Mr. Renewable Energy IB

Hi, Mr. Renewable Energy IB, this is Julie-Anne Heafey with mbaMission. It’s always great to read a profile from a fellow Dartmouth alum! There’s a ton to like in your profile, from your excellent GPA (while playing football!) to your leadership outside work…but honestly, I would love to see some more experience under your belt. You’re young, even for GSB, if you applied this year…I get why you don’t want to wait to get started on your plans, but looking at it from Stanford’s point of view, as great as you are, you potentially bring a bit less perspective to the table than other applicants in the hyper-competitive pool. With a tiny admit rate, sometimes that leads to a “no” (or at least “not yet”) for younger applicants, who can always reapply. If you’re asking if you should pursue PE, I’d say: “probably” – but really it’s not just about PE per se, it’s about taking on a role that will advance your career trajectory and provide you with more perspective and opportunities to have an impact. You don’t have to do a well-trodden IB to PE path if there’s another opportunity that’s even more exciting to you…it kind of depends on what we’re talking about (which PE firm, what would you be doing, and what are your other options). If you’re applying next year, your odds improve a bit, but don’t just apply to Stanford, add some other names to your list…Because of your strong stats/leadership, I’ll mark this as 15% (about triple odds for Stanford!), but I believe that a bit more experience would improve your chances significantly. Good luck!

Hi Mr. Renewable Energy IB, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. Well – you’ve hit the stats out of the park – so nice work there! And you’ve got some strong leadership skills in undergrad and since with your wealth advisory. All of these will help you as a younger candidate. You ask if you should head to PE first before GSB. The pro here, if this is an option to you, is that it gives you more years of experience to put you into the 80% middle range of 3-8 years. It also gives you experience from 2 different avenues to bring to the classroom. For GSB, it’s important to articulate what change you want to see – for you in renewable. I love that you talk about wanting to be a leader in the industry – what does that mean from a post-MBA goal? What big change in renewables do you hope to impact? If you do decide that now is the right time to apply – you will need to explain to admissions why now and show that you can punch above your weight in leadership experience. Your community experience demonstrates that – you will want to demonstrate this at work as well – where have you led. Great to hear you have met and connected with friends abroad – think about how this could help you bring together classmates from all over to work together on class assignments and projects. I have fond memories of wind farms in southern Spain – they were beautiful on the landscape. I don’t like a 1 school options – especially GSB with the lowest acceptance rate. I would consider adding Haas, UCLA, Booth, Ross, Tuck, Duke to your consideration. Wish you the best of luck – and reach out if I can help talking through your options. My assessment in based on your current years of experience.