Rejected By Harvard B-School? Don’t Feel Bad. You’re In Great Company

guystars

Mr. Medical Device

 

  • 780 GMAT
  • 3.2 GPA
  • Undergraduate degree in biomedica engineering from Rutgers University
  • Work experience includes six years at a Fortune 100 major medical device company in U.S.;

    promoted twice and currently a senior engineer; recognized by site leadership on 4 different occasions

  • Goal: To transition into a leadership position at a healthcare startup attempting to disrupt the medical device industry
  • 29-year-old Indian male

     

    Sandy’s Ding Analysis: OUCH. I would hate to think that your 3.2 GPA is behind this. But it could be that and what HBS thinks of your company, and what the cohort was for medical device guys (not sure that is a distinct cohort, but it could be, or you could have lost out to Desi engineers they liked more.

    The rest of your profile is solid and everyone likes a 780. But again, this goes to show that it takes a lot more than a high GMAT score to get into Harvard Business School, as so many dinged applicants have shown.

    This has shades of an Executive MBA, given the number of years at the same gig, so that could be an overhand as well.

    All that said, if you told me you got in, I would not have been surprised.

    DON’T MISS: FIRST ROUND DING REPORT AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL