Mr. Sir Hustle-Lot

Your personal narrative is compelling and admirable–and so are your accomplishments at work. Your basic stats are obviously on target so the only issues here are silver rather than gold credentials. You went to a non-feeder college that was not selective. If you are a first generation college graduate in your family, along with coming from humble circumstances, that is totally understandable and more than okay. It won’t be counted against you. But if you are not, that’s a tough place to start from for an M7 admission. And then you obviously work not for MBB or Deloitte or Accenture or AT Kearney but a boutique consulting shop. None of this is bad. I’m just pointing out that you will be competing for a spot at Booth and the other schools on your target list with candidates who went to Princeton or Yale, landed jobs at MBB and are effectively on that feeder track for an M7 admit. That is all why your personal story–along with the personal motivations that led to your volunteer work as a mentor to others–is so important to your success in gaining an invite to the club. You need to tell that story well to get you out of the pile of applicants and into the pile of admits. Given your success at work, I would think you would have no trouble gaining very strong recommendations from your supervisor at work. That, too, would be an essential part of amplifying and reinforcing your personal story. Good luck to you. I’m really rooting for you.