Mr. Jumbo GMAT

INSEAD will salivate over your GMAT score. Everything else is pretty irrelevant. It may be a different story at Harvard, Stanford and Wharton. But your chances at those U.S. schools should be pretty good, too.

Your 770 GMAT guarantees your application will get serious attention at any and all top schools, even with a qualitative undergrad degree a less prestigious uni. What’s curious is you being 27 years old with just 2 years of full-time work experience and no master’s degree. What were you doing for the other ~3 years… travel? Military? Independent study?? Advising NGOs is a very worthwhile non-work activity but you need more horsepower to compensate for the shorter work history. Given your post-MBA goal, why not start a small, social enterprise of your own now?

Hi, it’s Nisha from mbaMission! You’ve got excellent academics (well above the average for INSEAD and above average for the other schools you’d indicated), are starting to build a strong career in strategy, and have meaningful extracurricular involvement. Two years is a bit light in terms of work experience though, so you may have better luck applying next year. In the meantime, pursue increased responsibility and leadership opportunities at work (and hopefully secure a promotion) to show your progression in this area and continue making impact as a pro-bono consultant. If you do this and communicate your story clearly (including your motivations for pursuing consulting in the short-term and social enterprise in the long term), I think you’ll be a solid contender. Best of luck!

Hi Mr. Jumbo GMAT, that is quite an impressive score you have so kudos on that. However, as other experts have noted, you are a bit shy of work experience with just 2 yrs. You definitely need to explain what you did in the past few years if you were not working as one would typically expect someone who is 27 to have been working more than 2 years. I agree that you will need to show impact and ideally some progression in your work to have the best shot at INSEAD but I certainly encourage you to apply. I think your odds at HBS, GSB are also going to be challenging with just 2 yrs of work. Be sure that you really emphasize your impact. For GSB you will need to show you have big dreams and give some insight as to why you have these dreams when you share what matters most and why. I think that if you apply to CBS early decision if you are willing to have that be your first choice and go if accepted that this could be a good option. If not, applying early in October still might give you good odds if you want to keep options open elsewhere. I encourage you to try to look at some other consulting firms beyond MBB as it does not differentiate you much to have that as the goal. If you want to reach out for a consult to discuss your short and long term goals in more detail, please reach out.