Mr. Bright Side

Hi, this is JP, Senior Consultant at The MBA Exchange. We have a ton of experience to draw upon when it comes to experienced applicants, so you came to the right place! In fact, our founder Dan Bauer, obtained his Harvard MBA around your age. I also had a fairly unusual career path before I reached HBS (and even after). Anyway, having personally worked with dozens of applicants who were at your career stage, I can say with a very high degree of confidence that your application success will hinge upon understanding the strength and weaknesses of your profile AND targeting the right programs. It would help to have a knowledgeable voice on your side to guide you through the process, especially to help focus your energy on programs that are welcoming to your profile (and yes, Harvard may be one of those schools). I’d be happy to discuss in greater detail, just email me at jpo@mbaexchange.com.

Hi Mr. Bright Side, Julie-Anne Heafey here with mbaMission. I love your positive attitude and it sounds like you’ve had some significant accomplishments both inside and outside of work. You seem to have a talent at bringing people together and motivating them. That said, we don’t have a test score, your age/experience puts you outside the normal range for a 2 year MBA program, and your GPA is well below the average of the top schools on your list. For the GPA, you can add context with the optional essay/additional information section, but overcoming all these hurdles at Harvard will be a challenge. I agree with Melisa that part time or exec ed programs seem to make more sense for you…Also, IB and consulting are pretty different (apart from both being difficult to break into), so take the time to do some research about why they’d be a fit for you, how you could break in at a later career stage than the norm, and what kind of stats/background you might need to do so. On the plus side, it sounds like you’ve at least got a great resource for case interview prep! I’m crossing fingers for a good GMAT/GRE score for you, but definitely do more career research and at least consider expanding your list of schools. Good luck!

Hi Mr. Bright Side. Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. Sounds like you’ve had a very successful career. Unfortunately, with your years of experience comes less likelihood of entry to a full time MBA program. With the 80% median years of experience between 3-8, your 10 puts you a couple years outside of this. And without a GMAT, it is very tough to assess your chances of success. Your low GPA (which sounds like you have reasoning behind) is going to require a strong GMAT to overcome – especially for the programs you’ve listed. Now, if you are considering EMBA programs – that is a different story. I have worked with a couple clients who have started wanting a full time experience, and after engaging with executive programs and other students have really appreciated sitting in a class with others with similar years of experience. In general, Part time and Executive programs are very willing to sit down and discuss your profile, whether you are a good fit for the school. And generally these programs are less competitive or sometimes even will waive test score requirements. I would encourage you to reach out to the Exec programs at the schools you’ve listed and talk with some students. Also, for your goals, you will need to explain more clearly why consulting or IB. I am not seeing a clear tie based on what you have included here. I am basing your odds here based on a full time programs – but think it would be significantly higher for an Exec program. Wish you the best of luck!