Mr. Indian Investor

So here is what Stanford is going to love about you: You are coming from a PE background at a well-known mega-fund. Those are hard-to-get, highly selective jobs. And there is no doubt that Stanford loves PE types. Admits from Financial Services make up 21% of the class spread across Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Investment Management. Of those, close to half come from Private Equity. So while Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley feature more than any other financial services firms at the GSB, it is private equity and investment firms such as Bain Capital, TPG Capital, Blackrock, The Carlyle Group, Blackstone and KKR that are on many successful applicant CVs.
Yet as an Asian or Indian, you are in the overrepresented part of the applicant pool and for someone in finance your GMAT is not only 14 points below the class average but could very well be 20 to 25 points below the average for finance types. Your GPA is also a sliver below the class average of 3.7. And if you did your undergrad in finance from a top three undergrad school, we are talking Wharton, NYU or Michigan. Those are all good places to have done your undergraduate work. Bottom line: you are a terrific candidate but you are missing that Stanford X factor and you are in the most difficult part of the applicant pool.

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. You are ticking the right boxes for Stanford (move from IB to PE is a plus) but as John mentioned above, you are also in a competitive pool. What caught my eye though is your desire to move from large PE to a smaller VC fund or to an entrepreneurial role. Do you have a plan in mind for a start up or are you going to business school to find your calling for a start up? This may be an important factor in your chances at GSB. If you can demonstrate your affinity towards early stage companies (as an angel investor or as a board member ), then your goals have more credibility. Love your EC’s and think your academics are solid. If you have a balanced GMAT score, my advice would be to work on other aspects of your profile – fit with the school, strong recommendations etc. It will finally boil down to execution as minor differences in quality of execution can have disproportionate difference in results. Good luck.

Hi Mr. Indian Investor. Julie-Anne Heafey here with mbaMission – I agree with the other experts about the basic pros and cons of your profile – your pros include your strong undergrad achievements and your current employment in a highly selective and demanding PE job; your cons are the lower than average GMAT for a finance guy and a missing x-factor here about your mission/desire to make a difference. With the stiff competition you will face, the margin of error is razor thin, so you have to deliver on all aspects of the process. I highly recommend some soul searching as well as a GMAT retake. Another thing that might help is exceptionally strong recommender support. If your firm has a pipeline to GSB, and you gain support from influential recommenders who know you well and are willing to go to bat for you, that can help tip the scales. Choose wisely. Best of luck!!

Hi Mr. Indian Investor, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. Your work experience is solid and will be attractive to Stanford, and it looks like you have strong extracurricular involvement and leadership – which is good. Stanford is looking for leaders who can change the world. And based on the limited information here – I am not catching a ‘world changing’ vibe. Successful Stanford candidates I have worked with had a clear and evidenced desire to change the world and could clearly articulate how Stanford could help them make a step towards action. I would want to know more about what impact do you hope to have based on your goal of earlier stage investing. And where do you see this taking you aspirationally – what do want to do to impact the world in your lifetime? This generally takes some in depth introspection and needs to be very personal to you. How have your experiences in finance so far framed these goals? There are 17 applicants per seat at Stanford and the lower acceptance rate of 7%. Unfortunately with lower than average stats, this puts you at a disadvantage as well. I think you have a slightly higher than average chance, however if you can get your GMAT up then these chances go up. I think you have a similar challenge at Harvard and Wharton (average to their acceptance ratings) – and slightly up for Columbia.