Ms. Rocket Engineer

Hi Ms. Rocket Engineer, this is Kristen from MBA Prep School. As a former MIT Sloan adcom, there is SO much to love about your profile. Your academic credentials are excellent, but even more impressive are your roles in male-dominated industries. Your recent accomplishments at SpaceX are going to be particularly eye-catching! Although your GMAt is slightly lower than the average at Sloan and Stanford, your other strengths make it easy to overlook. You will need to focus your efforts on fleshing out your career goals more. Is there a particular type of manufacturing company that interests you, and why? How does this connect with your past roles and passions (what has the progression been, how/why did you move from oil to aerospace)? What does Sloan (or GSB or Darden) have to offer to help you achieve these goals? I am pretty confident Sloan will want to interview you, but for Stanford I think you will need to hone in on the greater impact of your aspirations. This is where those career details come in handy (perhaps you want to make manufacturing more sustainable). Feel free to reach out to chat more!

If I closed my eyes and tried to conjure up a more perfect MBA candidate for MIT Sloan I would be hardpressed not to imagine you! Your unique (particularly for a woman) experience in working on an offshore rig for ExxonMobil and as an engineer at SpaceX would make you jump out of any pile of MBA applications. Top that off with your 3.9 in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech, your tutoring, and a strong 710 GMAT (though below MIT’s 723 average and Stanford’s 934 average) and you are in very good shape. I think your chances at Stanford are very good, especially if Stanford talk about GMATs not being as important as their class averages might indicate. Good luck to you!

Hi Ms. Rocket Engineer, This is Donna Bauman with Stratus Admissions–and I can’t resist saying– gee—your work actually is rocket science! So I am impressed with your technical skills and having a 3.9 from GA Tech in engineering is also quite impressive. When you think about Sloan valuing people who build things, I can imagine they would love your background. I also see the appeal of GSB but I’d like to see a bit more crispness in what you plan to do post MBA as your goal here is a bit vague. Do you want to use your knowledge in aerospace? Are you passionate about this industry and see it as a way to make the world a better place? You will have to connect the dots a bit more with GSB in terms of what matters most but overall you do have a great pre-MBA profile and I can see anyone who led building a spaceship to get human launch capability back to the US could be someone who brings some great insights to class discussions. I also like your odds at Darden. I’m curious why you have these 3 particular schools. I think going through introspection to help laser in on your story a bit more could help you as you move through the MBA application process. Please reach out if you would like to know more about how Stratus’s introspection process might uncover some gems in your past to help you connect the dots in your story even more! And I imagine you’ve watched this—but if not I suggest you might enjoy the new Netflix Space Force show!