Handicapping Your MBA Odds: Ms. CPA, Ms. Museum, Mr. Consultant. Mr. Football, Mr. Boutique Consultant

Mr. Consultant

• 750 GMAT
• 2.8 GPA
• Undergraduate and master degrees from a “rather unknown” university
• Work experience includes two-plus years at McKinsey/BCG/Bain
• Extracurricular involvement leading a rather big student club and holding a volunteer position in q big move festival abroad
• “How much will the company brand and GMAT will offset a low GPA?”
• 23-year-old European male

Odds of Success:

Harvard: 10%

Stanford: 10%

Wharton: 15%

Northwestern: 25%

Cornell: 30%

Berkeley: 30%

USC: 40%+

London: 40%+

Cambridge: 40%+

Oxford: 40%+

Sandy’s Analysis: A big GMAT and McKinsey should get you in someplace. Are you still there?

If so, recs and office, and what you do could count a lot.

I don’t think this is HSW. There’s too many M/B/B guys with no boo-boos who will beat you out there, and there is nothing driving you in besides in terms of

Identity or politics issues.

Great execution and recs and some explanation for low GPA performance might sneak you into places like Kellogg, Cornell, USC, Berkeley, and Euro schools like LBS, Oxford and Cambridge (often Euro schools are color blind when it comes to GPA/GMAT and care more about brand and what seems like good post MBA employment prospects. A lot will also turn on how you ever got into McKinsey in the first place with this story.

I got a feeling there is another shoe to drop here, and whether that shoe has doo-doo on it or is a magic slipper, well, depends.