What Are Your Chances Of Getting In

Mr. Shot Glass 2+2

• 740 GMAT
• 3.7 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in business from UC-Berkeley
• Work experience includes being a summer associate in 2012 at Boston Consulting Group and a summer associate product marketing manager at Google in 2011; currently own a profitable small shot glass manufacturing business launched in late 2011 with annual revenue a hair under $80,000
• Extracurricular involvement as co-founder of a service organization and president from 2010 to 2011; rock climbing
• Goal: To shape corporate strategy for technology companies either as a consultant, a venture capitalist, or an operating executive in a tech company
•  “I am interested in the HBS 2+2 program, but fear my non-science background will hurt me there. If not 2+2, Stanford, Wharton, Dartmouth, Kellogg or Yale in 2 or 3 years.”
• 21-year-old male Vietnamese.

Odds of Success:

Harvard 2+2: 60+%

Stanford 2+2: 50%

Wharton: 50%

Dartmouth: 50%

Northwestern: 50%

Yale: 60+%

Sandy’s Analysis: IMPORTANT: Stanford has a 2+2 program as well, although they don’t push it as much as HBS, but it is Stanford and they will automatically defer admits from college seniors for two years, and maybe more. It seems a lot of 2+2 kids, almost half, don’t start after two years but take three years or more. See this Poet’s & Quants’ article for actual data, Harvard’s 2+2 Adjusts To Work & Love.

Here is another important stat about 2+2: While HBS is on the prowl for STEM majors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), the target for the program is 50 percent STEM, my guess being, because not many STEM majors are actually interested in 2+2, or maybe don’t know about it. But the dirty little 2+2 secret is they take many kids who major in Economics or even English and work on Wall Street — exactly the type of kids they have no need to take because, duh, those kids are not going anyplace in the next two to three years except finance and why not wait and see how they make out in the IB leagues over the next few years? Her Majesty would snort and say, “Well, we want to stop them from going to law school,” but she really wants to stop them from going to Stanford B-school in two or three years.

As to you, we got a 3.7 at Berkeley, a 740 GMAT, a summer at BCG, a summer at Google and some real interesting hobby/start-up businesses (shot glass manufacturing? Do you make the glasses or customize blanks? List website in comments, hey we got some shot glass readers here). Plus you started a service org.

Dude, that is solid 2+2 material at both HBS and Stanford, although I gotta say, 2+2 decisions are often unpredictable, with some amazing peeps not even gaining an interview. But whatever, you are in the running, and given those extras, and being Vietnamese, you got a real good, ahem, shot.