Your Chances Of Getting An Elite MBA

Mr. Goldman Sachs

• 740 GMAT
• 4.0 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Utah
• Work experience includes three and one-half years with Goldman Sachs in mortgage/structured product/currency trading operations; will transition into corporate finance with Goldman in New York this fall; also worked full-time in college as a portfolio analyst at a regional wealth management firm
• Extracurricular involvement includes two years as an LDS missionary in New England; Water for People regional committee member, volunteer with Wounded Warrior Project and Homes for our Troops organizations, founding member of a local non-profit that promotes investor education and fraud prevention in fiduciary relationships, and actively involved in church-related service projects
• Goal: To transition into strategy consulting. “From there, I’d like to move into an executive position with a large manufacturing firm (John Deere, Boeing, etc.)”
• 27-year-old white male, married with a child on the way

Odds of Success:

Chicago: 50+%

Dartmouth: 50+%

MIT: 40%

Virginia: 60% to 70%

Berkeley: 50+%

Northwestern: 50+%

Yale: 60% to 70%

Sandy’s Analysis: Well, as often noted, saying you want to be a consultant is a good move. Given your 4.0 from Utah and 740 GMAT and operations roles at Goldman Sachs, you should be in the running at Chicago, Tuck, MIT, Darden, Haas, Kellogg and Yale. I’m not sure what you are doing now– you said “transitioning into corporate finance roll (sic! and great typo!) with GS in New York this fall”–does that mean you will be an analyst or continue to do operations, only now in corporate finance. Whatever, either gig is solid although my guess is being an analyst in corporate finance at GS is more selective from a school’s perspective.

Your extracurricular involvement with the Water for People Wounded Warrior Project, and Homes for our Troops organizations are also a plus—getting an in-line chance at your target schools should be a matter of execution and explaining yourself clearly, and sure, solid recs.

Long term goal, to be a leader at a place like Deere or Boeing is also an OK idea, since manufacturing is a hot topic and often consultants do transition to those roles. You might present that in the alternative, as being an impactful consultant to manufacturing companies, and cite people and firms who do that, or transition to leading such a company, like a couple of other candidates in this article.