Handicapping Your Shot At A Top MBA by: John A. Byrne on January 27, 2012 | | 75,187 Views January 27, 2012 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Mr. Digital Media 720 GMAT 3.5 GPA Undergraduate degree in economics from top 50 national liberal arts school Work experience includes two years for an AOL-owned digital media brand website as an editor, one year (current) in public relations for a regional university Extracurricular involvement as a high school math tutor, editor-in-chief of my college newspaper, and top 5% national ranking as a college debater Goal: To transition to a top-tier management consulting company with a media practice (focusing on digital/social media strategies) Odds of Success: Wharton: 25% Columbia: 35-40% NYU: 25-40% Maryland: 50+% Sandy’s Analysis: Hmmm, solid-ish stats (3.5/720, Tier 2/3 college) and work history is presentable but thin. To wit, job one, editor of some AOL website, is OK but mildly suspect, although given focus on digital media, a maybe. Your current job, public relations for a regional university, sounds a slip down in both function (despite whatever the truth might be) and status. A lot will depend on how you spin both in terms of forming a platform for your career. Working for any AOL property is an acceptable starting job for someone interested in digital media. The issue will be your current job, which sounds mildly desperate. I’m not seeing this as Wharton, just because you have too many dents, and they tend to get their digital media cohort from Tier-1 colleges plus current work experience with leading digital media companies, like Digitas, Yahoo, Google or leading firms under those headings (advertising, portal, search). You’d be a lot stronger if you had stayed at AOL, although a lot of that depends on exactly what you were doing there. My guess is, there are a lot of cubicle-slave jobs at AOL, and you may have had one of those, but you need to spin it as a wonderful gateway to digital media. Columbia is a maybe, if you string together a good story and apply early decision. NYU is also a maybe. I am not sure how much they are looking for digital media types (someone tell me!). Maryland sure seems solid given your stats alone. Goals are fine, although I would not say “top-tier” digital media consulting per se, especially “top-tier” consulting, which makes you more interested in “top-tier” than consulting. Previous Page Continue ReadingPage 3 of 5 1 2 3 4 5 Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.