What Are Your Odds of Getting In?

Mr. Tae Kwon Do

  • 710 GMAT
  • 3.33 GPA
  • Undergraduate and Master’s Degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan
  • Work experience includes three years with Merck Pharmaceuticals as a staff engineer.
  • Extracurricular involvement is limited but have a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
  • “I have not spent too much time narrowing my schools. I could use some help with this to be honest. I like the idea of schools with large global networks.”
  • 25-year-old male

Odds of success:

Harvard: 10%

MIT: 20% to 30%

NYU: 30% to 40%

Columbia: 20% to 30%

Northwestern: 20+%

Wharton: 20%

Duke: 30%

Chicago: 20+%

Michigan: 30% to 40%

Sandy’s Analysis: What we got here is low-ish grades, an OK GMAT, an elite major, and a job at major Pharma, plus what seems to be nothing else too interesting.  This is not a jagged little pill, like the other guy, this is a solid tablet (Merck and Biomedical Engineering) which had the potential to be Oxycontin and turned out to be (low grades, so-so GMAT, lack of excitement) Advil.

You are not getting into HBS: they go for the buzz. You got an outside shot at Sloan, since they go for Merck and can swallow the rest, and they don’t care about you having few if any extras, You seem in line at Fuqua, Ross, and Kellogg (you might have to up the leadership there). Wharton might be looking for Demerol instead of aspirin, and it might turn on what your Pharma competition is like there. Let’s call that your reach. NYU, dunno, man, that should not be hard.  If you take out HBS, which is a real long shot, your selection is fine, and your dreams can come true at all of those schools.

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