hbsguru wrote:
https://poetsandquants.com/2011/09/16/handicapping-your-shot-at-getting-in/THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF THIS EVER-POPULAR SERIES, WHICH INCLUDES THIS AND FIVE OTHER ANALYSES.
Quote:
Ms. Riveter
760 GMAT
3.75 GPA
Undergraduate degree in international studies and political science from a public ivy with highest honors
Working in Asia for a U.S. aerospace company, first in sales support and for the last year and one-half in a marketing leadership role managing resellers
Extracurricular involvement includes alumni club leader, co-author of U.S. history scholarship “in un-famous periodicals with my uncle (yes, it’s a weird hobby)” and freelance researcher for the local national social science research center
25-year-old white American female
“Out of curiosity, when these schools ask applicants to provide salary data, (how) does the adcom use that information?”
Odds of Success:
Harvard Business School: 20% to 40%
Stanford: 10% to 20%
Wharton: 20% to 50%
Sandy’s Analysis: Kids like you get into H/S/W and get dinged depending on execution, extras and luck. HBS likes females in Aero and the Asian angle might help a little too, although Harvard might actually prefer someone working in a U.S. Aero plant, even in sales.
Still, you should stick with what you got. Aero is one part of manufacturing the U.S. has not totally given up on, and, well, someone has to sell it. Go lite on the managing resellers part, whatever that means, and make it seem like you are pals with Rosie the Riveter. For our readers who are under 40, that would be Rosie.
Despite having the basics of super solid grades, schooling and gmat, and job, you need to somehow make this more exciting: This could turn on family background and extras, and you are either light on extras or under-reporting in the above note.
As for “Coauthoring U.S. history scholarship in un-famous periodicals with my uncle,” make sure that is history about victims, under-served groups, Native Americans, and somehow work in how doing that research has shown you blah, blah, blah. “Freelance researcher for the local national social science research center . . . .”
I got no idea what that means, but same story: connect your experience there to the real world and if that real world includes victims, all the better. Working for a social science center could actually be promising, if you are doing research about poverty, disease or poor people.
You asked: “Out of curiosity, when these schools ask applicants to provide salary data, (how) does the adcom use that information?” Mostly nosiness, but they expect your salary to be at par with peers in your profession, especially in banking and consulting. They also expect to see salary increases in-line with star performance, although the actual number is less important. They obviously know that investment bankers make more than kids who work at Teach For America. In your case, they would expect to see normal salary increases over the three years.
Despite all you got going for you, I am not getting a good H or S vibe out of this, it could just be your report, and we don’t know what those solid extracurricular leadership experiences you refer to are. But something about this does not hang together in any interesting way. I could be wrong. Your job in putting together the application is to make it more interesting than your report. You will also need to manage your recommenders, especially if they are new to this game.
It could be that my real problem is that you do not present like an aero type, but that is your strong suit. Although that does not have to be your goal, you need to present your job as more exciting and impactful. It would help if you were a star at your company. HBS admits female sales types, but they are usually sales super-stars.
Sandy, I LOVE all of your posts on B-school chances. They are absolutely amazing. However, I feel like you haven't really addressed foreigners who are not Asian/Indian. I'm not seeing South America, Africa, Europe...
This was my post:
Hey Sandy!
I am applying R1 to H/W and not sure about Stanford yet... also doing Chicago and UCLA.
I am 24/female/Brazilian. I work at a top 3 advertising global firm and manage the accounts of top multinational clients. I majored in Journalism, got a 116 on TOEFL and 710 (46q/42v/6.0awa) on the GMAT.
I have 3 years of full-time work experience at my company. I was also a competitive gymnast and work with gymnastics and coach poor Brazilian kids in the weekend. I haven't gone to Africa to save the world, but I'm very passionate about sport inclusion in my country.
As I progress in my job, I feel like due to my humanities major I really lack business knowledge to be a business leader in the future.
My main weakness is my quant. I did not take quant classes in college and my 46q on the GMAT wasn't quite on the 80%. It was on the mid 70's.
Sometimes I feel like I am a very interesting candidate because I'm 24, women, Brazilian, work with advertising. But, at the same time I feel like maybe I'm not good enough for HBS, for example. I mean, can my 710 GMAT compete with all the star 750+ ibankers and consultants with an engineering or economics major?
Please let me know if I have a genuine shot. Thanks.
Appreciate if you could give a personal input.