Mr. Finance in Tech

Hey there Mr. Finance in Tech! This is Talon Rindels, Sr. Admissions Consultant at The MBA Exchange and fellow Badger – On Wisconsin! Please hit up the Blue Velvet and have a Curious George Martini for me, as that was my go-to drink when I worked there! Now, back to business… I couldn’t agree more with your opening line – you definitely have the stats to get into Harvard’s 2+2 program for sure (check!), but you’ll still need a compelling/coherent/authentic story to seal the deal! With your GMAT score +30 pts higher than Harvard’s Deferred Admit average of 730 and your GPA +23 bps higher than their average of 3.67, this is not a conversation about your numbers. I like that you appear to be heavily involved on campus, but you’ll still want to communicate to adcom the impact you made through these extracurriculars and how you grew because of them – These are the types of things that convince them that you’ll be a strong contributor to their program and community. As for your career ambitions, personally, I like that you are aiming high with a challenging field to get into (VC)… but with your clear financial acumen and goals of gaining business operations experience prior, I think you’d be well equipped to become the few, the proud to score a VC job post MBA. The key to this sounding “coherent,” really comes through authenticity. Dig deep, hopefully even into an experience that tapped at your emotions or that can be painted very vividly in your essays and share the WHY behind your long term goal. What experience have you had that made you say, “Yes! I absolutely have to do this in my future!”? That’s what adcom wants to hear about. One thing I’m not seeing in your bio is global perspective, so if you have experiences abroad or with people different than you, you’ll want to highlight those. Lastly, you may also want to consider Kellogg’s Deferred Admit program that they just announced and started taking applications for within the last month. If you like the culture and your classmates at Wisconsin, I know you’ll like them at Kellogg, as they tend to bring in the same types of well-rounded, ambitious, but fun people. Culture was important to me in selecting an MBA program and the Madison-like vibe that I got during my visit to Evanston made it feel like home… and ultimately became my home for two years as a Kellogg student. No matter which programs you apply to, your story will be important and I encourage you to get at least a second set of eyes on your story… whether that’s from a professional or your family, friends, school alum. It’ll make a big difference in ensuring authenticity! I”m rooting for you Mr. Finance in Tech!

Hey there Mr. Finance in Tech, Julie-Anne Heafey here from mbaMission. Odds for Harvard’s 2+2 program can be tricky to evaluate…without long track records, we just don’t have a ton to go on here. I do see some mixed messaging in your recap above — the IB club, is that Investment Banking? But you want to do business operations in tech? (I’m deliberately not touching the VC/entrepreneur plan.) I guess I don’t know what these things mean together. I’d focus on the short term here…I don’t think I’d suggest trying to articulate a crystal clear long term goal, you haven’t even had your first FT job yet. I’d keep it to your ST goal/current employment planned and what problems you’d want to solve. So – overall, though your stats are high, I’m just not seeing a need for them to lock in your candidacy now from the above…but perhaps your story just needs to be hashed out a bit. Overall, I do recommend applying – if you’re successful, it will allow you to take some more risks, try things you might not otherwise tackle. If not, no harm done – you can try again later and they will welcome your reapplication! Good luck!

Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. You’re right — you do have great stats! Since the deferred programs have less work experience to assess, stats become even more important so this will be a strong suit for your application. Your high GPA also is in a challenging major that is tied to your internship, so that’s all a plus too. I assume you already have the ops role at the tech company lined up for pre-MBA? For the post-MBA goal, VC is seen as very hard to break into but I do like that you want to dig in and get hands-on operations experience at a startup before going the investing route. So I think it does make sense given where you are and what you’d do before the MBA. I’ve worked with several deferred MBA candidates and see this as getting more and more competitive (especially for male Asian/Indian candidates) so I think you’re right that crafting your story will be the critical part. You just want to be sure that who you are really shines through in your essays. Also consider that several top schools have announced new programs, including Kellogg and Haas, so I suggest broadening beyond just HBS to give yourself the best shot. Good luck!