Handicapping Your Odds Of Getting In

Mr. Banker

 

  • 750 GMAT
  • 3.45 GPA
  • Undergraduate degree in economics from Tufts University
  • Passed CFA level I and will sit for CFA II in June
  • Work experience includes two-plus years working as an associate at a top investment bank, rotating through several areas of the bank; currently work on an internal consulting team that helps to increase the profitability of the bank’s businesses
  • Considered a top performer at a bank where the current management all has top five business school MBAs or other advanced degrees and will provide support in application process
  • Extracurricular involvement includes raising money for cancer research, member of a young professionals group that works with local charities, former college sprinter and social chair of my fraternity, Eagle Scout
  • “Will switching jobs prior to 2013 application seriously hurt my story and chances for acceptance? Roles I am considering are in Risk and Equity Research”
  • “Does including the fraternity line on résumé hurt or help me?”
  • Applying in 2013 for 2014 enrollment
  • 25-year-old white male

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 30% to 40%

Stanford: 20% to 30%

Columbia: 50%

London: 60%+

Wharton: 40% to 40%

Berkeley: 50%+

Chicago: 50%

Sandy’s Analysis: Let me get this right. You now work for a bulge bracket bank in some internal consulting function focused on projects “to increase the profitability of the bank.”  Before that you worked for the same bulge bracket bank in as an analyst in a rotational program. Beyond that, we got a 3.45 from Tufts and a rocking 750 GMAT, with some white bread extras like Eagle Scout and an outstanding track and field career in college.

All that is solid and guys like you often wind up at Wharton and Booth, where this totally checks out on every count. Columbia is totally up your alley and they will go for the New York connections and big GMAT (I assume you work in NYC). Berk should be a green light if you can convince them why you want to go there.

LBS would be a slamdunk but why would you want to do that, I’m not sure. It is much harder to get a job back in the USA.

At HBS and Stanford, this kind of profile can run into problems. They got a lot of finance guys, the bed in which they put all those guys to bed is big but getting smaller, and compared to standard issue finance guys there, you do not have an A+ job (that would be select PE shops or sterling gigs at bulge banks in Investment Banking per se, not internal consulting, which is considered one small notch below that in terms of selectivity. Add that to a so-so GPA at a so-so feeder school, and you begin to ask, “What else is driving me in?” In your case, not much. As noted, you got white bread extras, which are solid but not sizzling in terms of leadership, mission and hipness (to adcoms).

You asked, seeming to sense this yourself,  “Will switching jobs prior to 2013 application seriously hurt my story and chances for acceptance? Rolls I am considering are in Risk and Equity Research?”  Hmmm, if you get into a client-facing gig at bulge bracket bank, e.g. what most people consider regular investment banking, that could help, but you might have to stay there a bit and apply during second year of that. Risk and Equity Research are better and more selective gigs than your current one, and one year there might increase your odds a small bit. It would certainly not hurt, unless you PO’d some potential recommenders.

Belonging to a frat, another question you asked, is neither here nor there on a application, and being social chair is a small plus. I would not omit it. In your case it is part of the picture: you are a smart, white, well meaning, accomplished, Eagle Scout who runs marathons for charities, with silver not golden jobs and schooling. In order to make that add up to HBS (I’m not seeing Stanford in the cards here at all), you need a rocket assist, which I am not seeing here.

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