You Won’t Believe Who Harvard Just Rejected

Mr. FMCG

• 710 GMAT (Q49/V42)
• 3.35 GPA
• Undergraduate degree from a Top 5 university in Pakistan
• Work experience includes four years in sales and marketing for an FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) company (Think RB, Unilever)
• Had “financial issues, but helped start a family business, and worked two jobs to get through undergrad school and support family
• Other Targets: 
Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, UC-Berkeley, Wharton.
• 26-year-old Pakistani

Sandy’s Analysis: Harvard Business School surely admits Fast Moving Consumer Good applicants from big players like Unilever, P&G, General Mills, PepsiCo and the rest. But my guess is, other applicants won out in they beauty contest with you. To wit, they had a better GPA, higher GMAT, better schooling, and maybe two jobs instead of one, showing steady career progression.

The fact you went to a lesser known school usually does not help unless it is part of some overcoming adversity story. It’s not a super big deal either way because I think your real issue was just losing out to other better looking FMCG guys.

Your family narrative might have helped if this was close, but apparently it was not. Your other schools target are likely to be hard because your stats are low-ish and they are very concerned with GMAT and GPA scores. Your ding from London Business School is concerning because that place is not that hard to get into.

You may not be executing on the app up to par.