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Hi Avi2017,

Thank you for the follow-up note. Here are my observations:

1. If the courses and content look similar, then I do not view there as being a meaningful difference between UC Berkeley Extension and UCLA Extension. If I were really forced to choose, maybe Berkeley by a subconscious hair given the brand tends to carry a little more weight. But adcoms are not going to be critiquing "Berkeley versus UCLA" for a couple of extension courses. (Full disclosure: I did my MBA at UC Berkeley.)

2. You have a fantastic GMAT score and some strong experience. That's a very nice foundation. But only applying to H/S/W would be too aggressive.

(a) I don't see a ton to your story beyond the GMAT score and job. I know you can't capture everything in a Profile Review, but I'd encourage you to give HBS's Who Are We Looking For? post a read. Unless there's groundbreaking depth to that Big Brother, Big Sister experience, I don't quite see where your differentiated "Engaged Community Citizenship" comes into play.

Being light in the way of ECs and light in the way of story beyond the GMAT/job makes an already extremely difficult task even more difficult. By all means feel free to shoot for the stars, but I'd encourage to approach the process with appropriate expectations. And I'd encourage you to take the opportunity over the next couple of years to try to build out the parts of your profile that currently lack. I don't quite see the differentiators beyond the nice job and score.

(b) A 3.3 GPA is on the lower end for these programs -- probably around the 10th percentile for a given H/S/W class. Your GMAT score settles some questions about that, but you are more or less in the high GMAT / low(ish) GPA club if we're talking H/S/W, where class averages run in the 3.6 to 3.7 range. If there are courses in which you struggled, then I do believe that remedying those via additional coursework would represent credible steps on your part.

You might also give these Poets and Quants articles about the top feeder programs to HBS and Wharton a read (links below). They're a few years old now, but they underscore how concentrated the HBS and Wharton MBA classes are in "prestige" undergraduate programs.

https://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/15/t ... ss-school/
https://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/07/t ... a-program/

(c) HBS and Stanford tend to trend a little younger than most other top programs. You don't see quite as many folks with seven years of work experience at enrollment as you do elsewhere, which is what you'd seemingly have at enrollment. (The average work experience for students at HBS and Stanford are closer to four years.)

Long story short, you have a fantastic foundation with your GMAT score and jobs, and you can certainly consider including these schools in your strategy. (You'll have to decide whether it's worth to include all three, as that could tip you too aggressive overall.) But H/S are in their own league, and while Wharton is potentially more in range, I'd still encourage you develop a more balanced school strategy. Even with a more diversified list of targets, you will still absolutely need to build out your story and profile beyond the jobs and score (along all of the usual super-specific why MBA, why now, why this program, and short- and long-term career goal articulations in your future essays and applications).

Thanks!
Greg