Handicapping Your Shot At a Top Business School

Ms. Sotheby’s

• 690 GMAT
• 3.4 Grade Point Average
• Undergraduate degree from Barnard College
• Work experience at Sotheby’s
• Extracurricular involvement in art

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School: Less than 50%

Stanford: Less than 40%

Wharton: Less than 50%

Chicago Booth: 60%

Columbia: 60%+ if early decision

Kellogg: 60%

Sandy’s Analysis: “HBS has a pot for this kind of cream but it is pretty small and usually requires a higher GPA. Other schools might fall for the glamour and imagine on their websites in front of an old master painting, as an implicit advertisement saying, ‘there are more than just wonks and nerds here.’ Booth goes for this type, and if the application were solid and the PowerPoint was tingling, well, why not? I go for this type myself.”

Twin Brothers From India

First Brother:

• 740 GMAT
• 3.5 Grade Point Average in U.S. terms
• Undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology
• Work experience at INFOSYS and Dell Computer as engineer
• Average extracurricular activities

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School: 50%

Wharton: 65+%

Columbia: 70% if early admission

Tuck: 80%

Chicago Booth: 80%