Assessing Your Odds Of Getting In

Ms. Oil & Gas

740 GMAT (Q46, V46)
3.59 GPA
Undergraduate degree in marketing from Missouri State University
Work experience includes three and one-half years at a large oil and gas equipment manufacturer in Houston; one year in a rotational program moving between various business units and functions, then to a permanent position as a marketing representative for a business unit; then moved after nine months to a financial analyst role
Extracurricular involvement as president of my sorority for two years; led a United Way fundraising campaign for my business unit for two years; also taught after-school apprenticeships through Citizen Schools for one year
Goal: To pursue a strategy position at a Fortune 100 company.
26-year-old white female

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 30% to 40%

Dartmouth: 50+%

Northwestern: 50+%

MIT: 50+%

Sandy’s Analysis: Lots to like including your 740 GMAT, very solid and strategic career, acceptable extras, and being a woman at a “large oil and gas equipment manufacturer in Houston” which can always be spun as a fish out of water story –it never gets old as a trope, e.g. woman working in Texas gas biz.

A lot will depend on what HBS and other schools think of that company, and whether it is a household name. The 3.59 from Missouri State (backed by nifty 46/46 740 GMAT) is totally solid and gets you access to the “diamond in the rough” trope as well (at HBS, Tuck and Sloan, Missouri is considered the rough). Also, your entire story fits tightly together, including a rotational program, then doing marketing, then doing financial analysis and using the marketing background to add context to the financial reporting– real rich, sticky, solid stuff.

MIT will admit almost any woman with a 740 GMAT and OK other stuff with serviceable execution. I’d say this story also works well at Kellogg and Tuck. HBS admits and rejects folks like you depending on what they think of company (a bit), execution and recommendations, and not blowing the interview. You got a real shot everyplace. Do not waste two years in some math grad school.