Poets and Quants

” I know I should do a year or two of civilian work before applying I have
a few options that have been presented to me and I’d like to know which
is the best one to increase my admission chances.”

Why?  If your goal is to get an MBA, it sounds like you’ve got enough work experience to write some good essays.

I’m a military applicant myself, and while visiting top schools I came across several students who were enlisted first, then went to MBA programs after finishing their bachelors.

Also, a full-time program is a perfect transition from the military as it’s just like another PCS, otherwise you’re looking to move once for your civilian job, then move again for school.  Just a though.

WE ARE…

26-year-old Asian-American female
GMAT: 720 (first try)
Undergraduate GPA: 3.8 (International Relations, Brown University)
Graduate GPA: 3.7 (Ed.M Harvard University, Educational Technology Program)

Experience:
Fulbright Fellowship in Taiwan 2008-2009 school year
NPR intern summer 2008
Health reporting fellowship for KQED San Francisco (flagship NPR station)
2 years at non-profit communications firm consulting for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Now working in communications at a major health foundation in California
Grew up working in mother’s tailoring business (yeah, lady entrepreneurs!) but not first in family to attend college

Target schools: Stanford, Harvard, Haas, Yale, or anywhere with strong social enterprise program
Particularly interested in public health and labor issues. Also interested in news/media industry and design. Considering joint MPP/MBA or MPH/MBA

Mr. Byrne and Ms. Kreisberg,
I hope you’re still taking submissions.

Here’s my profile.

Age: 28
White Male

GMAT: mid-700s (expected)

GPA: 3.73 B.A. in History with a minor in Political Science from the University of Missouri.
 
Work: – 3 years as an English teacher in Russia(Siberia and Moscow); 4 years as an administrative officer in the Marine Corps [leaving as a captain; was used as a liaison officer with the JSDF for a military exercise in Hokkaido and was an "intern" at the Japanese National Diet (it was really a PR campaign, putting young, amicable lieutenants in a parliamentarian's office for a  few weeks), worked as a liaison with the Cambodians in a cooperative military exercise; deployed 80 selected personnel to assist in the Tohoku Earthquake disaster relief in mainland Japan]  
Extracurriculars: -Pro-am MMA fighter, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai competitor, still occasionally volunteer to teach English,   SCUBA diving, Rock climbing [I noticed concerns about depth and breadth of hobbies -- all of these activities are habitual, taking place on a weekly basis.  It is broad, but I legitimately devote myself to all of them.  Fighting takes the bulk of my leisure time though.]
Language Ability:  Fluent in Russian, Upper Intermediate in Japanese, Elementary in Chinese, Pre-Intermediate (mainly because I forgot it over 7 years) in German
Goals:

I will admit, I am largely ignorant when it comes to finance and similar pursuits.  I’m interested in any career that is fast-paced, dynamic, and thoroughly international.  Obviously I will have some sort of cohesive narrative 
Target Schools:

LBS, Wharton, INSEAD
 

I have extensive international experience, just not in business.  I’ve basically been gone since 2005.  I’ve lived in Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Japan.  I’m taking a year off to decompress after the military (believe me, it’s needed) and, more importantly, to master Mandarin.  I’ll be living in Beijing for a year starting in February and seeing if I can’t also work at an NGO or volunteer somewhere.
I’m concerned about my lack of business experience, and for that reason the longer programs at Wharton and LBS seem like a better fit than INSEAD, where I would assume one needs some background to keep up.  I’m drawn to these schools because of their language requirements or instruction, as well as the international placement of their graduates.  That’s my reasoning anyway.  If this series is still ongoing, I’d greatly appreciate an analysis of my shots at getting into these schools.  Thank you.

I am a current senior in the business school of a second tier university (peer schools are Duke, Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, UVA, USC, etc) with 3.56 GPA. I am choosing between an investment banking job at a bulge bracket in NY or a consulting analyst job (think Deloitte, McKinsey, Accenture). I hope to go to a top MBA program in 2015. What do you think I should do to bolster my chances? I am asking about which job but also what else I need to do (other than get 700+ on GMAT)? If I take the investment banking job, it will be very difficult to be involved with extracurricular activities. I play a club sport in college, am a Board member for an undergraduate consulting organization, and have tutored high-risk middle and high school students in the past. I hope to one day work to expand corporate philanthropy in education or start my own social enterprise (or both!). Thank you so much!

Either job would set you up nicely for a world-class, top-ranked MBA program. I would tend to favor the consulting job, however, because the growth of consulting in recent years has helped business schools offset a severe decline in financial and Wall Street jobs. Recent scandals on the street haven’t helped the image of Wall Street. Others may disagree here (and I would invite you to weigh in), but I would go the consulting route because I perceive that to be slightly less risky for the above reasons.

Sandy and John,

I would love to hear an assessment of my profile. I haven’t seen very many profiles like mine discussed so this would help tremendously! Choice of SchoolsHBS/Wharton/Kelloggs/Booth/Columbia/Stern/Haas
Education
Undergraduate: Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering from a Tier 2 school in IndiaGPA: 4.0 Graduated 2008
Graduate Degree: Masters in Engineering Management, Duke University GPA: 3.2( Bad Planning, first time in a US School) Graduated 2009
Work Experience: Apple, Inc.: Apple Retail Leadership Development Program(2 years): 24 month immersion into leading and operating Apple Retail stores. In-depth exposure and leadership experience in strategy and operations. Experience launching products, leading teams of 50-60, and store ops. Project and Internship experiences with Nokia, Ernst and Young, and PwC. Left Apple in July to move back to India. Now looking for a job with a successful telecom company or a consulting company(Retail services). In the meantime, working as a Manager with a Telecom start-up in India.
GMAT: Yet to give. Assume 720-750GRE:1450 25 year old Indian Female6. Extracurriculars: Nothing crazy extraordinary here. Lot of leadership experience. Have been Duke’s Alumni Ambassador for applicants. Social chair for my program at Duke( lead team of 12 to organize some quite large scale events). Led logistics team(team of 10) during undergrad for event management.

Look forward to hearing from you guys!

Hi Sandy,

So curious to know my likelihood for acceptance (maybe not HBS) but possibly wharton, booth or kellog..heres my stats

undergrad GPA: 3.6
gmat score: 680
Gender: Female
B.S in Management w minors in Finance, Economics and Consulting
Graduate of Purdue U.
Employment: Three years with Sears Holdings current position is Sr. Pricing Analyst

Extracurricular:
Volunteer consultant for the arts
supporting local business (boutiques) with strategy and marketing

Hi John, I’d be grateful for an evaluation of my odds for acceptance at the top tier schools. I’m finishing off a 10 yr military pilot training commitment and my concern is that I will be older than most of the other applicants while not having any formal business experience.

31/M
B.S. Aeronautical Engineering, USAF Academy, 3.87 GPA
770 GMAT
(90% Q, 99% V percentiles)
Experience: 10 yrs USAF as F-16 pilot

Cheers,
Anthony

Hi Sandy,

My profile is a bit different than the average bschool applicant and I’d like to find out if this is something that would work in my favor or hurt my chances of getting admitted.

I’m a 34 year old female mid-career economist working in international development (at the World Bank in DC).

I work with the highest levels of government (prime ministers, finance and trade ministers) and private sector in sub-Saharan African countries, negotiating and structuring sovereign debt. I spend 3-4 months a year traveling through Africa.

I am a citizen of Azerbaijan and fluent in a number of languages

Economics undergrad from the top university in Azerbaijan ( top 10% of class ) and master’s in international economics from a top state university in the US (3.4 GPA)

GMAT: 740

Objective: harnessing the leadership and negotiation skills acquired through my 8-year work experience for sustainable business solutions in emerging markets

extra-curricular: former pro-tennis player on the European circuit, established an NGO that taught tennis to kids from the slum areas of Baku city

What do you think my chances are of getting in to a top bschool right now? What could I improve on to increase my chances?

Thank you very much, looking forward to your thoughts.

Dear Sandy

I really appreciate your reviews – great insights of adcoms heads! I plan to apply this fall for the 2014 intake. It would be great to get some advice from you.

Profile:

720 GMAT (on second try – first try 660), 114 TOEFL

27 years old male German

2.9 GPA in International Management from largest private university in Germany

7 Years with BP Oil (3 years post grad) at the time of enrollment
- Lead Pricing Analyst for the UK (most recent – 1.5 years at time of enrollment)
- 1.5 years as Project Manager responsible for customer service transfer (Germany)
- 4 years work and study program (studies funded by BP) in rotation

9 years voluntary work for the Federation EIL after own exchange experience in the USA for a high school year in 2003/2004. Various accomplishments during this period: Awarded honorary ambassador of South Korea for contributions on human rights in conferences and lectures.

Why MBA? Move into strategy consulting

Target schools: Kellogg (Northwestern), Booth, Duke, INSEAD, Goizueta (Emory)

Currently prefer the one year programs (Kellogg and INSEAD). The Booth and Duke curriculum are great options due to flexibility and concentrations. Goizueta (Emory) is my safe choice.

Thank you!

Gone through several links and didn’t really see anything about marketing backgrounds.

720 GMAT
3.6 GPA from top undergrad business school, Marketing major
3 years in product innovation for clients like P&G/Unilever/Pepsi/Nestle at a large marketing consulting firm
Global experience on projects in LATAM, Asia, Europe, promoted every year
Strong extracurriculars post-undergrad, not too many during undergrad
First generation college-grad with immigrant parents (how do you write about this?)
24 years old

Interested in:
Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia

I like your choice with UNC-Flagner School of B due to its geographical
location with Research Triangle Park and its bent on biotech/life
sciences. Are you familiar with the research done at Wayne State by Professor Chang or Chung in
Detroit on Metabolic Pathways—less side effects for pharmacological formulas-anywho…U of M-Annie
may be a good look due to its’ Ann Arbor Sparks incubation program, but I
would look at UNC real hard and even Duke’s Fuqua for that matter!

Saluting! USMC 3 years 1986-1989 160 Verbal/150 Quant Master’s of Sc MGMT 6 AW. I am pursuing a DBA sir. What was your writing score?

Agreed! LOL Legacy has its latent affects!

I don’t know if you speak Spanish-I learned all Hispanics don’t speak the language-but if you do with the demographics shifting the way they are…you are in for a great ride. Being able to translate sales from Marketing in any sector but particularly in the U.S. will be a major asset for someone like you. Understanding the data: education vs. disposable income-though these seem mutually exclusive within segments this is not true. Trust me, leadership in the next 20 years is not going to be blue blood ivy league—its going to be who can stop the balance sheet from bleeding!

What do my colleagues of the future think is more demonstrative of leadership and high performance in general, in terms of work groups and teams: Verbal Acuity, Quantification Ability, or Writing Prowess! You must rank ordinal 1,2, or 3 (you quants should like that). Rank Excellent, Good, Satisfactorily (for us non quants!). I Will go first.

Verbal = Excellent (1)

Writing = Good (2)

Quant = Satisfactory (3)

Hi Sandy,

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my profile:

- 31 year old Male
- 710 GMAT (69% Q, 97% V)
- 3.3 GPA from Boston University: While there was Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff of the Student Union. Additionally I founded a large cross university group (30 Boston area colleges involved) to act as Political Action Committee representing students. Lastly I founded a group to run the Boston Marathon in support of a local women’s shelter
- BA in Political Science and BS in Broadcast Journalism: Graduated 1 year early to work on the 2004 presidential campaign.
- Worked for the last 8.5 years at a Fortune 250 Diversified Financial Services firm in a number of sales roles, including financial advisor, district manager (leading a team of 14 FA’s) and associate branch manager (leading a team of 28 FA’s). The last 2 years I’ve spent as Director of National Sales in our corporate office leading 3 separate teams.

- EC: Volunteer at 2 different non-profits as well as a mentor through the the Everybody Wins Children’s Literacy charity

Lastly, what makes me unique is I’m only considering distance learning or online MBA’s due to recently having a child and earning a very good income. I’m also in between a regular or EMBA based on my age and experience. I’m considering UVA, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, IE and the joint LBS/Columbia program.

Any thoughts?

Sandy,

I am not sure if you are evaluating profiles anymore. If you are – here is an interesting one for you.
I am a 27 Year old Female of Indian Origin. Coming from modest middle class family in India. Parents barely graduated from no name colleges in India. No one in my family has stepped outside the country for studying or for working before me or after me.
I helped run the family business from the age of 14, after my father passed away, and Mother needed help, and finally left the country to pursue Undergraduate degree.
I received my Undergraduate degree from Third Tier US state university in the midwest, on Full Scholarship (Chemistry and Plastics Engineering- dual major – gpa 3.6). I was the only International student in the entire class to have the Undergraduate Research Assistantship – which paid for the University and Living expenses.
Worked several Jobs through the Undergraduate degree along with the research. Won intra college awards for undergraduate research.
Masters Degree from an Ivy League (Think Columbia, Cornell, Yale) in Operations Research (3.1 gpa). Graduated in the recession job market of 2009 with a Consulting profile in a No Name small Consulting firm. However, through the same consulting firm, I am assigned to work at Large Fortune 100 Financial sector companies in NYC/ Wall Street, on long term IT implementation projects (think Wall Street investment banks and insurance companies). Currently on a long term consulting assignment in the world’s largest Insurance provider company, as a Lead Business Analyst/ Product manager to implement a financial IT product. No Direct report, but I am personally responsible for the successful delivery of the project, hence responsible for indirectly leading experienced Developers to build a successful product. I act as a Liaison to the Business side to provide vision to the product and ensure timely and successful delivery. I also lead the Testing efforts of the new product, and eventually the successful release to users.

Extracurriculars are weak: Leadership roles in Ethnic and International student clubs in Undergraduate. Research and part time work during undergraduate.
Nothing during Masters. Currently involved with one Ethnic group NGO, but no leadership role.
Mentor 4 College students in India.
Love travelling (unfortunately started travelling only after I started earning at the age of 24, hence a long way to go before I can become a world traveller)

Gmat: Low score of 680, debating whether I should retake.

Goal: I want to leverage my Technical and leadership skills to get into the Executive track of some Fortune 500 company IT firm, or IT Division of some Financial Services company and eventually head Technology.

Applied last year to Harvard, Columbia, Wharton and got Dings before interviews.

I am really interested in LBS, Kellogg, Stanford. And intend to re-apply to Harvard, Columbia Wharton. What would be my chances? and how can I leverage my story? Also, I know I am in the age range of an EMBA, but that is not what I want to do. Becaus of my Masters, and a Late start in Kindergarten, I only really have a total of 3.5 yrs of Work ex so far.