Mr. Low GPA Product Manager

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 years of work experience or will have at matriculation. That’s why I don’t share our community’s enthusiasm for your shot at HBS. My gut tells me that if you really want HBS, you need to get a couple of big wins under your belt at your tech company or another firm. Do let us know how this turns out. I hope I’m wrong.

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 applicants (I am assuming you are male and either Asian or Indian) who apply to Harvard and Stanford with a 780 get in? Friend, not all. I might be up for wager that NOT EVEN HALF get in. You have to be an HBS-type-of-780, which means NOT an idiot-savant. In this context it means you’re NOT a super smart techie with limited life and social skills. From the looks of your extracurriculars, you look to pass the test but I’m spelling this out for our readers.

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 contrarian – don’t play defence. Show that you had better things to do on campus while still showing some regret that you wish you didn’t let your grades suffer ! And then build on everything else you have and my guess is that Harvard will be interested. Also show that you are a peoples person and understand human and tech both and your “deck” suddenly is very investment worthy !! A small PS (post script) though – stick to start up > VC career path and don’t mention banking imho. You don’t seem “cool” anymore and HBS gets too many banker types in any case. Stick to SV playbook !

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 wants to pursue, but you really need the background and the network to make it happen. The good news here is that if anyone could make it happen full-time post MBA, it feels like it could be you!! My advice would be to leverage your VC network and ask them what they think you should do and what would make you most valuable…a few years of banking first? Or try to get a VC gig immediately post MBA?

School-wise, you seem more like a GSB person than an HBS person but either way here, I wouldn’t be surprised if they want you to have a little extra seasoning first, even if it’s just one year. A school like Haas or Sloan though might scoop you up now because of the 780 and the interesting resume and ECs. Wharton is a tough call because they love a great GPA.

My recommendation would be to go all R1 and add one or two more schools to your list just because you are not a clean case here with the GPA and the age thing. Haas or CBS would be my suggestion.

Hope that helps!
Krista

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 sure you are involved during your MBA program while also giving enough time to your classwork. Plus, you’re very involved now in some interesting endeavors so you will come across as well-rounded and can probably share many ways you’ve grown and learned through these outside-of-work activities. I think you can differentiate yourself from the average computer science major with all of your leadership activities, and if you can do that, you definitely have a shot! If you want a free consult, go here: