Yea, my GPA sucked. But I've got that fire. Where do I hedge my bets?

[mtbox]

I have 3 years to build my application to get into the best program I can possibly get into. 

The background: Double major in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at a state school. 2.7GPA with an upwards trend. I was that idiot who was always smart didn't develop study habits then reaped what I sowed. 3 years of research experience in a mid tier lab. No publications. I had a lot of good extracurriculars including captaining a sports team and creating a mentor program, as well as receiving the outstanding student service award for 1000+ hours of volunteering/community involvement my last few years. Other stuff too, including a great senior design project with a big firm. I took the college experience as more of a life thing than academic thing. Through some miracle of timing and charisma I got a job as a design engineer at a top 3 company. I am taking full advantage of the technical/leadership/mentoring opportunities with lots of responsibilities outside of my role, so that's golden.

Current Steps: Taking FE exam. Studying for GRE. Got the time to devote to get a damn near perfect score. I am volunteering, and have two community leadership opportunities lined up. Also going bananas at work. Signing up to get a minor in mathematics at local university to show I can do the math stuff. Meeting with professors to do research in my field on the side.

The need: Get into a dual MBA/MSE program with focus in supply chain management and systems engineering to propel myself into a leadership position in product development.

The question: What is going to be my biggest step to getting into a top 20 school? Should I really be doing research and getting a math minor on the side? If you were fledgling young professional who finally found his penchant for excellence after working for awhile how would you approach this? What is going to bolster my application the most?

Thanks for advice. You rock.

Edited October 27, 2016 by mtbox
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