Ms. Economics

Admission at your first choice school, Stanford GSB, is a long shot. That is true for everyone, not only you, because the school rejected more than 93% of the self-selecting pool of candidates who apply to the GSB every year. In Stanford’s Class of 2020, moreover, there’s not a single student who graduated from either Megatrend University or the University of Begrade. Like it or not, Stanford goes heavily for Ivy League types. The top feeder colleges to the MBA program are Harvard (25 admits in the Class of 2020), Stanford (23), Yale (19), UPenn (15), Columbia (13), Brown (11), Dartmouth (10), and Princeton (9).
Those students make up a good chunk of the 419 MBAs in the class. In fact, 53% of the class came from just 19 undergraduate institutions. So while your basic stats are on target, where you went really counts at Stanford. Add in the fact that your two employers are boutiques and not likely big brand feeders to the school and your chances are slim at Stanford. Obviously, they improve elsewhere, particularly schools that welcome larger incoming classes and have higher admit rates, especially Chicago Booth, Columbia (apply early decision there), and Yale which would find your international work experience a plus. The one opening you may have is the fact that you are from Serbia and would definitiely contribute to the diversity of the Stanford class. So a lot of your odds will depend on your personal story, the choices you’ve made so far in your life, the challenges you’ve been able to overcome, the difference you want to make, and the person you are. All that is hard to discern from a limited profile here.

Hello Ms. Economics! Thanks for posting. Krista Nannery from mbaMission here.
Funnily, I spent pretty much all of April last year in Belgrade, working remotely during our quieter season and trying to write my novel. I ate a lot of cevapi!! (Didn’t make much progress on the novel unfortunately.)
Back to you — I have actually NEVER worked with a Serbian client before. That makes comparisons more difficult but given your excellent academic results, strong GRE, and interesting international work experience, I think you will stand out during this competitive process.
If you were my client, here’s what I would try to figure out with you:
US work experience…is it too boutique-y? I’d try to make this really easy for the AdCom to understand and sell it as much as possible. Easier said than done I know.
UAE work experience…super interesting and b-schools tend to go for things like the steel industry so there’s probably more to talk about and sell here. I’d want to know your impact, your C-suite exposure, and if you are working across the region. A Serbian gal flying all over the Middle East is a very unique perspective to add to the classroom. (I’m curious though what “Business Assistant” means and hope that it is a role that has an impact and is not too much of a support function.)
As John notes, GSB is tough for anyone so just go into the process understanding that. Definitely apply but understand the odds/numbers here.
I think Booth will go for your goals and Yale will like your international-ness. Because you are so unique and different, I’d like you to have one safer option on this list…maybe something like Stern or Ross? Just because you apply doesn’t mean you have to go, but I like all of my clients to have multiple options at the end of this process! Stern has great analytics offerings if that is your bag and Ross sends more students to Silicon Valley than most other programs.
I’ve given you a 40% chance overall for your current list of schools ex GSB and HBS. For GSB, I’d put that at 5% just because it is GSB. HBS might be slightly higher because of the steel industry thing — they love big industry — but still tough.
I hope that helps!
Krista