Handicapping Your Shot At A Top MBA

Ms. Education

• 720 GMAT
• 3.5 GPA
• Undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia
• Work Experience includes two years in higher education consulting, focusing on business and finance issues facing top-tier universities, and one year as an analyst at a boutique consulting firm specializing in philanthropic investment strategy.
• Extracurricular involvement as the three-year president of an annual fundraising event at university; chaired the giving campaign for my graduating class; led a 200-volunteer program that matched students with high-need local schools). In past two years, I’ve mentored an at-risk middle schooler, performed social work case management with the homeless, and am involved with a pro bono consulting group
• Goals: “To bring the rigor of business and management principles to higher education management, particularly in the community college space.”
• 24-year-old woman

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 35+%

Stanford: 20%

Wharton: 35+%

Dartmouth: 45+%

Northwestern: 50%

Sandy’s Analysis: Lots of pep here, in a good way. Your 3.5 at UVA and 720 GMAT are good enough for most places. A lot of your outcomes may turn on work experience, which is hard to sniff out from your descriptions. You say, “2 years in higher education consulting, focusing on business and finance issues facing top-tier universities; 1 year as an analyst at a boutique consulting firm specializing in philanthropic investment strategy.” HMMMM, that could mean a good deal in terms of selectivity, visibility to schools, etc. And, ahem, which of those jobs is CURRENT?

It would be better in terms of your story if the current job is the higher ed consulting one, although I am not sure what exactly, “focusing on business and finance issues facing top-tier universities” means. I am familiar with consulting firms, which focus on managing/advising on university endowments and those are well thought of by B- schools. As usual, an easy way for you to answer this question is to look around at where people who had your job wound up going to B-school over the past three years.

Your intense extra-currics will be a plus at most places, especially HBS, Stanford and Kellogg, and so will a career that seems focused on education, universities and community service. I’m less sure about saying you want to focus on community colleges, although that does comport with my usual goal advice– find a space within your space as a nominal focus point. My fear is that most MBA admissions boards may find community colleges infra dig. I’d say you are real interested in finding ways to re-engineer the educational experience to make it accessible and pragmatic, and that could mean working with new models of two-year experiences or four-year or some new paradigm still being born.

The “status” of your current employer is the big unknown in making predictions, but if you are working for a legitimate and recognized player in higher-ed consulting, you got a chance at most top schools, with HBS and Stanford requiring boffo execution, so all your strengths come together.