Mr. Family Biz

It would be interesting to know why you left McKinsey to join the family business. I’m assuming that your family really needed you, though you want to pursue an MBA not to run the company but to land a job as a product manager in a tech company. In any case, you are an excellent candidate for Carnegie Mellon and an MBA from Tepper would easily allow you to fulfill your post-MBA goal. Your 3.46 GPA is not mediocre. It’s actually above the latest class average of 3.4 for Tepper, and your 329 GRE score is also well above the class average of 320. What really seals the deal is your McKinsey experience. As everyone knows, McKinsey’s hiring process is among the most selective in the world. You not only got through it but managed to excel at the firm, given the big win you cite. Tepper accepts 41.5% of its applicants. I think you can stroll into the school unless your English speaking skills are wanting or there is something we don’t know holding you back.

Hi, this is Jen Kedrowski at mbaMission. Congrats on the solid GRE score which is above the median at HBS for example and rises above your self-described ‘mediocre’ GPA (which is actually above average at Tepper), overall proving that you could handle the academics at top MBA programs. It sounds like you have some interesting professional experiences, from your time at McKinsey making an impact via the banking risk transformation project for example, to your family business experience. The area that is less clear and your big opportunity is a need to piece together the full narrative of your career to date for admissions readers. Ideally you want your past plus the MBA to flow into your future goals. So-what did you learn/gain from McKinsey that helped you in the past year at your family company, and more importantly that will help you in a product management role and throughout your career? Why did you make the move to the family business? What did you learn there? What do you need to learn and gain at the MBA? Why product management? Is there any future interest in returning to the family business, and why or why not? And so forth. If you can connect your story sufficiently (which I think you could with some introspection and quality brainstorming), you could be a contender, not only at Tepper where your odds are likely high, but potentially at schools like Cornell, and even perhaps Kellogg & Haas. Feel free to click the link below for a free consultation at any point now or in the future if you’d like to chat with us further of course, and good luck.

Hello Mr. Family Biz, I’m Lisa Cummings of Stratus Admissions. I agree with my peers, you should be a solid admit for Tepper, and I would guess that you could be a contender at a few others on your list as well. Have you heard from any of them (other than HBS) yet in terms of waitlist, etc ? Your experience at McKinsey will be a positive in your favor, as one of my peers mentions it is a tough place to break into. It has slightly different hiring practices at some international offices (still tough!) so I would be curious what office you were hired into. Wherever it was, it seems you had an outsized impact and I would want to know more about that. Being successful in a difficult team environment is no easy feat. That fact that someone at your level ran a team – even in an unofficial capacity – and was responsible for wining follow on business is certainly impressive, clearly you had an outsized impact. Given the up or out nature of consulting, you will want to be clear about why you left McKinsey. I assume family requested that you step in to help? You list some intersting extracurriculars but I don’t have a sense of what most of them are or what role you played there. I know it’s hard to fit a lot of info in a small form! That may be a good place to expand and discuss your involvement in those groups. If you are still in the process of applying you will want to think through your recommender list. Working for a family business can make that tricky, perhaps you can tap someone from McKinsey who can speak to your perfomance there. I wish you luck!