MBA Handicapping: Where Should This BMW Rock ’N’ Roller Go To B-School?

Patt has been a musician and bandleader for 17 years. But when he is not following his passion, this 29-year-old is working as a technical project manager for BMW, the prestigious German carmaker. And now he hopes to get an MBA from a highly selective business school.

He’s been entrepreneurial for much of his life. He owned and operated a music studio at the age of 16. He invented a guitar pedal after earning his undergraduate degree. Patt also has a global outlook, having lived in Singapore and London and traveled to 26 countries.

But there is one very red flag in his application: A 3.15 GPA in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. Patt has a strong offset to that GPA, an impressive 750 GMAT, but an even more important offset in the story behind his grades. In his sophomore year, he ended up in the hospital for two months with cystic fibrosis.

How he tells that story will largely determine his odds at a group of target schools: Harvard, MIT Sloan, Columbia and NYU Stern.

In this episode of Fridays With Sandy, HBSGuru.com Founder Sandy Kreisberg assesses his odds, walks the candidate through some likely questions in a mock interview, and offers valuable advice on how to more effectively tell his story to admissions officials.

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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