Candidate:

Mr. Low GPA Product Manager

About Me:

I’m an aspiring VC and current PM at a tech company in SF. I was super involved on campus as an undergrad – I ran a 23 person startup consulting club that helped startups raise money, served on the executive board of my business fraternity, helped start UCLA’s first ever startup career fair, and taught a class on the mechanics of venture capital every week. Outside of work, I’m a scout with a venture fund, mentor dozens of students every year towards landing PM offers, and blog about enterprise saas.

Schools:

Target School: Harvard

Considering: StanfordĀ GSB, Wharton, MIT Sloan

See More Profiles For: Harvard

Application Status: Open

Details:

Undergrad School: UCLA

Undergrad Major: Computer Science

GPA: 3.1

GMAT: 780

Age: 23,  Ethnicity: Asian or Indian

Other Degree/Certification: Business - 4.0 GPA

School Name: UC Berkeley Extension

Extracurriculars: Pro Bono Project Lead for a nonprofit - I manage a team of 6 that work on strategy for nonprofits., Board of Directors at a product management nonprofit - we partner with leading universities to provide high quality PM curriculum, Venture Capital Scout at a $30M seed fund

Work History:

Title: Product Manager

Industry: Technology

Company: Top Firm In Selected Industry

Length of Employment: 3 yrs

Post MBA Goal:

Long term: an enterprise seed-stage VC. Short term, business operations at a startup or go into banking post-MBA.

Odds:

Join in! Click here to assess the odds of Mr. Low GPA Product Manager

The Experts Rate The Odds At: 26%

See what the industry experts have to say:

  • John A. Byrne, P&Q Founder & Editor-In-Chief | Odds Assessment: 25%

    Wow. Our readers love you. As I am writing this, our community thinks your odds of getting into Harvard Business School are 75%. To put that in perspective, this is for a school that admits only 12% of its applicants or, to put it in the glass is half empty category, rejects 88% of the people who apply. As our ding stories so aptly indicate, HBS turns down a ton of people who apply with sky-high GMATs, Ivy League degrees, and work experience at the core feeder companies to the school. Clearly, your 780 GMAT offsets the 3.1 you got at UCLA in a difficult subject: computer science. At the age of 23, however, you are on the young side, even though you have three …

    4 years ago Read the full review
  • Sandy Kreisberg, The HBS Guru Odds Assessment: 35%

    YIKES, a 3.1 in college?!

    I am assuming your 4.0 at Berkeley extension certificate program is more than one course and that the courses you took there were: finance, accounting, and stats. Your real problem is explaining the 3.1 in college which B-schools will take seriously because they wonder if you can: 1. sit still, 2. eat crap, and 3. spit it back to them. This is one of the fundamental skill sets of a successful business school career and much else in life.

    If the 4.0 is made up of several quant courses and if you can explain the 3.1 then you have A LOT going for you.

    A 780 GMAT is always appreciated but here’s a tough question: How many Asian or Indian male …

    4 years ago Read the full review
  • Odds Assessment: 25%

    Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. Firstly lets state something that may be an open secret. Every school looks at Silicon Valley with some degree of envy. They have taken the best jobs, have best roles on offer and are now upending some closely held management theories that came from these very MBA schools. So they feel flattered to receive interest from SV folks. That is a big advantage for you and play that well. If you can show that your GPA was low because you were evaluating early stage deals in your spare time and simultaneously day dreaming about building the next unicorn out of your dorm room – you have suddenly created a market for your profile. So my advice on low GPA is …

    4 years ago Read the full review
  • mbaMission Odds Assessment: 25%

    Hello Mr. Low GPA Product Manager! Thanks for posting. Krista Nannery from mbaMission here. Every year, I talk to a bunch of 760s. A small number of 770s. And that’s pretty much it! 780 makes you a rare commodity and will help with that 3.1. You’re in optional territory there with the 3.1 though…at this level, you’re in the bottom 10% of accepted applicants for most schools, where the 80th percentile range is typically 3.2 to 3.8. B-schools are going to want to know why this happened, along with some indication of why it won’t happen in an MBA program. (Your Berkeley extension program will help here.)

    I would normally warn you that VC is notoriously hard to break into — it’s a goal that everyone …

    4 years ago Read the full review
  • Stratus Admissions Counseling Odds Assessment: 20%

    Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. There is so much in your profile to like! Your sky-high GMAT and very strong extracurriculars, not to mention solid work experience (although it’s definitely under the average for number of years out of undergrad). You have pinpointed one red flag, which is a low GPA, and you are shooting for schools who will admit very few people with a 3.1. BUT, it looks like you were super-involved in extracurriculars in college including substantial leadership roles, so I can see a scenario where your explanation (not your excuse!) in an optional essay is that you probably took on too much outside of your very difficult major. You can say you are more ready now to prioritize and make …

    4 years ago Read the full review

The Community Currently Rates The Odds At: 54%

  • 50% | 4 years ago

  • 5% | 4 years ago

  • 75% | 4 years ago

  • 100% | 4 years ago

  • 35% | 4 years ago

    Looking good! Good luck to you.
  • 75% | 4 years ago

  • 60% | 4 years ago

    If Harvard doesn't take you, it's their loss. You more than offset that low GPA with a super GMAT and all that you've done.
  • 30% | 4 years ago

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