Ms. Business, Tech & Education

Ms. Business, Tech & Education, you check the boxes. You’re 3.5 GPA is slightly below the class average of 3.7 at Stanford but in the ball park. You got your undergraduate degree in economics from Northwestern University and there are three Northwestern alums in the GSB’s Class of 2020 who majored in economics, engineering sciences & applied mathematics, and psychology. Your GRE of 332 is two points above the latest 330 average for the class. You work for a top firm in consulting so I am going to assume it is MBB. And you have a nice set of extras as well, including a leadership position for an organization that teaches entrepreneurial skills to disadvantaged high school students. Plus, you are a woman. The newest class to enter Stanford his a record 47% and the school is eager to reach gender parity. So that is in your favor as well. But as you well know, the acceptance rate of 6.7% at GSB makes it a tough place to crack, and the people who apply to the GSB are a self-selecting pool that includes a good many consultants. I think you have a better shot at Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg given the size of their incoming classes and the higher admit rates at those schools. More importantly, any one of these schools will allow you to achieve your post-MBA goal of becoming a product manager in an ed-tech startup. I’m sure you know that both Wharton and Kellogg offer full-time MBA students the chance to study and intern in the Bay Area for a semester (Wharton) or a quarter (Kellogg) which could line you up nicely for that startup job. Bottom line: I think you have a better than 6.7% chance at getting into Stanford but even five times the overall admit rate comes to around 30%. That’s not exactly a shoe in but it’s also a helluva lot better than the typtrical acceptance rate for the most selective prestige MBA program in the world.

A well-rounded MBA candidacy for sure! That said, coming from an over-represented category of applicants (i.e., management consultants from top firms), you definitely have your work cut out for you. It will be essential to differentiate yourself with evidence of your direct/tangible/quantified impact — something that many MBB consulting applicants find difficult to do. Also, your stated post-MBA goal will need to come alive and reveal more about what you’ve learned and done as a consultant. Your academic profile is solid — econ degree from NU with a decent, albeit average, GPA is respectable. Plus a very competitive GRE score. The international aspect of your work experience and personal interests is a plus. An your extracurriculars are quite impressive — adcoms love to see candidates involved in education. Having lots of cool, social, “active” hobbies will resonate with GSB adcoms. Your targeting the right schools — at age 25, with your background, you should aim high.

Hey Ms. Business, Tech & Education! Krista Nannery from mbaMission here. Thanks for posting. I think you’re an exciting candidate…URM, great stats, great work experience. Candidates like you don’t come along that often…EXCEPT at HBS and GSB. Just be cognizant of that.
My first recommendation for you is to take advantage of all the amazing resources that The Consortium provides. While the schools on your list don’t all participate, The Consortium is a great organization and has some great events and support resources.
My second recommendation for you is to add one more school here….three-school strategies can be risky especially when two of those schools are HBS and GSB. Haas to me seems like the no-brainer given your goals but talk to current students and research their offerings to understand why I say that.
Remember GSB cares about “change lives, change organizations, change the world…” so make sure your goals align with what they are looking for and remember, with such a low admit rate, if you are not successful, it’s not you! It’s them.
For HBS, to really understand the picture more clearly, I’d need to know more about your consulting experience and other leadership experiences.
Kellogg, assuming you execute well on your apps, seems like a great choice for you.
Add Haas to give yourself another option and mitigate for the riskiness of GSB and HBS and I think you will do really well in this process!
My best,
Krista