Assessing Your B-School Odds

 

Mr. Coder

  • 760 GMAT (48Q, 46V)
  • 3.57 GPA
  • Undergraduate degree in computer engineering and math from a Southern Ivy (not Duke)
  • Work experience includes nine months as a coder at a tech startup, ten months in consulting at Deloitte/Accenture/PWC and two years at a tech startup in big data for financial service firms
  • Extracurricular involvement as officer in a collegiate model United Nations where he won top speaker honors and engineering society; now chief technology officer of a small non-profit with a focus on reducing bullying

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 20% to 30%

Stanford: 15% to 30%

Wharton: 30% to 40%

Chicago: 40% to 50%

MIT: 40% to 50%

Dartmouth: 40% to 50%

Sandy’s Analysis: Hmmmm, a 3.57 at a Near Ivy (with computer science and math focus), 760 GMAT, and a career at large non-M/B/B consulting shop, followed by (? unclear from your post, FOLKS BE SURE MAKE CLEAR WHAT YOUR CURRENT JOB IS!) senior analyst at ‘big data’ financial services focused tech start-up, where let’s assume you are now? With better-than-average extras, and given top speaker awards in college, not a total nerd.

That could get you solidly in the running at HBS and Wharton since the brand names and stats line-up, and the extras are enough, and you also are working in a buzz-word (big data) area.  Stanford is always a black box if you don’t have the right firm pedigrees, and you don’t, but the same pluses you have at HBS (solid stats, buzz word job) will get into the running as a Stanford “walk-on,” which does happen.  I’d say you are solid at MIT, and probably solid at Tuck and Chicago, although this story does not seem a natural fit. If you convince them you want to come, they will give you a real serious look.