Many applicants will see themselves in Zack’s profile. He didn’t graduate from a prestigious university. He didn’t get straight As on his undergraduate transcript. Instead of working at a well-known company, he is employed at a private firm many would never have heard of. And for a white male, his 720 GMAT score will turn few heads in the admission committees at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Dartmouth Tuck, Yale School of Management, UVA Darden or Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Yet, those are all his target business schools.
So how does Zack leverage what he has to swing the odds of an admit in his favor? And what can he improve upon to make it more likely to get invited to interview at his chosen schools?
In this episode of Friday’s With Sandy, HBSGuru.com founder Sandy Kreisberg assesses Zach’s chances and provides a fair bit of advice to move his profile into a more favorable category. In three years, he has already had two promotions and as a strategic account manager at a technology consulting firm he manages the client relationships of some big brand name players. He is also a first-generation college graduate who earned his degree in finance from Fairfield University which gave him considerable scholarship help. And Sandy advises him to make sure he gets exceptionally strong recommendation letters to support his candidacy.
And finally, there is that famous Sandy tough love. Zack scored his 720 on the GMAT exam on the first try without even studying. Sandy urges him to retake the test and aim for a 740, a fairly achievable goal given Zack’s performance without prep the first time around. For a white male consultant, those 20 points could make a huge difference.
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