MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 2457
Given Kudos: 2
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Profile Review for 2010 (Am I dreaming?)
[#permalink]
09 Apr 2009, 21:26
Put it this way. There are plenty of folks with stronger profiles than you who are getting rejected from HBS and Stanford - they have bluer chip resumes, they are younger, and they decent extracurriculars (some even exceptional).
There are Harvard/Princeton/Yale + McKinsey/BCG/Bain/Goldman/MorganStanley types who don't get into HBS, Wharton or Stanford. And plenty of private equity dudes getting rejected -- it's not that special anymore since there's so many pre-MBA PE types (given the growth in that sector comes an increase in headcount).
HBS, Wharton and Stanford are going to be stretches for you. I wouldn't count on getting into them. Maybe apply to one or two of them.
Focus on schools like Sloan, Columbia, Chicago, Kellogg, Tuck in the US; and if you want to work in Europe, it's LBS and INSEAD. These should be where your core focus should be. H/S/W should be your lottery tickets.
You're not dreaming and you can by all means stick to your target schools, but you have to keep more realistic expectations of where you have a better shot of getting admitted.