MBA Handicapping: Can This Band Leader Jazz His 3.3 GPA Into HBS 2+2? Working At McKinsey Helps

If you were to adopt Sandy’s rule that admissions will blink once but never twice you might give Christian slim odds for an admit to Harvard Business School’s MBA program.

In his senior year at a non-flagship midwestern university, he has a 3.3 GPA in jazz studies. So for one thing, his grades are below the class average for Harvard. Blink once. And his undergraduate institution isn’t considered as highly selective as many of the elite educational institutions of applicants that he will ultimately be in competition with. Blink twice.

But then, you would be underestimating the incredible strengths of this highly articulate and personable candidate. Christian landed a McKinsey internship in his sophomore year and then won a full-time job offer as a result of his summer stint there. On a practice GRE, he has scored a 326 but is aiming for a 330. An immigrant from Venezuela, he qualifies as an under-represented minority. More notably, he is both a composer and a jazz pianist whose contemporary jazz playing is rooted in his home country (see one of his superb performances below). This spring, he’ll intern with SFJazz in the development office doing digital strategy.

His target schools for a deferred enrollment? Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Chicago Booth. He intends to go to work for McKinsey after graduation and then get his MBA after two or three years with a plan to return to McKinsey post-MBA before pursuing his ultimate career goal of working as a leader or director of a top arts nonprofit.

In this episode of Friday’s With Sandy, HBSGuru.com founder Sandy Kreisberg assesses his chances and also puts Christian through the paces of a mock MBA interview.

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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