Mr. CFA Charterholder

A 770 GMAT? Educated in the U.S. at a top university with a 3.94. And currently a founding partner and CFO of a specialty construction & manufacturing business in Morocco with 8 employees? Or do you currently work at a bank? Not sure by the look of your profile and going from a bank presumably in the U.S. to founding a company in Morocco with no previous record of experience in construction and manufacturing seems awfully strange. You need to have a really good explanation for that because even a 770 won’t save you from an oddball transition that on the surface at least makes no sense whatsoever. And is this company successful? If you had stayed at the bank, even in retail sales which is not the best part of a bank to be in for an MBA candidate, I think that would have given you greater odds.

Mr. CFA Charterholder: It’s Emily here from The MBA Exchange. As a former Associate Director of Admissions at CBS at application reviewer at Wharton, I know that the top MBA programs will of course love your numbers. I’ve given you slightly higher odds than other experts because I believe that your numbers could help you get accepted to schools where they want to use your 770 to balance out admitting another candidate with lower scores. Depending on the timing of when you apply (and some luck), that could work for you. However, a big BUT should be entered here. While top schools will like your numbers and CFA designation as well as your experiences running operations for a business and non profit in Morocco, you need to work on your story. If it is presented as is, you will look scattered and it will seem to them that an MBA would be wasted on you because you lack focus. Pick ONE goal and tell a story with that one goal. Make sure your story ties into your past but is aspirational enough that you absolutely need an MBA to make it happen. These schools will not go for a random goal that does not make sense with your past work experience. Best of luck!

Hey there, it’s Julie-Anne Heafey with mbaMission. Congratulations on your amazing GMAT and high GPA at USC in Finance. It looks to me like you’re an academic superstar when you put your mind to things. Obtaining a CFA charter while working takes real commitment, too. So – what happened to your passion for finance? And why are you suddenly in Morocco in construction now? Depending on your CFO role, I could maybe buy a pivot to take advantage of a unique opportunity to get an on-the-ground perspective of financial management…showing how your experience lines up with some kind of logical story…but then when I look at your goals, I again get confused… As a result, you look like you’re not sure what you want to do, and probably not ready for an MBA. So, despite your super high GMAT, I’d put your odds just below the average acceptance rate at LBS. You can improve your chances a lot by figuring out a way to tell your story in a way that makes sense and shows your motivation and by putting some real thought into your goals. You want a future path that leverages your past experience and lines up with a believable passion (or at least strong interest). I’d recommend this especially if you go for one of the shorter LBS MBA paths – right now, if I were the adcom, I would think you need more time and clarity. Good luck!!

Hello, it’s Lisa Cummings with Stratus Admissions. A quick look and I’d say you would be competitive at all of your choices. But, looking further there are a lot of flags. Your eclectic work background is interesting but makes it hard to see any path or focus. That theme carries over into your post MBA goals. What do you want to do? Where do your passions and skills align? You need to present a very strong case as to why an MBA is the thing for you. When I was an accomm and saw applications with similar backgrounds where the candidate was all over the map – literally for you- it always gave me pause. You need to make it easy for the committee to follow your story, if it is too hard/complicated, you will lose them and there goes your opportunity.