Ms. British Surgeon

Hi Ms. British Surgeon, wow, you have an impressive background in many ways (3.8 in neuroscience, surgeon, yoga and ski and snowboard instructor), but the 2 year MBA at Harvard is likely to be a stretch. While there are always exceptions to the rule, after 30, the window on the 2 year MBA programs tends to close a bit, and the adcoms tend to size you up as a better fit for a PT MBA or EMBA program. If you can articulate why this MBA in particular and why now, though, they will certainly consider you seriously…I do recommend, however, retaking your GMAT, aiming at 700+, or switching to the GRE, which seems to have more forgiving reception for below-the-average scores at most MBA programs. Because of these last two factors, I’m going to put your chances at 5%, which is about half the normal admit rate….but a truly compelling story and ambition could make a difference here. Good luck! Warmly, Julie-Anne Heafey, mbaMission

Hi Ms. British Surgeon, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. As someone who has had surgery through the NHS, thanks for what you do! I have so many questions I’d love to be able to ask you to dig deeper into what you are looking for from an MBA. As a surgeon, I see you are interested in regenerative medicine and entrepreneurship and would love to hear more about your plans and why an MBA is the right path for you to do this. I ask because while your GPA is strong, I am concerned about your 610 GMAT score for HBS. I’d also like to learn a bit more about your community involvement – obviously being in the medical field you are giving back to your community – and I’d love to know how you are involved outside of your role as a surgeon? While teaching snowboarding and yoga will show that you can lead a class/individuals, HBS will be looking for examples of leadership either through your role as a surgeon or in your community. In order to overcome your lower GMAT score, you will need an extremely compelling story – and based on the limited info here – I’d love to learn more to help pull that story out. Can you identify examples of your leadership potential through your work as a surgeon. Your goals allude to both entrepreneurship and leading as a surgeon. What has been your inspiration to start something on your own – a gap or opportunity in the system? Not knowing where you are on your GMAT journey, I would suggest that you take the GMAT again. Increasing this score will help show that you can handle the quantitative rigor of the program. Please sign up for a consult if you’d like to discuss your profile further. My assessment is based on your current GMAT score and it would increase with an increase in score and a compelling story. Also, I never like to see a 1 schools strategy – especially with an extremely competitive school like HBS. There are fantastic schools that have strong ties to medical universities that would really value your desire to bridge medicine and business. I would suggest looking at Ross, Duke, NYU and Vanderbilt. Good luck!