What Are Your Odds Of Getting In?

Mr. Audit

• 720 GMAT
• 3.72 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in accounting and economics from Tel Aviv University
• Work experience includes three years of service in the Israeli defense force as an intelligence analyst; now work in the audit department of a Big Four firm in Israel focusing on SEC-regulated companies
• Extracurricular involvement as president of the university debating club, a team leader in Junior Achievement Israel, and also did a year of community service during which I was responsible for 100 children
• During my second year in school worked for 9 months as a Psychometric instructor, which is the Israeli equivalent to the SAT, following a 2% mark in that test.
• “Want to get your opinion about moving to the advisory services department – would that make any difference with my acceptance chances?”
• Goal: “Want an MBA in order to get into IB in the states.”
• 25-year-old white male

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 20-30%

Wharton: 40+%

Columbia: 40+%

Chicago: 40+%

Kellogg: 40+%

NYU: 50%

Sandy’s Analysis: It is true that Big Four accounting work in the U.S. is not as highly valued as pure strategy consulting, even for the strategy parts of the Big Four themselves.  However,  Big Four firms, even in audit alone,   in Europe and the Middle East are considered  more selective, and U.S. schools are aware of that, especially in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.

All that said, if you can get out of audit and into some kind of advisory services, do that. Even if it means short gigs in both audit and advisory. Guys like you get into Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg, and Chicago and don’t get in, depending on luck, execution, recommendations, and how you make this all add up. It is even permissible at those places to say you want to transition into finance and banking.

Although I would not say per se that you want to do investment banking in the U.S.

This is the identical issue I raised with the German guy in the first profile this week –you should not appear more interested in becoming a successful U.S. resident than you  are in developing a passion for some substantive business idea or ‘space.’ In terms of applying, develop a passion for an idea and be willing to follow that wherever the chips fall. Say that you are interested in helping companies grow and that could take several forms, including finance, and your substantive interests are x, y z type companies –e.g. companies involved in energy in the Mid-East like 1, 2, and 3 and you admire leaders like Joe Blow, the CFO at Generic Mid-East Company and Joe Blow 2, an investment banker at Generic IB who has worked with companies like x, y, z.

That way it sounds like you are following some passion business schools admire. Given your army background as an analyst, you might say you are interested in high-tech investment banking in Middle East. Regardless of what you actually did, people will believe that an analyst in army intelligence = computers somehow. That story will work all over.

Your chances at HBS will turn on execution, etc. and what they think of the overseas version of your Big Four experience.  As always, how many applicants from the Israeli and European offices of your firm go to HBS per year is an important stat.

For the record, Israeli passport holders at HBS per year now average seven versus three in the years 2001-04.