Handicapping Your MBA Odds: Ms. Dual Degree

Mr. Business Tech Analyst

 

• 760 GMAT (92Q/97V)
• 3.5 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in finance and computer information systems from an “ok” public university (think Florida, Texas A&M, or Georgia)
• Work experience includes three years as a business technology analyst at a top five consulting firm, including work on a project for several months in Asia
• Internships at Amazon in finance and Siemens in IT
• Extracurricular involvement as an English teacher in a Chinese university for a semester prior to starting work at the consultancy (I know about 500 or so Chinese words); coached a student who won first place in her province in an English speech competition and was among the top 20 undergraduates in China; former president of the finance society on campus; mentor to under-privileged children in speech and debate at a high school; started a Toastmasters group at work; debated in college for two years.
• Application Goal: To start working for a strategy consultancy in an Asia office.
• True Goal: To transition to corporate finance for a big technology company (e.g. Facebook, Google), probably as a product manager
• 25-year-old white male

Odds at Schools:

Columbia: 50%

Chicago: 50%

Wharton: 40% to 45%

MIT: 50%

Dartmouth: 50%

Berkeley: 50%+

Sandy’s Analysis:

I like your style, and I also like speech coaches, but schools you are interested in really don’t care so much. For the record, Toastmasters is an “eh” to mildly suspect group to adcoms  (although I think it is great) because it often attracts hard working and ambitious people who are trying to improve themselves by helping each other and B schools prefer isolated and naturally-gifted types who just assume leadership roles in marquee do-gooder orgs for purposes of self-promotion.

Let the rebuttals from Toastmasters and insulted adcoms begin.

No, I don’t have a peer control group of non-Toastmaster applicants with identical statistics to validate my hunch, BUT NEITHER DO YOU! And I am right based on 20 years of experience, and no reason to lie, versus some rebutting adcom with merely 20 years of experience.

OK, end of that truth-rant, back to the poster. As to him–the 25-year-old white male–schools may not like Toastmasters or they may, but they sure do like

1. 760 GMAT

and they are OK with

2. Solid work in top 5 consultancy

and they will easily blink at

3. 3.5 GPA

given 1 and 2 above.

Soooooo, chances at Columbia, Booth, Wharton, MIT, Tuck, Berkeley, are sorta OK, depending on recommendations, execution, etc.

As often noted, anyone with a 760 GMAT has a good chance at MIT. One stat  I would like to know is the admit rate of 760+ GMATs + some 3.5+ GPA at MIT. It could be real, real high.) Sure,  that goes for other places, too, but MIT really credits mega GMATs a lot, possibly more than other schools.

You say as to your goals: “True goal: To transition to corporate finance for a big technology company (e.g. Facebook, Google), probably as a product manager.

Goal l will put on applications: To start working for a strategy consultancy in an Asia office.”

Hmmmmm, I agree with the goal you will put in applications. Given that you are already a consultant, they will like the fact you want to be a consultant again because, well, you actually might get that job. Not sure you need to throw in the Asia angle. We get it. Going to B -school to trade up from a Top- 5 consulting job (ahem, whatever that means) to a Top-3 consulting job (no debate about that) is the high road to acceptance  success.

As to your “true” goal–“transition to corporate finance for a big technology company (e.g. Facebook, Google), probably as a product manager.”

Just in case it comes up, or you cannot contain yourself, I know what a product manager is, and I know what corporate finance people do. Are there product managers within corporate finance? Does not compute to me, but you are the one who needs to get it straight.