Mr. NCAA to MBB

Hi there! It’s Stephanie Horn, Master Consultant with the MBA Exchange and recent Poets and Quants “Top 10 Admissions Consultants”. We have a lot in common — I went from a technical degree, to Kellogg, to McKinsey. This is a solid path to take. You have a good GPA in a tough major, and the fact that you completed this while competing as an NCAA athlete is something the admissions committees will respect. Your GMAT is a bit below the average for Ross/Kellogg/Booth, but I assume your quant percentage is strong. Your work experience also looks good. You will need to show that during your time at the big 3 auto manufacturer, you demonstrated strong leadership, were able to set a clear strategic vision, and build a cohesive and well-functioning team. I would double your odds for getting into the part time programs at Ross/Kellogg/Booth with your background. If I were you, I would apply FT for the upcoming year, and keep PT as a back up plan if that doesn’t work out. In addition to Yale and Darden, I recommend you also check out UCLA and Duke.

Hi Mr. NCAA to MBA! This is Kate Richardson, Senior Admissions Consultant. Whenever I work with college athletes, I have always found it to be a positive. It shows great teamwork and early leadership, and an ability to balance competing priorities. In your case, you combined that with engineering coursework, which is well known to be demanding. While your GPA is a bit below the average at Ross, it is a strong GPA for your major. Your GMAT is also a bit below the 720 average at Ross, so that makes it hard for me to put your chances above 50%, but I think you’ve got a strong shot given the strength of your current role. On a side note, if you do apply to part-time programs, your odds would significantly go up, but a full-time program would be a much better route to pivot to an MBB consulting role. One last question – any current extracurriclurs? Do you still play your college sport? Volunteer in the community? Travel extensively? Participate in work committees? If so, those would be great things to add to round out your profile.

Hi Mr. NCAA to MBB—this is Donna Bauman, Senior MBA Admissions Counselor at Stratus Admissions—and first let me encourage you to refine deeper than just MBB. While you may end up at MBB—I can tell you as a former admissions officer there is nothing memorable or unique in this goal and you are missing an opportunity by taking the road most travelled. I love your engineering background and that you have manufacturing experience. And of course as a former college athlete you know the rich tradition of Michigan in athletics—in fact when I visited Ross a few summers ago as part of keeping current within my industry by attending the AIGAC conference (Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants), the Michigan admissions staff took us to see the football stadium – signaling that this a big part of the culture there for every program—even Ross! You may be able to leverage your automotive experience on the consulting side—and with Ross being located so close the heart of the automotive industry you may find some great opportunities in this environment. Ross is a leader in experiential education with the Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) program and with the school being known for collaboration, leadership and teamwork I can see your student athlete background being a great fit. Ross needs to know that you can do the work—and I’d have to see the breakout of your 710 GMAT on V vs Q to see how they would view this score—and I’d also want to see your IR score. Use the time before you apply to work on getting the strongest score possible and reach out to students to show that you are ready to GO BLUE! I can see you looking at Kellogg also and you might want to add Duke Fuqua and potentially Tuck and Haas to your list as well. If you want to reach out for a consult please do and I may be able to give you further ideas on how to mine your background and stories to present your strongest experiences in your application! I’m a huge fan of Ross and shout out to the adcom staff there—they are such sunny and happy people that you won’t even notice that it can get a tad bit chilly up there! I wish you the best in your applications—I love working with former athletes and have helped past clients who were athletes to translate those lessons from the field to the MBA application!