
“The weekly calls are something really unique. I think the fact that on a weekly basis, you can get your question answered that week versus like ‘Oh, I have to wait until I talk to my consultant on a long-form.’ or something like that… You don’t have to [only] talk to your own consultant, you can talk to other consultants. And, so it was kind of a ‘This person actually knows the answer to that question let me put you in touch with them.’ Right? So, nobody’s guessing and I think that was really valuable.” — Nicki
On why it’s important to start the application process early:
“The thing about reaching out early is it gives you time to pivot… You get one shot right. I took the GMAT three times. And, I have no problem saying this, the first time I took the GMAT cold I got a 480. Horrible. It was like, ‘Oh no, my dreams are gone.’ Right. And, so I think don’t wait because it’s clearly not all about the GMAT.” — Nicki
“I feel like a lot of the MBA application process is about the right fit, so the more time you have, the more time you can understand yourself and the schools and really assess fit and build that into your application.” — Greg
On how The Art of Applying® saved Greg time and gave him the motivation he needed to finish those applications:
“If you are applying to an MBA, you likely have a full-time job that you’re also doing while applying. So, you have a full-time job that you have to manage, you have the essays that you have to do, you have your letters of recommendation, your score, all of these things that are overwhelming and take more time than you think they will… I probably went through eight, nine, or ten iterations of some of my essays and I took the GRE and GMAT combination four or five times. Right? So, it takes the inner iterative process, and starting early and doing everything at the same time helps get your mind around what it takes to get into a top school.” — Greg
On how Nicki learned from Greg’s experience applying to MBA programs:
“The reason we chose Greg to go first was because I could work remotely and he couldn’t. There’s probably logistical reasons like that for everybody… I really don’t think I would have gotten to where I am without seeing him go through it. I almost got to do it with training wheels right before I did it myself. And, he made mistakes, right, and I made mistakes. But, I got to learn from his mistakes and you know, it was great too because he could read my essays as well. He could give me feedback as well and things like that. So I thought it was positive.” — Nicki
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