Assessing Your Odds of Getting In

Mr. International

  • 720 GMAT  (77% Quant)
  • 3.4 GPA
  • Undergraduate degree in engineering from a German university
  • 3.14 Master’s GPA
  • Graduate degree in engineering from an Ivy League school in the U.S. (drop in GPA due to culture shock)
  • Work experience includes two years at a top-tier U.S. bank, initially in IT followed by working as a quant on the trading desk for four years in New York and London
  • Extracurricular involvement as a board member of the alumni association of my undergraduate university
  • Applied to Wharton R2 for class of ’13 and was rejected after being put on the summer waitlist.
  • Goal: To become chief operating officer at a top financial services firm or to start my own firm supplying risk analytics
  • 27-year-old Indian with vast international experience having studied in India, Germany, Australia and the U.S.

Odds of Success:

Wharton: 30-35+%

Stanford: 10%

Harvard: 10%

Chicago: 30+%

MIT: 30%

Northwestern: 30+%

Columbia: 25%

Sandy’s Analysis: You don’t need any help from me. It is all here. You got on Wharton’s summer waitlist doing what you did last year. Just apply there again, and apply to schools which are less selective. In your case that could include MIT, since they like quants, although not quants with a 77% Quant on their GMATs.  Columbia might be hard for stat reasons as well, although you fit their finance profile.

My advice this past summer would have been Columbia Early Decision. That would have maxed out your chances for a Top-5 school. You are not getting in to Stanford or HBS, for reasons you note, although not age per se. It’s the six to seven years experience in finance IT and trading they don’t like. The traders who get into H and S usually have solid-gold pedigrees in terms of schooling, stats, and GMATs.

I think Wharton is going to be hard, nothing seems improved. At any rate, when you apply there again, try to come up with improvements. Booth and Kellogg should be doable.

Handicapping Your MBA Odds–The Entire Series

Part I: Handicapping Your Shot At a Top Business School

Part II: Your Chances of Getting In

Part III: Your Chances of Getting In

Part IV: Handicapping Your Odds of Getting In

Part V: Can You Get Into HBS, Stanford or Wharton?

Part VI: Handicapping Your Dream School Odds

Part VII: Handicapping Your MBA Odds

Part VIII: Getting Through The Elite B-School Screen

Part IX: Handicapping Your B-School Chances

Part X: What Are Your Odds of Getting In?

Part XI: Breaking Through the Elite B-School Screen

Part XII: Handicapping Your B-School Odds

Part XIII: Predicting Your Odds of Getting In

Part XIV: Handicapping Your MBA Odds

Part XV: Assessing Your Odds of Getting In

Part XVI: Handicapping Your Odds of Getting In

Part XVII: What Are Your Odds of Getting In

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