MBA Handicapping: Will This Guy’s Fast Food Experience Get Him Blackballed At HBS Despite A 770 GMAT & 4.0 GPA?

He may be all of 24 years of age but Tristan has put together a rather remarkable case for getting into one of the world’s most highly selective business schools. Let’s start with his 4.0 grade point average from the University of Georgia where he majored in marketing and political science. He has topped that off with a jumbo 770 GMAT score that puts him into the top 1% of test-takers in the world.

For the past three years, he’s been the business development manager in the U.S. for a Canadian fast-food company. The sole U.S. employee, he has done everything from developing a U.S. expansion strategy that led to the opening of ten new locations to negotiated contracts with major companies, including Disney, for outlets in their entertainment. Despite his young age, he reports directly to the CEO of the company.

Tristan also has done something rather unique: He has eaten at all of the U.S.’s 100 largest restaurant chains, including all of the top 25 in a single day. His target MBA programs? Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton, UCLA Anderson and the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business.

In this episode of Friday’s With Sandy, HBSGuru.com founder Sandy Kreisberg assesses his chances of getting into an elite MBA program without having come from either a feeder undergraduate college or a feeder company. Will his jumbo stats and unusual work experience offset those parts of his application? Sandy weighs in and suggests how he should position himself in essays.

If you would like to participate in a future Fridays With Sandy webinar, you can contact Sandy and P&Q Founder John A Byrne here.

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