Mr. Social Impact CPA

Hi Mr. Social Impact CPA! This is Talon Rindels, Sr. Admissions Consultant at The MBA Exchange. You’ve clearly demonstrated great ambition through both your academic and professional life (CPA, significant involvement on campus, securing a job at KPMG, GMAT +8 pts to Wharton’s average, etc.) – kudos on all that you have achieved thus far! Your school choices continue to articulate your drive as well, with Wharton at one of the lowest acceptance rates in the country (9%)! Given your financial background/goals, it does seem like the right fit for you though. I believe your chances at Wharton are about double their acceptance rate, which is quite good! I’d put you slightly higher (25-30% for the others on your list). I have two key recommendations for you as your bring your admissions campaign to life: (1) You mention that you want an MBA because you are seeking a greater impact. Love that, but am not quite seeing where that comes from in your previous experience and/or your post-MBA goal as you have written it out. I suggest some deep self reflection to figure out where this ambition to “make an impact” comes from and how you really want to bring that to life. What kind of impact do you want to make and what experiences led you to that? As you share your narrative, try to get emotional and vivid, as this is what makes it authentic and believable. (2) I want to hear more about this all-hands meeting you orchestrated at KPMG – sure sounds like there is a lot to unpack there. When you include this in your narrative, I suggest you share how you came up with the idea (what was the need?), how you proactively made it happen (who did you have to get on board and how did you do that), what was your role in the meeting, and what was the ultimate outcome? I’d imagine you faced some challenges in this process, so sharing what you learned from it all and how you apply those learnings going forward will be key too. As a part of this, if you have received promotions or assignments more significant than your peers, Adcom will want to hear about that too. Best of luck – you have a lot going for you if you can package it all together in the right way!

Hello Mr. Social Impact CPA! Thanks for posting. Krista Nannery from mbaMission here. Are you from Long Island? I’m from Long Island! Exciting.
I find your profile so interesting and have so many questions. Your title refers to Social Impact, but then you say you want to do Investment Banking?! (Although I get the Green Bonds angle. At the same time though, your “why” for Green Bonds needs to be super clear in your apps.)
Here’s your challenge: In my experience, it can be hard to break into top b-schools from the Big 4 with only two years of work experience upon application. (Four years tends to be a better number.) Right now, the Class Profile at Wharton says average WE is 5 years, so it’s even a little bit higher. I would love to be wrong though so please do give it a shot and report back. You’ve got the stats so that’s great. But do you have enough experience to measurably add to the classroom environment? (It’s easy to argue yes but it’s hard because we don’t know your competition.) Schools like Stern might be an easier bet than Wharton, CBS, Kellogg, and Sloan. So think about if NOW is when you must get your MBA or if you are willing to wait another few years. If NOW, I’d suggest adding some safer options to your list.
Wharton’s admit rate these days is 20% and I’d put your chances lower than that given what I’ve seen in your competition. I know that is probably not what you were hoping to hear…Again though, I would love to be wrong! So please do keep us posted.
Krista

Hi Mr. Social Impact, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. You’ve got a lot going for you with a generally higher than average GMAT, CPA and what sounds like some solid leadership experience professionally outside of your role with the all-hands and while at Stony Brook. As a finance guy, you are going to need to differentiate yourself from other finance applicants wanting to pivot to impact investing. I’d want to dig a bit deeper into what has driven this interest. What drives you to impact investing? I love that you have a target job post MBA, this can really help articulate for admissions what you want to do. As a part of your story, since you are on the lower years of experience side for an MBA class, you are going to want to clearly explain why now is the right time for you to get your MBA. You will want to highlight what unique skills you will bring to an MBA program. Will your recommenders say that you are ahead of your peers? Wharton and all of the schools on your list are going to look for evidence of leadership and what you can bring from your experience to their MBA program. It sounds like your all-hands meeting for KPMG was a big win – this might be the story. Have you been involved in any leadership roles extracurricularly since graduation? Maybe you could find something to get involved in now? I think with a good story – your chances at Wharton are slightly above the average of 22%. And similar at the other schools on your list.