Client Case Study: Ling
Ling was one of those grad school candidates you had to get to know to really appreciate. Looking at just her GPA and GMAT score doesn’t give you the full picture.
She was certainly aware of this fact when she began the application process — her GPA was a 3.22 thanks to a few rough semesters, and her GMAT score was just a 660. She also had a big red flag on her record: She was in her school’s Honors Program and then was dismissed from it in her junior year.
But during school, she’d also amassed a lot of experience making her a more well-rounded applicant, including more than 500 hours of community service and two study abroad trips, all while working multiple jobs.
She found The Art of Applying®, found it to be a responsive group of people who could help her, and she committed to our Application Accelerator® program. During her Assessment Call, our team recommended that she apply to the Duke Master of Management Studies program — a 10-month graduate program designed for recent graduates looking to jump start their careers. After conducting further research, Duke’s MMS program became Ling’s first choice and what she considered to be her “reach” school.
As she notes, “I didn’t know how to pull the pieces together, and even something as simple as just getting organized, that was really big. Just having someone…to look it over… and mentor you through the process? That was really big.”
Ling worked with our team over many months, and was delighted when the acceptance letter from Duke arrived.
Start Date: July 2018 | End Date: May 2019
Applicant Information
22 years oldAttended City University of New YorkB.A. in Marketing GPA: 3.22GMAT: 660
Acceptances
Duke Fuqua School of Business Master of Management Studies Program
Attending
Duke Fuqua School of Business Master of Management Studies Program
Notable Quotes
Ling began to understand how we at The Art of Applying® care more about simply getting you signed up; we want to make sure you are financially prepared:
“It was surprising to me. Actually, as I was filling out the things that asked how will you fund this … I feel like most companies are not interested in how you will fund this [the fees of working with the company], it was more like, will you have the money, and if you have the money, okay we’re going to take it … the fact that my parents had to be there … I thought that was really great, because it shows getting into grad school is this whole experience, this whole process. It’s not just, ‘We’re going to give you the guidance and you’re going to do this.’ It’s a big thing, it’s more than just getting into school; this is your life.”
Ling was concerned about how to create a successful application:
“I really didn’t know how I was going to explain to colleges … I got kicked out [of the Honors Program]. So that was a big thing. The second big thing was just how to explain that I didn’t have any relevant work experience. I had internships, but they weren’t in marketing, so I didn’t know how to explain that. I didn’t know how to explain the fact that my GPA wasn’t over 3.5. Also, I think I understood what needed to be done; I just didn’t know how to go about it. I didn’t know how to pull the pieces together, and even something as simple as just getting organized, that was really big. Just having someone to help you to do the work and having someone to look it over … and mentor you through the process? That was really big.”
Ling was grateful to have the support of the community of other applicants that our program provides:
“There’s also the support system because I was the only one amongst my friends who were applying to business school at this time. So, it was really like, I’m by myself and I don’t know anyone else who’s going through this. So, just to build that community around you, I think that was also really, really huge.”
Our guidance helped Ling understand that she was more competitive for MMS programs than MBA programs:
“We started coming up with a plan, on what was the GMAT score that I should strive to reach for, what was going to help offset my failures, what to highlight in my applications, and then also something as simple as figuring out which schools to apply for. I remember originally coming into this, I was applying for a lot more like MBA programs rather than MMS programs, and that’s a big thing, because I didn’t really know the difference.”
Ling learned it was important to show up and put in the work if she wanted great results:
“They’re not there to write your essay. They’re there to help maybe fix up your wording, they’re there to help give you more direction, to tell you what you need to elaborate more on and what you need to take away. They will be there to help you maybe cut down your essay from 1000 words to 500. But ultimately, you are the one. You have to be the one to put in the work … I asked [my consultant] on my Breakthrough Call, who doesn’t succeed, who doesn’t get into schools, and he said, ‘The people who don’t do anything or expect us to do everything.’”
Ling reflected positively on choosing The Art of Applying®: “I think that if you do end up choosing The Art of Applying®, you’re in very, very good hands, because you’re actually with a company that cares about you, and it’s more than just about the transaction.”
