You Won’t Believe Who Harvard Business School Rejected This Month

Mr. English Teacher

• 165V, 168Q GRE (GMAT equivalent of 760 GMAT according to ETS converter)
• 3.08 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in philosophy from Notre Dame University
• “Undergrad GPA low because I essentially suffered through depression for the first two years. Held a 3.5 GPA last two years.”
• 3.4 GPA
• Master’s degree in liberal arts from St. John’s College
• 4.0 GPA
• Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi
• Work experience includes teaching 10th grade English for three years; Did not do Teach For America, but did a similar program (Mississippi Teacher Corps) that is, by percent of applicants admitted, more competitive than TFA; Have been given increased responsibility by, after two years, being elected to train and manage new teachers for the MA program
• Extracurricular involvement: Elected to a district-level leadership board for academics, coached multiple sports, tutored.

  my Catholic upbringing, my time in college, all the way up to the time I started teaching — talking about how working and serving students from significantly underprivileged backgrounds required me to humble myself.”

• 27-year old-male biracial (African-American and White) male

Sandy’s Analysis: Why do you want or neend an MBA?? This is classic Ed School Ph.D program or maybe Kennedy School. It seems your two other MA degrees were in that direction.

I’m not sure your essay played a role in this. They have a hard time overcoming low GPAs at Harvard Business School and by your own accounting, it was only 3.5 after depression was treated, and grad school GPA is low-ish as well.

They might have blinked at that, given your solid GRE score, if you had some job post Teacher Corp which was the first step in a transition to a field where the MBA could help or is traditionally a qualification. On these facts, we don’t get it, and you still seem on some journey through self-awareness, faith, race, mental distress, and philosophy.

Being elected to leadership role in at local school board is one solid accomplishment, but that again seems to point you to a PhD in Education, not an MBA degree. Something you might think about. On these facts, you seem more Ed School than MBA.

You say your essay “was sort of written as a personal reflection on how I’ve learned to overcome having pride. I wove that theme through my Catholic upbringing, my time in college, all the way up to the time I started teaching — talking about how working and serving students from significantly underprivileged backgrounds required me to humble myself.”

Phew, some element of that in a more traditional intro which also included a clear goal statement might have been more effective.

HBS likes solid performers who can humble-brag and allude to emotional, victim-y situations as some background. But they don’t like that as the whole presentation.