Handicapping Your Shot At Getting In

Ms. New England

  • 710 GMAT (76% Q)
  • 3.75 GPA
  • Undergraduate degree in economics from a small New England liberal arts college
  • Work experience as an electricity consultant for two years at a large, well-respected firm; then left to go with a small firm with less prestige but more opportunity and responsibility
  • Extracurricular involvement as alumni events coordinator for my city
  • Female
  • Goal: To continue in energy consulting but to address energy future through market design
  • “How will retaking the GMAT change my odds?”

Odds of Success:

Berkeley: 20% to 30%

Duke: 50% to 60%

MIT: 30% to 40%

Northwestern: 40% to 50%

Chicago: 40% to 50%

Columbia: 30% to 40%

Yale: 50% to 60%

Sandy’s Analysis: A 3.7/710 at small liberal arts college and female and consultant with large well respected firm (assuming that is also well known consulting firm, e.g. top 6 consulting firm) and then a gig at some smaller firm, with what appears to be college-related extracurrics,–ahem, well, some missing info, 1. Small NE college could be Williams or Colby or some place that is more obscure, and not all small NE liberal arts colleges are created equal, 2. Similarly, not all consulting companies, even large ones. But let’s just call it Colby-like and Accenture-like for the sake of argument.

That is pretty solid and should get you into Duke, Haas, probably Yale, with Booth and Kellogg also being in reach. Kids like you get into Columbia all the time, and they won’t hold the 76 pct Q against you, especially as an econ major who seems to work with “electricity consulting,”  whatever that means. But if you can read my Con Ed bill, well, that’s enough math for me —  and for most business schools as well.

MIT takes kids like you, oddly, they are always looking for liberal arts women with econ + consulting skills, although they also ding kids like you. It is just not as much a reach as you might think.

Retaking the GMAT a good idea at MIT. They are always obsessed with the GMAT, although the average score there is 718. Sooooooo, someone like you gets in. I’d say a 730 would really change your odds at both Columbia and MIT, a lot. You’d probably get in, and now your chances are just sorta probably at Columbia and at MIT.

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