Handicapping Your MBA Odds: Ms. Non-Profit, Ms. Software Engineer, Mr. IT Health, Ms. Burger King, Mr. Big Three

Mr. Big Three

740 GMAT
2.6 GPA (my school hardly distributes a GPA of 3.0)
Undergraduate degree in naval architecture and ocean engineering from a top university in Brazil
Work experience includes two years in a Big Three management consulting firm across industries, function and geographies; internships at a homeware startup in business intelligence and at a Brazilian yacht shipyard
Extracurricular involvement with pro bono consulting for Brazilian entrepreneurs through an accelerator; teaching English in Taiwan; founder and former president of Brazilian Student Association
Goal: To transition into a business development position within renewable energy industry, hopefully a renewable energy startup on the West Coast
25-year-old Brazilian male

Odds of Success:

Berkeley: 30% to 40%

Sandy’s Analysis: This is real solid at Berkley if you can explain the low GPA. Do you have access to class standing? That would help schools understand what is going on, even though they claim to know about such things. Also go to some Berkeley events and info sessions and ask them if they are familiar with low GPAs at your school.

Stanford is always tricky and on the surface you do not have any of the do-gooder, save-the-world jive that they look for in males (not sure if you are white, but males who have worked for yacht companies are not likely anything other than white ;-). But on the other hand, they are always looking for strong applicants from Latin America, and Brazil is a favored country.

Your current job as a consultant at a Big Three management consulting firm is real solid and gives you instant credibility.

What is the track record of dudes from your class applying to B-school? As often noted, that is a great metric to begin with. And your goal to transition into a business development position in the renewable energy indsutry is real good if you have any track record to pin this to.

Hey pal, looks like you are California-focused, but explain that GPA and think about HBS. Harvard could work and your odds there are much better than Stanford because they enroll a much larger class.