Mr. IB To Strategy

Hi Mr. IB to Strategy, Julie-Anne Heafey here with mbaMission. I find a lot to like in your profile! Yale has some sky high stats in its MBA class, so let’s look at that piece of the puzzle first. Looking at your GPA, your 3.6 is well within range and I’m impressed that you achieved it as a first gen college student while on a baseball scholarship. Kudos to you! Now at most schools, a 321 might be a pretty good GRE score but Yale has one of the highest GRE norms out there – a median Q of 165 and V of 166. The middle 80% range starts at 160 for both, so you are again in the ballpark, but dangerously close to the low side. On the good news side, you can do something and try to retake your GRE (or try the GMAT). Don’t forget too that they’ll look at the breakdowns — they want both sides to be solid, not just one side above the other. So I’m hopeful since you have some time, you can improve your score a bit. On the work side, I like that you seem to be a desirable employee – getting the first promotion from analyst to associate within your 2 years there, then getting poached from your 2nd role pretty quickly for a strategy position. I’m thinking you’ll have some strong recommendations when the time comes! Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t forget to keep warm some of those relationships with your old jobs–not only because you might tap into one for a rec, but also because a strong network is always an asset. The other thing I’d suggest is trying to do some community leadership of one kind or another. I’m not sure if what you’ve mentioned above is from undergrad or more current, but see if you can step up outside of the office too to make an impact on whatever you care about. Yale is a pretty mission-driven school, so demonstrating you care about the world around you is important. Assessing your odds is hard since much is yet to come before you apply, but I like your direction so I’m going to go a notch above the norm here and if you can execute the improvements I suggest, you’ll only improve your chances. Good luck!