What Are Your Odds Of Getting In

Mr. Finance

• 710 GMAT
• 3.7 GPA
• Undergraduate degree from Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada.
• Work experience includes three years at J.P. Morgan on the fixed income desk managing corporate pension plans; currently senior product management associate at PIMCO
• Extracurricular involvement includes alumni mentoring programs and intramural sports.
• 27-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian male

Odds of Success:

Harvard Business School:  25% to 35%

Chicago: 30% to 50%

Wharton: 40+%

Columbia: 50% to 60%

Sandy’s Analysis: Columbia early admission should be very doable  given solid stats, blue chip work history and focus on one of their strengths (finance). PIMCO is a real solid place to apply from ever since Bill Gross, the CEO, started appearing on TV and Mo El-Erian, the number two guy at PIMCO, ditched leading the Harvard endowment to go back there (he is also on TV a lot).

HBS takes kids from Pimco but they gotta be more interesting than you (see comments on last guy).  Wharton is like 40+ percent, with impactful execution. They would like the Pimco brand and the rest is in line.

If you are applying to Columbia, it is real important to take the tour, and show a commitment to New York, like by living there in the first place.  I know, you said early decision, which is one way to show commitment. Dual degree with public policy? What’s with that? It just does not compute with the rest of your story.

NYU should happen, Chicago is 50+. You are in their wheelhouse. Ahem, one assumes you will apply to those other schools if you do not get into Columbia ED, and if you do, you will attend.