Handicapping Your Elite MBA Odds: Ms. Brand Manager, Ms. Private Trader, Mr. Startup, Ms. Stanford Law School

Ms. Stanford Law School

• Unknown GMAT
• 4.18 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in sociology from a top 20 university
• “Pretty much zero quantitative courses and have never looked at the GMAT and am not confident with math”
• Work experience includes two years with Deloitte Consulting in human capital, with second year being spent on a year-long assignment in Asia
• “All work was doing PMO (project management office), unfortunately”Currently a first-year law student at Stanford Law.
• “GSB is right around the corner – a 10-minute walk to the business school. Would be super interested in the GSB for the network but not sure what my career goals really are”
• Extracurricular involvement as a tutor and curriculum developer for some education companies
• 24-year-old Asian American female

Odds of Success:

Stanford: 10% to 20%

Sandy’s Analysis: Wow, going to Stanford Law is a good start. How did you pull that off? Wait!!!! Law school admissions is mostly some blend of GPA and LSAT, and my guess is, you had high scores.

Business school is going to be a bit different. They count job experience pre-MBA a lot. Deloitte is a silver not gold-plated feeder firm to top B-schools, and PMO could be bronze, as you suggest.

“The PMO strives to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects.” Sounds so exciting.” (Wikipedia and me).

This ain’t reading like a Stanford GSB admit, unless you have some victim or adversity story you have not mentioned.

Getting a super high GMAT score could make you a contender at Wharton or Columbia. My advice is to apply early and create some sort of goal statement. Make it sound like you are serious about coming.

At any rate, you need to have your game face on, something you admit is not the case now.