MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 18 Apr 2013
Posts: 2226
Given Kudos: 3
Location: Chicago, IL
Re: 740 w/m/24! Thanks!
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30 Aug 2014, 05:40
Hi there,
Thanks so much for posting! Academically, you're good to go. Fantastic GMAT (congrats!) and a solid GPA. Your freshmen year GPA is a bit low but, let's be honest, you're not the first and you won't be the last! Also, you majored/minored in pretty difficult subjects and that'll give you a good "difficulty" boost. Not for the freshmen year, but overall.
From a professional standpoint, you're pretty young. Even for people coming from consulting and banking (who have been there the whole time), we're starting to see a trend of people waiting until after their 3rd year to apply. The reason for that is simple - your 3rd year at one of these firms (or, in your case, the 2nd) will give you more leadership and involvement opportunities. Your impact will go up. Your project work will get cooler, etc. So you've made a good career decision moving into consulting now but you're still young.
Looking at involvement, it's great that you started that basketball initiative but it seems a) you're done with it and b) you only did it for a year or year and a half. So you're light in this category. Being at a consulting firm will help because they "encourage" you to get involved and you'll need that. It shows a lot of initiative to kick off the basketball thing, however, and I'm sure that was a very interesting experience!
Finally, in terms of goals, you're ok. Nothing earth shattering. If your goal is to go from consulting to industry, then your ONLY goal should be brand name. All the firms out there work with pharma - with ~$350B in N. America, you can bet your bottom dollar they're all working for those firms. But your progression makes sense.
Ok - now to schools! The million dollar question. H/S/W are probably not going to happen. If you want to apply, go ahead, but pick one. The one that makes the most sense. Probably W. Sloan is a stretch too but they like engineers. You don't really come across as highly differentiated yet though. Anything below Columbia starts to become a little more realistic. I'd say throw in something < 15 if you want to get in this year.
THAT SAID - you could always go aggressive this year as long as you're ok with the fact that you might be reapplying next year. That's a fine strategy because it ensures you don't apply to a safety this year and go when you could've gotten into a better school next year!
Bhavik