Client Case Study: Amanda
Before our client Amanda met our founder and CEO, Kaneisha, she didn’t know much about business school. Amanda had an eclectic work history, from nonprofit work to fundraising, and she even worked for The Art of Applying® for a bit! Once she learned about business school, Amanda started taking pre-MBA classes to prepare.
However, test preparation proved quite tricky for Amanda. She said, “I was doing study groups. I bought all the books and would just spend my entire weekends literally reteaching myself from scratch. I would take these practice tests and nothing was changing. I was getting the equivalent of around a 550 GMAT, no matter what. I put thousands of hours into studying and nothing was changing.”
Amanda worked at her test score over a few years, and she almost let the difficulty cause her to give up on her dream of applying to graduate school. However, she knew she would regret it if she didn’t apply, so she decided to sign up for the Application Accelerator® and get help on the other parts of her application. Regarding her decision to apply, she said, “I’d question the rest of my life, what would have happened if I hadn’t gone for this. There’s still that little voice, even though you love your job, you still want to do this.”
Fortunately, that decision would also help her learn something about herself. After discussing her testing journey with The Art of Applying® team, Kaneisha encouraged her to get tested for a learning disability, and she was eventually diagnosed with ADHD. Once she was diagnosed, she said, “It was such a big weight off my shoulders. I did better on the test after, because I was able to get GRE accommodations. That was the game changer for me.”
Throughout her time with The Art of Applying®, Amanda also realized that a full-time, two-year MBA program might not be the best fit for her. So she set her sights on part-time programs, and she ended up finding the perfect program for her. Amanda was accepted to and now attends the NYU Stern Part-time Langone program!
Throughout the ups and downs of her journey, Amanda learned something significant. She said, “There’s so much else that I bring beyond a test score. I’m still working hard to learn what I need to learn from my classes, even if I might not be the best at statistics or certain subjects.”
If Amanda’s graduate school journey inspires you, why not start your own? Book a Quick Call with our team to learn how to get started: https://theartofapplying.com/quick-call/
Start Date: May 2020 | End Date: June 2021
Applicant Information
Age: 30GPA: 3.5 GRE: 317, V: 163, Q: 154Work experience: Nonprofit, tech marketing and sales, client engagement Undergraduate: Amherst College Major: PsychologyAcceptances
NYU Stern, Part-time Langone programNotable quotes
Amanda’s advice for people feeling discouraged by low test scores or pressure to follow a linear path.
“It’s going to be okay, first and foremost. I think the closer you are to college and the K-12 experience, the more you are used to checking boxes and [you] beat yourself up more for not being able to perfectly do them. For me, now in an academic setting again for the first time in like 10 years, you see that that’s not everything, and the real world doesn’t work by checking boxes necessarily. The real world is a lot messier than that, and you know while you might feel like a mess right now, that is actually a gift in a way, and it’s not you, it’s the system. Know that just because you’re creating your own way through systems, that is okay. It was kind of meant for me to end up on the path that I did because I look back now and I’m like, ‘I love my job, and I would have never discovered this if at 28 I’d gone to business school’. It also freed me up to think about how to create your own life outside of this linear progression that you’re sold through a lot of conditioning growing up.”
Amanda reflects on the benefits of charting her path:
“Being able to see that I’m not dependent on a path shows that I can create my own path. Working with The Art of Applying® showed me that you still can get value from an MBA and help people tell their story even if you’re non-traditional, because people want to create their own way. But that’s okay, and The Art of Applying® can help them tell the best stories. Getting into graduate school is storytelling at the end of the day.”
How Amanda went from spending thousands of dollars and hours studying for the GMAT and GRE to finding out she had ADHD:
“I did all the programs. I did all the group programs. I did everything I could, and Kaneisha said, “Why don’t you go get tested for a learning disability?” And I mean I did well enough in school, and I went to a competitive undergrad. I remember just going online and looking at an ADHD self assessment. I was just at the end of my rope, and so I got evaluated. And it turns out that I had ADHD. It was such a big weight off my shoulders, not even just for the test, but I did do better after, because I was able to get GRE accommodations. That was the game changer for me, even just personally, because I’ve had a lot of careers and it just explained a lot. And also kind of showed me why a two year program wasn’t exactly right for me.”
Amanda discusses how she knew the part-time program was a better fit for her:
“The two year program has such a focus on being purely this academic experience. Versus when you’re in a part time program it’s like you’re able to balance a little more everyday work experience and bring that into the classroom, and that is valued differently versus in the two year program. The two-year program is very academic and linear; and just knowing an ADHD diagnosis your brain doesn’t really work in an extremely linear way.”
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