You Won’t Believe Who Harvard Business School Just Rejected

Mr. Ultimate Frisbee

• 760 GMAT
• 3.8 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in economics and mechanical engineering from a top 15 U.S. university
• Work experience includes two years at McKinsey & Co. and one and one-half years in business strategy/development for a large gaming company focused on expansion opportunities
• Extracurricular involvement as a “huge ultimate frisbee player in my spare time (takes up most of it) with a long-term goal of using my passion for the sport and business strengths to expand the sport internationally and earn the sports entrance into the summer olympics
• “Thoughts on if I should be overly worried about my other two apps, Stanford and Kellogg?”
• 25-year-old white American

Sandy’s Analysis: You’re a slight mystery and my guess is, either bad luck or bad luck compounded a bit by HBS latent disfavor of gaming companies and your SOMEWHAT odd goal “of using my passion for the sport and business strengths to expand the sport internationally and earn the sports entrance into the summer olympics.”

That is a business plan and not a goal, and an odd one. Hey, it’s okay with OK me, just telling you what might have happened. If they otherwise like you they overlook oddball goals like that, if not, and if they also don’t like you current employer, and found the rest of your application a bit odd, and make it easy to say NO to you.

Man, you should get into Kellogg. Stats and story are up their alley, even the odd parts. Stanford is always a roll of the dice, and you don’t sound very Stanford-y. They sometimes admit kids like you with mega stats, but often from favored companies, such as Facebook and Google.