Mr. Fencer

You have a really solid story and check off the boxes on all the stats, even if they are more or less on the averages at Yale. Your big life wins are a very big plus, elevating you out of the big pool of finance types that apply to Yale and several of the other schools you are targeting. If you’re missing anything, it’s that do-gooder thing which can be important at Yale. But your being a Division 1 athlete in a field such as fencing and your continued involvement in the sport could offset this. It would be helpful for admissions to know how successful you’ve been in raising money as the director of the charity. The more, the better. Regardless, I think your odds at Yale are pretty darn good.

Hi Mr. Fencer:
Emily here from The MBA Exchange. I am a former Associate Director of Admissions at Columbia Business School and an application reader at Wharton. In addition, I too was a Division 1 athlete so understand the dedication and commitment needed for that endeavor. Assessing your candidacy with that perspective, I feel you make a solid candidate for your schools of interest. Yale, MIT and NYU will be the toughest in terms of raw numbers. While a 740/3.4 are within the range at these schools, those numbers will not be considered exceptional and competition among applicants from the banking and finance industry is fierce. That said, your professional experience leading a team and heading training outside the US will help boost your candidacy and your Division I athletic experience will stand out as will your deep and sustained commitment to the fencing community. My biggest suggestion for you is that you need to articulate your goals in a more dynamic way. You need to really think through what kind of consulting you would do and what you would uniquely contribute to that industry and where it is headed in the future. That part of your story is crucial to ensure you stand out from the crowd. Good luck!

Hello Mr. Fencer! Thanks for posting. Krista Nannery here from mbaMission. (And hah…I spent 18 years at Morningstar!)
Firstly, I love your school portfolio. I think you’ve put together a really realistic set of programs that will give you multiple options assuming you execute well. You’ve got Yale and Sloan on the reach end of things (where they really care about stats) and Cornell on the safer end of the spectrum.
B-schools also love Division 1 athletes and Fencers don’t come along all that often so you are sure to stand out in this process. You also have international work experience, which I encourage you to play up. My question is…what’s the connection between your past and consulting? How will you tell that story? Make sure there’s a golden thread that ties things all together…perhaps in your current work, you’ve had exposure to consulting or have otherwise acted as a consultant?
For Yale, what’s maybe missing is a more nuanced community angle…that intersection between business and society that they talk about. How have you helped others be successful? If you were my client, that’s what I’d want to know.
I wish you all the best in this process! Assuming you execute well and maintain this diverse portfolio approach, I have a good feeling about your chances.
Krista

Hi, Melisa from Stratus Admissions. As already mentioned, you’ve got a solid set of stats and that with your fencing experience and continue involvement will help you stand out in a competitive finance group. In addition to digging deeper into your community involvement and how you’ve impacted the fencing community, I’d suggest to think through your long term goals in addition to your shorter term goal of consulting. While you need to clearly talk about what you want to do post-MBA, this should be in conjunction with a long term aspiration. Where do you want to be 20 years from now – so that you can tie the whole story together. I work with many clients who start their process knowing that they want to go to business school, but having a tough time articulating why. I enjoy working together to help identify true passions and digging in to help identify true short and long term goals. While top programs understand that goals can change – especially with all of the new things you will be exposed to at school – you need to show you have thought through where you want to be long term and how consulting can help you get there. If consulting is the long term goal, then why? Specificity in your goals will help you stand out from others transitioning from finance to consulting (a popular route). For Yale specifically, think about what you can take advantage of or contribute to outside of the business school. Students are encouraged to take a course outside of the business school – this is a great opportunity to highlight your depth outside of finance. Best of luck!