Mr. Samaritan Analyst

Let me just say that I love your story. Working full-time as a Senior Analyst at Goldman Sachs while also sserving as the Chief Strategy Officer at Lazarus Rising is super impressive. The question is whether your work experience and extras can overcome a few other issues with your candidacy. While your GPA is terrific, your undergraduate degree is not from either an Ivy League or near Ivy school. That does matter at HBS, though landing that Goldman job may offset it. But it’s worth pointing out that in HBS’ Class of 2020, there’s not a single graduate from Binghamton University. In fact, there’s not a single graduate from any of the schools in the State University of New York system. Some 37% of the class came from just 14 universities, led by Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth, and Cornell. You get the picture. On the other hand, there are 44 students in the Class of 2020 who worked at Goldman. Your 690 GMAT, however, is a full 40 points below the HBS median of 730 and that could be a dealbreaker. Why? Because there will be other analysts at Goldman, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley applying who have 730 plus GMATs and you are competing against them. What puts you ahead is your leadership role at a nonprofit startup providing job search assistance to the homeless. This experience makes you an incredibly appealing candidate. If you are not accepted by HBS, I think it’s further proof that the school’s admission policies are elitist or that it is over-indexing GMAT scores.

Very impressive, robust professional profile with substantial for-profit and non-profit components. Adcoms should love the combo of being a GS senior analyst — with quantified impact — who’s also chief strategist for an organizing helping homeless people get jobs. All that at age 24! Your post-MBA career goal is awesome and believable. Kudos on your strong GPA in accounting. However (you knew that was coming) that 690 GMAT doesn’t cut it. Surely someone with your academic and professional background can get a 730+ with some additional prep. Especially at your age, targeting the top schools makes good sense. No need to “settle” so give HBS and the others your best shot after bumping up that GMAT.

Hello Mr. Samaritan Analyst! Krista Nannery from mbaMission here. WOW is about all I can say right now. I love this rare and interesting GS/Lazarus combination. I’ve worked with great GS people who had a few strong extracurriculars, but nothing at this level of commitment! It says volumes about your character and will really set you apart during this process. However, that 690 and the 2.5 years of work experience are going to hold you back at the top level. So the question becomes…do you want your MBA right now? If so, Fuqua, Ross, Stern etc would love to have you. But if you are really hoping to make H/S/W happen, please invest in the GMAT (or switch to the GRE), and consider adding another year of work experience before you apply. (One other suggestion…HBS tends to like the 2 years banking/2 years PE combo so perhaps give that some consideration. To be clear, I’m not saying don’t apply now. I’m just thinking that your chances will be higher with 4 years of experience on application and a great GMAT score.)