About | Privacy Policy | Advertising| Editorial | Contact Us
Follow Us
Subscribe | Login
During college and the first few years working, my family had major setbacks – essentially falling apart, and I was able to push through and land an entry-level position at a top company and gain acceptance to a part-time master’s program at Georgetown with little support.
Target School: Harvard
See More Profiles For: Harvard
Application Status: Open
Undergrad School: Midwest State School
Undergrad Major: Double Major in Biology and Economics
GPA: 3.4
GMAT: 710 (estimate)
Age: 27, Ethnicity: White
Other Degree/Certification: MS
School Name: Georgetown McDonough School of Business
Extracurriculars: Published author, Spearheaded volunteering initiative that gained nationwide adoption for department, Started a nonprofit in undergraduate
Title: Associate (Internal Strat, Product Management, investment research - first year)
Industry: Banking & Finance
Company: Fortune 500
Length of Employment: 1 yr, 6 mos
Title: Product Management, Business Dev
Industry: Technology
Company: Large Private Fintech
Length of Employment: 3 yrs, 2 mos
1) Was able to negotiate working between NYC and DC and completed a part-time master’s degree while completing a challenging entry-level training program. 2) Built an analytical tool that generates firm millions in trade flow for current BB that I work at. 3) Helped close a multi-million dollar deal with the White House for the first time in decades at my firm.
Long term, I want to enter the political arena. Short term, I want to work in VC with perhaps a couple of years in banking beforehand. I am passionate about medical technology and fintech, with my strongest background being in financial technology. The MBA would round out my skills and offer a fresh network.
Join in! Click here to assess the odds of Mr. Data & Strategy
You’ve racked up some impressive big wins, including your development of a tool that generates millions for your bulge bracket employer and your multi-million-dollar deal with the White House. And you appear to have a strong narrative story to tell of achievement in the face of significant personal challenge. But you also have a low GPA for HBS and anticipate a below-average GMAT for Harvard where the median is 730. And then you went to a state school in the midwest (so did I, by the way, for a graduate degree), but what that means is that your undergraduate degree is not from a feeder school. Nonetheless, I sense you are a scrappy guy who has worked hard to get where he is (your part-time …
You’ve racked up some impressive big wins, including your development of a tool that generates millions for your bulge bracket employer and your multi-million-dollar deal with the White House. And you appear to have a strong narrative story to tell of achievement in the face of significant personal challenge. But you also have a low GPA for HBS and anticipate a below-average GMAT for Harvard where the median is 730. And then you went to a state school in the midwest (so did I, by the way, for a graduate degree), but what that means is that your undergraduate degree is not from a feeder school. Nonetheless, I sense you are a scrappy guy who has worked hard to get where he is (your part-time master’s from Georgetown is evidence of this along with your work accomplishments). I think that makes you an appealing candidate for a great MBA experience, but you need to select a broader array of business schools: Wharton, Columbia, Booth, and NYU Stern come to mind as a result of your background and your goals.
Mr. Data and Strategy: Emily here from The MBA Exchange. It sounds like you’ve overcome a lot of challenges and had great success due to your persistence and belief in yourself–all impressive! Without an actual GMAT score, it’s hard to predict your chances but 710 is on the lower side for HBS and the other top schools like CBS and Wharton. I also think you need to tighten up your goals. VC, medical tech and politics could all fit into a cohesive story but it will take some work to have that story make sense in the context of what an MBA can give you. You already have a Masters from McDonough and it is often tough to make …
Mr. Data and Strategy: Emily here from The MBA Exchange. It sounds like you’ve overcome a lot of challenges and had great success due to your persistence and belief in yourself–all impressive! Without an actual GMAT score, it’s hard to predict your chances but 710 is on the lower side for HBS and the other top schools like CBS and Wharton. I also think you need to tighten up your goals. VC, medical tech and politics could all fit into a cohesive story but it will take some work to have that story make sense in the context of what an MBA can give you. You already have a Masters from McDonough and it is often tough to make a case for why you need another masters degree, especially when the first one is in business. You’ll really need to show the skills of an MBA are CRUCIAL to reaching your goals, not just the credential. I do think you should broaden your list beyond HBS and you’ve got some hurdles ahead to get acceptance into a top MBA program, but you’ve also overcome hurdles in the past! Good luck!
Hi Mr. Data and Strategy, this is Julie-Anne Heafey from mbaMission. At the core, your goals are the biggest issue, because it won’t be clear to Harvard or other business schools exactly what you want to do. I see so many paths open to you, and you strike me as a Renaissance man with your bio/econ double major, book authorship, and thoughts of fintech, medtech, banking, VC and govt. Ultimately you’re going to have to pick a direction and tell a story that helps these disparate things make sense. I’ll warn you – Harvard and other business schools are wary of “degree collectors” so if you can’t show how getting BOTH degrees will propel you to your goal, you may have …
Hi Mr. Data and Strategy, this is Julie-Anne Heafey from mbaMission. At the core, your goals are the biggest issue, because it won’t be clear to Harvard or other business schools exactly what you want to do. I see so many paths open to you, and you strike me as a Renaissance man with your bio/econ double major, book authorship, and thoughts of fintech, medtech, banking, VC and govt. Ultimately you’re going to have to pick a direction and tell a story that helps these disparate things make sense. I’ll warn you – Harvard and other business schools are wary of “degree collectors” so if you can’t show how getting BOTH degrees will propel you to your goal, you may have an uphill climb. I agree with the others that Harvard’s a long shot (especially with a goal score of 710). Do your best on the GMAT and expand your list – and apply in R1 because this process can be unpredictable. Good luck!!
Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. I think your work experience is really impressive and you can certainly show grit and resilience from the challenges in your personal life. I see a couple possible weaknesses — your goals are too broad so you’ll want to spend the time on self-reflection to really figure out what you want to do and connect the dots both backwards to what you’ve already done and forward to a longer-term job as well. Any of those paths could work but you don’t want to be mentioning all of them. The other weakness could be the other Master’s unless you can really show how you can’t reach your goals without the MBA, so be clear about what skills you’re missing …
Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. I think your work experience is really impressive and you can certainly show grit and resilience from the challenges in your personal life. I see a couple possible weaknesses — your goals are too broad so you’ll want to spend the time on self-reflection to really figure out what you want to do and connect the dots both backwards to what you’ve already done and forward to a longer-term job as well. Any of those paths could work but you don’t want to be mentioning all of them. The other weakness could be the other Master’s unless you can really show how you can’t reach your goals without the MBA, so be clear about what skills you’re missing that only an MBA can fill. It’s a good idea to be taking the GMAT instead of the GRE to really show commitment to business school. I’m not too concerned with a 710 in your demographic. If they like what they see I don’t see a 710 as a deal-breaker. If you dip below 700 that would be a tougher sell. And frankly HBS is a tough sell even for the 3.9 GPA/770 GMAT person, so be sure to include other schools on your list. Good luck!
Submit My MBA Profile
Our Partner Sites: Poets&Quants for Execs | Poets&Quants for Undergrads | Tipping the Scales | We See Genius