Handicapping Your Dream School Odds

Mr. C-Level

720 GMAT
172 LSAT
3.9 GPA
Undergraduate degree in finance from ‘new’ PAC-12 public university
Work experience includes four years in private banking/wealth management at a large regional commercial bank
Extracurriculars include heavy involvement in the production of independent and local student films; three years teaching in a religious organization; also launched an ongoing media company
“I hope to integrate marketing and financial knowledge (MBA), as well as legal expertise in entertainment rights and contracts (JD), to land a C-level position within an entertainment/media company”

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School: 40% to 50%

Stanford: 30% to 40%

Wharton: 50+%

Berkeley: 60%

UCLA: 60% to 70%

Duke: 60+%

Columbia: 50+%

Yale: 50+%

Sandy’s Analysis: Has your “Large Regional Commercial Bank” bank ever sent anyone to business school? Look, on the facts, getting into law school should be easy, since that is mostly a numbers game, and yours seem to add up. And law schools will buy your “Man-Friday-to-Irving- Thalberg” Wet Dream, but B-schools are not interested in applicants who dream about policing copyright infringers.

“C-level” as in your charming locution, “land a C-level position within an entertainment/media company” is not a term that should ever appear on an MBA application. “C-section?” Maybe, if you are describing pre-natal leadership traits so precocious that you demanded a stretch role after eight months. My point being, you need to reframe you goals for business school along the lines of leading a media company in the forefront of innovation, new modes of distribution, and new ways of storytelling (esp. new stories about victims, minorities).

You have a mildly offbeat past, coming from private banking at a regional commercial bank and then making indy films? And then all you can say is that you want to be the guy at Paramount who stops trailers and mock-ups from unauthorized sites on YouTube, or in your own words, “as well as legal expertise in entertainment rights and contracts?” Dunno, sounds a bit schizo to me, as if they guy who made Capturing The Friedmans now wanted to join the marketing department of Save The Children.

Okay, let’s just say no one told you the secret handshake, and smart fella that you are, you now got it. A lot will depend, for B-school, on what they think of your job and your bank, what extras are beyond the film stuff, what kind of support your recommenders can give you, and how well you, throughout the application, execute on what I just told you to do.

“Launched a successful and ongoing media/photography/film production company.” Mazel Tov (Oh Linda!!!), but why do you need an MBA? That is what I am not seeing clearly enough here. I’m being tough on you because I’ve seen a lot of similar types get disappointing results. A plus for you could be if your movies actually dealt with B-school pet topics like victims, etc. And I don’t mean hipster band kids who are victims of crack addiction.

Mr. Consultant

750 GMAT
3.67 GPA
Undergraduate degree from Ivy League school
Worked for three years at a “not elite” consulting firm
No noteworthy extracurricular involvement
“Some intangibles around being an immigrant (not from the over represented countries in Asia)”
24-years-old

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School: Less than 20%

Wharton: 30% to 60%

MIT Sloan: 40% to 60+% (if you do some innovation jive and execute solidly)

Sandy’s Analysis: Based on your self-presentation, this is not looking like Harvard or Stanford. There is nothing driving you in, and they will admit guys with similar stats from more elite consulting companies with interesting extras. To the extent you can build up your political identity story and add some extras, maybe. Your stats are real solid, obviously.

Wharton takes guys like you as does Sloan, where by their own admission, extracurriculars don’t count.

Handicapping Your MBA Odds–The Entire Series: