Handicapping Your B-School Chances

Mr. Frat Boy

750 GMAT
3.7 GPA
Undergraduate degree from Iowa State in engineering with a business specialization
Work experience includes two years with Samsung in a purchasing/supply chain management role
Extracurricular involvement as leader in a college fraternity, leader of a 200+ member employee group at work, leader for local American Cancer Society, leader in mentoring program for disadvantaged youth
Fluent in Mandarin and working now on Portuguese
23-year-old “non-academic minority” male

Odds of Success

Harvard: 50+%

Stanford: 40+%

Wharton: 60%

MIT: 60+%

Kellogg: 60+%

Chicago: 60+%

Duke: 70+%

Sandy’s Analysis: I don’t know what “non-academic minority” male means, honestly, and if the rest of your application is that screwed up, you can shoot yourself in the foot next to your non-foot.

Otherwise, this is pretty clear-cut. Guys from brand-name companies with three years of work experience in some boring, but important role like purchasing and supply chain, and who also have a 3.7 GPA in an engineering program from yes, even Iowa State with a 750 GMAT, and what sounds like solid and powerful extras, well, guys like you get into H/S/W depending on not screwing up, a bit of luck, serviceable (not brilliant just okay) execution of an application, solid recommendations and a bit more luck, but not much.

You are totally solid on paper, although given what I detect is some chip on your shoulder, you might screw yourself in person, or have that chip on your shoulder emerge in essays, but maybe I exaggerate, and you’re just regular corn-fed Big Ten “non-academic minority” male who got carried away in your note to us.

We forgive you, but don’t get carried away in application execution. Stanford will depend on crafting some “identity politics” story (if you know what that means), and you never know there, but HBS takes guys like you left and right, and so does Wharton. Other places should be slam dunks if you convince them you want to come.

COMMERCIAL MESSAGE: HIRE ME FOR YOUR HBS INTERVIEW, GUYS LIKE YOU CAN SCREW THAT UP, AND THAT IS DEATH BLOW.