Ms. Government To EdTech

Hi, it’s Nisha with mbaMission. It sounds like your work has had such a positive impact on people in your community in the areas of financial inclusion, education, and healthcare.

Of all of the MBA programs, Stanford (with a 7% acceptance rate) is the most competitive. Your GRE score is solid, but given your lower GPA I’d try bumping up the score as close to the mid 160s on Quant and Verbal as possible, which will maximize your chances for all of the schools you are still targeting. Regarding your career goals: I definitely understand your interest in EdTech and how it represents a good blend of your digital experience and your passion for education. Since some companies require product managers to have more technical backgrounds (i.e. undergrad engineering/computer science) I recommend researching the companies you are interested in to see what their requirements are for PMs. The alternative is to explore other roles within EdTech companies, such as product marketing or operations.

If things don’t work out with the programs you applied to this year, other schools I would consider adding to your future list are Duke Fuqua and Cornell Johnson.

I hope that helps – best of luck!

Hi Ms. Government to EdTech, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. I get very excited when I see bright young minds wanting to help innovate in the world of education. I am sure that your time working through Covid has been challenging and the experiences you have faced will help you to continue to move the needle in education, hopefully in women breaking into tech. I worked with another client in education who just graduated from Stanford in the Spring – and one thing that I think stood out in her application was the depth of her ideas/goals to make an impact in her community through education. I am sure you know Stanford is about making a big impact. So I would encourage you to think about what big impact you want to have through EdTech. Do you want to make that impact in the US or in your home country? What big problem do you want to solve long term? What type of EdTech do you want to work in? Small start up or a more established company? And why? You want to show that you have done enough research into EdTech to know that this is the right career for you. Another area to be ready to showcase is your leadership experience. With only 1-½ years of experience, you are going to need to explain why now is the right time for you to get an MBA and show that you have enough experience to make a meaningful contribution to the class – with lower than the average 5 years (middle 80% of 3-8 years). Based on the limited information here it sounds like you’ve been involved in big projects and starting a professional community, you will want to showcase your leadership within these experiences in your application. With a strong story, I think your chances are higher than average across the schools you are looking at. Best of luck and reach out if I can answer any questions.