You’d Never Believe These MBA Applicants Were Just Rejected By Harvard Business School

Mr. Engineer-Turned-Consultant

• 720 GMAT (Q & V, 86%)
• Top 5% GPA
• Undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from the best engineering college in France (also top 5% in one-year exchange to best school in Germany)
• Work experience includes one year as design engineer in Altran, and currently two years at Roland Berger as a consultant; also did an eight-month-long internship at Air France and a 10-month stint as a researcher in Denmark on new aircrafts concepts
• Extracurriculars include being co-founder and president of two associations at university; captain of the basketball team, member of the sports management board, mentor of international students
• Also received a scholarship from the French government to fully-fund my MBA
• Essay focused on “how my career changes and passion shaped who I am today. Also, how I acted along this personal journey to improve my community. Finally I explained my long-term goal of launching my own startup and how that will impact our society for the best”
• Recommenders include one partner and one principal. “Worked very close with both”
• 27-year-old French male, 720 GMAT

Sandy’s Analysis: Well, after the smoke clears, you are a white, male, consultant, with OK grades and average GMATs, who has a slightly interesting background in aero and being French.

I would have predicted an interview invite on the profile you present, based on the French/Aero angle. I’m not sure switching to consulting helped your case versus having three years in aerospace. Roland Berger is an OK firm, but white, male consultants are plentiful. It’s just a hard cohort to bust out of.

You Wrote:

“Essay: Talked about how my career changes and passion shaped who I am today. Also, how I acted along this personal journey to improve my community. Finally I explained my long-term goal of launching my own startup and how that will impact our society for the best”

Dunno, that is OK-ish in general but could easily come off as a bunch of self-serving and brag-y cliches. Just reading between the lines.
What they want are influences, e.g. the people, events, and mentors that had an impact on you. I’m not so sure you nailed it when you say you “talked about how my career changes and passion shaped who I am today.”

I’m just guessing wildly from the little explanation you left, but I think you might have written about accmplishments than influences, and made your essay less personal and more braggy.