uphillclimb wrote:
Hi Paul. I'm applying this year for B-school. Just re-took GMAT, and here are my stats:
Gender: Female
Age: 42
Education: Smith College undergrad, GPA 3.3, Political Science major.
Resume: Straight out of college, 5 years on Wall Street - went through training program at major commercial bank, was placed in private banking sector, promoted to Assistant Treasurer. Left to pursue music/acting career. Traveled all over the country playing in bands and working in theatre for many years. Started writing in earnest. Won top honors in 2 screenwriting competitions for my recent screenplay. Took day job at start up PE firm. Raised my hand a lot when projects were being handed out, and thus went from CEO's assistant to general office manager and investor relations liasion. Responsible for hiring 3 people in the past year, 2 as assistants, one as addtional accounting person. Also function as primary liasion between our fund sales agent and our partners.
Outside interests /clubs etc: play piano and sing in old folks homes around NYC. Am now well-versed in WWII swing ballads! Also, tutored two other assistants after work - 1 passed the NYPD exam and is applying as an officer candidate, and the other managed to graduate from college (she was going at night - first person in her family to graduate from college)
Final GMAT score: 740 - 46Q, 45V - 97th percentile. Also recently took Pre-Calculus class at NYU and received grade of "A".
Why MBA: eventually, to start my own film production company. Want to write/produce quality films with strong, funny female characters who audiences can identify with and root for, and thus help to change the often negative portrayals of women in pop culture.
Target schools: Columbia (great media program), HAAS (ditto - more digital media, but still), Harvard (b/c 4 people from my firm, including my immediate boss, are Baker Scholars from there, and insisted that I should include it in my lineup.)
These are all top schools, and thus long shots, I know, but would appreciate your thoughts and any insight you can provide on my candidacy.
Many thanks for your time!
UphillClimb,
You have a very distinctive profile. Very, very few people in their 40s are admitted to these programs so your odds, difficult already because of the quality and competitiveness of these programs, will be all the tougher. My concerns, other than age, include the fact that "general office manager and investor relations liasion" does not sound like a strong enough title (in terms of responsibility and direct reports etc.) for someone your age to be bringing to these schools. The other is that your profile, while hugely interesting and unusual, is not of the 'change the world' variety, which the B-schools tend to warm to. That is, your impact thus far may not be substantial enough for these schools.
Of the three I think Haas is your best chance, followed by CBS, and then HBS. I would encouage you to add some less-selective schools to your list and to perhaps apply to more programs than people typically do to spread your odds a bit.
I hope this helps,
close
07 Oct 2007, 11:29
