Handicapping Your Dream School Odds

Mr. Early Start Changer

• 750 GMAT
• 3.9 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in music business from a low-ranked Christian college (home-schooled; started and finished college two years early)
• 4.0 Graduate GPA
• Master of accountancy from Vanderbilt’s Owen Business School
• Work experience includes two years in the audit practice of a Big Four firm
• Spending next six months (in Germany and in a developing nation) with a mission organization in a non-leadership role
• Extracurriculars include being an English tutor for immigrants and various small but enjoyable volunteer experiences
• 23-years-old
• “Although being a CPA was a great first job, I’d love to work towards becoming a social entrepreneur with an impact in developing nations. I’m on the younger side, but getting an MBA now would open doors to my ultimate goals.”

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School: 40% to 60%

Wharton: 60+%

Chicago: 60+%

Dartmouth: 70% (convince them you want to go)

Berkeley: 60% (convince them you want to go)

Yale: 70% to 80% (convince them you want to go)

Sandy’s Analysis: Schools love hi-testing, corn-fed innocents (or innocent seemings) like you, especially ones who have the sitzfleish to survive Big Four hell. Sitzfleish? (calling Linda ! or you can look it up . . . .kinda means “can sit on a chair for hours and get it done” — one of the 100 most common Yiddish words, the way Eskimos have 40 words for snow). The missions you refer to will matter, if this is LDS (Mormons, for you clueless folks), those are respected by schools. If you are doing this with some other organization, well, its size and pedigree will make a difference, as will how hard the gig is to get. See my remarks to Tchotchke Girl on the same issue.

You say: “I’d love to work towards becoming a social entrepreneur with an impact in developing nations.” That works but you need to support it as much as possible by stuff you have actually done as a base, given that this is a real switcheroo. It would also help if you had recommenders saying that that is what you want to do, and alluding to stuff you have already done.

“Various small but enjoyable volunteer experiences” brother, you are really going to have to milk those. If you somehow, by dint of personal story, recommendations, and events in your life, come off as just a rare, winning type, full of pep and promise, that can sometimes be enough, and that seems supported by the record so far. But one or two marquee accomplishments would really help. “Interned with the firm in India for 2 months before starting full-time in the U.S.” Try to get a story out of that as well.