The Ding Report: Who Was Rejected & Why

Mr. Fashion

• 760 GMAT
• 3.9 GPA
• Undergraduate degree in liberal arts from a near Ivy (think Notre Dame, Georgetown, Northwestern)
• Work experience includes five years in retail fashion buying and supply chain management at a Fortune 500; left to move to another city for significant other and “took a hit to my title in the process, starting at a F1000 fashion retail company (still in apparel buying) and continued to move up very quickly. Now in a P&L director role as of last year”
• Extracurricular involvement as a member of the executive board for a 200-person LGBT masters sporting team; also heavily involved in club sports and volunteering for development NGOs in Latin America in college.
• Short-term goal: MBB consulting
• Long-term goal: To start a socially conscious retail company with a sustainable supply chain
• 30-year-year white male

Outcomes:

Dinged without interview by HBS

Admitted to Kellogg, Haas, and UCLA ($$$$)

Still waiting: GSB

Sandy’s Analysis: Thanks for the full report, although I’m a bit unclear about what ” retail fashion buying & supply chain management” means. I know what a buyer does, and I know what supply chain management is. Is it typical for one person to do both at Fortune 500 companies.

Anyway, assuming you explained that, your ding at HBS could have been what they think of your employers and whether they are feeders to business school and HBS. Even many Fortune 100 companies are unknown to adcoms.

Your goal to start your own “socially conscious retail company with a sustainable supply chain world” is one of those ideas which may really work or strike them as a bridge too far. It may come off as an attempt to tell them what they want to hear. This all depends on execution, plausibility and if you cited other organizations that already doing that.

I’m glad Kellogg saw the light. This strikes me as deeply up their alley.

GSB might also bite, especially with your super solid stats.