Mr. Civil Engineer To Private Equity

You have a solid background and profile for admission to Wharton. Carnegie Mellon and MIT are two of the world’s best schools for engineering. Your GPA and GMAT score nicely checks off those boxes. And your work experience seems strong as well, particularly if your firm is highly selective in who it hires. My one concern is your post-MBA goals: PE is a tough road without I-banking or PE experience. Just saying you want to work in PE could torpedo you at Wharton and other schools. There’s also nothing in your background, as far as I can tell, to justify your interest in real estate finance. Perhaps there is something here that is missing? Post-MBA goals are tricky things in MBA applications because if the school has any concern about getting you a job in the areas you target, it won’t accept you. No school wants to have a student who can’t land a job they really want. A safer expressed goal for you would be I-banking or consulting. Once at the school, you can explore your real interests, with a fallback strategy on I-banking or consulting. I am going to assume you will follow this advice so my odds reflect that belief.