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When I graduated high school I chose to go to a school within driving distance from my home because of a family situation that I had at the time. It has very low admission standards but is an accredited school. I will be graduating after this Fall semester is over. I'll have my degree in accounting and want to pursue a Masters in Accounting degree so that I will have my 150 hrs for the CPA exam. Do I have a shot at getting into the program at Ohio St., Michigan, or Illinois or will I have to use my fall back of WVU. I am planning on moving to that area is why I have chosen those 3 schools as my top 3 choices. I guess the question I am asking is will the fact that I go to a school that isn't very prestigious hurt me in getting into B-school even though my GPA and GMAT are high

Currently attending- Mountain State University in Beckley WV
GPA at graduation- 3.8ish
GMAT 710

Do I have a shot?

Dear DSparks,

Thanks for your note. I must admit, I am a bit confused. You mentioned that you are graduating this year and that you hope to pursue a Masters of Accounting - but then your question is about b-school admissions? Are you asking about your chances at the Accounting Master's programs or about MBA programs? Presumably you'd need to work for a couple of years before applying to b-school...

Despite my confusion on this, I will say that I think you are overemphasizing the undergrad-prestige factor. While your ugrad isn't well known, that alone will not sink your ship as an applicant to business school. It certainly looks like you've done well there - a 3.80 is excellent - and your GMAT is right around the average for admission to top programs, so I see no reason to be overly concerned about this. Obviously, if you had a 3.1 from a lesser known ugrad program, then you might be at a disadvantage - whereas someone with a 3.1 at Yale may be able to ovecome it - but that isn't the case here.

Best of luck,

Graham