Ask Marvel Admissions

Hello Admissions Consultants


I wanted to gauge whether or not people think I should apply to Stanford GSB Round 2. I know it is difficult to determine admissions prospects based on limited information, but I wanted to gauge whether or not my profile and general story would be interesting enough to warrant a serious consideration. I have already applied to many top 10 business schools and received interview invites and now debating on whether or not to spend 50+ hours on the Stanford Round 2 app.

First the demographic information


GMAT: 740 (fairly even breakdown between quant and verbal)
GPA: 3.8 in Accounting and Finance (top 50ish private university, attended on full tuition merit scholarship)
WE: 3 years at prestigious financial institution (think Goldman Sachs- D.E. Shaw group) in client facing role (not I banking though)- Promoted twice, lead numerous international projects (but do not have direct reports) and tons of international client experience. During college, I helped develop ideas for a start up that raised 1+ million dollars.
-Asian Female, immigrated to country at age 16 without knowing English from Korea, (family is low income, lived in a lower income area)

Career goals: Short term, non-profit management consulting (Bridgespan type firm), long term to entrepreneurship (have a very specific type of idea/industry that my background supports that I would prefer not to divulge here)

However, I am concerned about my weaknesses
-No leadership title at my job (my company, most people are not managing others in an official "title" capacity until they have 5+ years experience)
-lower than average volunteer experience- I feel that everyone I know that got into Stanford worked in the Peace Corps, Teach for America or worked on large scale volunteer projects. I work about 12+ hours daily, and only involved in small volunteer activities on the weekend (mentoring program for immigrant high school students)
-feel work experience is too traditional and goals are too traditional (want to move from finance to consulting)
-No alumni recommendations (someone mentioned that this is important for Stanford)
-Not from an IVY league school like everyone else at my company who gets into GSB


What would your hunch be? Do you think that based on the information provided, I should focus on one particular area in my application and or how I should address my weaknesses? They say online Stanford Round 2 is much more competitive, which is discouraging.

Hi All,

Here are my stats. Any comments, suggestions, or help would be very much appreciated. After HBS & GSB (expected next week) Round 1 dings, I'm re-evaluating my Round 2 chances and personal expectations. Not sure if I should remain hopeful for other top-10 programs like Wharton, CBS, Booth, or aim a little lower (top-20). Sorry for the length. I'm partly using this as an exercise in self-reflection.

Profile
Male
29 Year Old
Mexican American
First in Family to College
Living in New York City
730 GMAT (V44, Q47)

Education
HYP Ivy - B.A. Architecture with Distinction
3.4 GPA (Overall) 3.8 GPA (Major)

HYP Ivy - Master of Architecture (3-Yr Professional Program)
Pass/Low-Pass/Fail grading- received all Passes

Major Extracurriculars
Appointed Teaching Fellow for 3 Courses in Graduate School
Appointed Teaching Assistant for 1 Course in Graduate School
A few other minor leadership positions for clubs, publications.

Accreditation
Licensed Architect in NY State (Required 5600 internship hours post-Masters degree, and passing 7 separate State Exams)
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson in NY State (Required 75-hr course, and passing State Exam)

Work Experience
2-years at Large International Architecture Firm, working on massive developments in China (2mil SF+)
1.5-years at Boutique Architecture/Development Firm focused on NYC high-end Condo Development
.5 (Current) Founded Real Estate Development Startup and have become Real Estate Agent

Goal
To transition from architecture to real estate development. Post-MBA, would like to be at a large, multinational Real Estate Development/Investment/Management company, or at an IB in the Real Estate division.

Main Weaknesses
Work Experience
A) Early-career architecture experience is essentially an apprenticeship, with few opportunities for significant leadership or responsibility. Your only choice is often to simply take orders from those with 10+ more years of experience, while jumping from project to project. I worry much of this will be perceived poorly when juxtaposed to more traditional pre-MBA job experience where there is typically opportunity for growth & promotions and quantifiable means of measurement (sold X amount, led X teammates, analyzed X, etc). Any of my supervisors would give me the highest performance marks; this just doesn't translate to significant promotion within firms.

B) Previous job ended in a layoff (not performance based; office lost a few projects).

C) Currently working on own Real Estate company startup with the intention of starting a few projects soon. Have also become a RE Agent. This career direction had been my intention (I incorporated Jan '12) but the timing of the unexpected layoff makes it seem like a euphemism for being 'unemployed'. When attempting a startup, not sure how much adcom committees expect in the form of tangible accomplishments.


Quantitative Performance
Have a very dismal C+ in Calc and C- in another math course during my sophomore year of undergrad (a whole 10-yrs ago now), and nearly no other Quant courses on my transcript. I was overly focused on my architecture major, and simply didn't give much effort on many of my other courses that year. Since then, I have a B+ in Physics, a B+ in Structures (Statics), and a 'Pass' in the graduate level Structures II. Additionally, I passed the NY State 'Structures' exam required for licensure.
I'm fully aware I'd have to take 'math camp' prior to enrolling at any school, but wonder if some of this past quant performance is the weakest link in my application, only remedied by a good performance in some kind of Continuing Education Stat or Econ class prior to applying.


Essays
I did not use the optional essays to confront these weaknesses, and now realize that I should have. Would definitely do this in future applications.


Thank you all for your thoughts.

Hi,

Kudos on making some great, quantifiable improvements to the family business.

What type of management consulting would you like to do? You may want to leverage your industry and functional experience.

You can refer to this list for GMAT and GPA info to select a short-list of schools, and then research consulting recruiting and entrepreneurship curriculum at the schools. You may also want to consider preference for class size and location.

https://business-schools.findthebest.com/

Good luck!

Christine Lin

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Hey Christine

Thanks for your help. I know that Gmat and GPA and wrk exp are not the only criteria. Are the average Gmat scores for schools higher for Indian applicants.
Can you pls suggest some schools for my profile

I want to specialize in Finance or Strategy
Can I target any of the Top 20 schools? Would they be possible with my profile and score?

Which would be possible universities for me?

Thanks for your help!!

Hi All,

I'd like to ask some guidance on my profile, what's my chance of getting admitted?

Schools Interested:
HBS, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Columbia (only interested in going full-time to these schools if I'm admitted)

Profile: I've been in the US since 2007 for my MS in Marketing.

work:
2yrs: automotive retail dealer/digital marketing, Boston
1yr: top-3 automotive European tire company, digital marketing, NYC
2yrs(at time of Fall,13): top-1 US trucking company, digital marketing, Philly.
Goal: I want to be a successful marketing/product person in the automotive manufacturing industry.
all mid-level manager positions, always go above and beyond, consistently promoted, excellent reference from everyone/supervisors/partners.

academics:
GMAT (new): 770
MS in Marketing Analytics, Bentley University, Boston. GPA: 3.78, 1/20 in class, interned at Microsoft and Mazda.
BS in Civil Engineering, Top Engineering shool, China. GPA: 2.3 (I hated physics and there is no way to change major, barely made it)
Excellent reference from professors in Graduate School.

leadership:
managing advertising agency.
Leader in climbing/hiking group, I climbed the highest mountain in each of the 48 states in the US, tons of volunteers in outdoor organizations.

struggle:
I hated civil engineering and I love marketing and cars, I did my very best to change my fate by getting into a US school and studied what I wanted, I was the top student at Gradate school and had progressed well but I felt in many time without an ivy-league I simply cannot open doors to companies I want to work for. I've worked with many ivy-school people from Google/Mckinsey and felt myself a equal member to them. I'm concerned that my extremely low undergrad GPA/that I did follow the top-undergrade > 3-5 yrs top school formula are going to cost me a chance to go to my dream schools.

strength:
extremely persistent and passionate - I had a group of Google engineers working with us by mailing their Senior VPs.
clear career goal, good presenter.
I'm always looking to improve myself and do the best with what I've got.

1. what's my chance of getting admitted in one of the schools?
2. should I apply for R2 '13 or just wait for '14? I do not see any significant career advancement for me for working another year, but applying for R2'13 means I have only 1 month to get reference/essays done and I didn't want to rush it. I'll be 29 in '13 and I'm afraid 30 would be too old for B-schools by looking at their class profile (and I have visited a class at each school, impressed most by Stanford)

Thanks!
-Alex

Age 25, Male, Indian

Academic Details:

Xth Grade -83.2%
XIIth Grade - 85.4%
Electronics and Communication Engineering from one of the top 10 Engineering Colleges in India.
Top 10% of the batch , Percentage -76.4%
GMAT - 680 (Q49, V32 , AWA 5 , IR 8)

Work Experience:

2 years 5 months , Technical Sales Engineer: Field Sales Office.

As a technical Sales in one of the top Semiconductor company ,I handle and manage the top clients from Telecom, Industrial, Renewable Energy and Automotive domains . My primary responsibility is to drive revenue and develop sales strategy at these high potential clients.
Work involves understanding the client applications by both technically and commercially by working with the top management.
Recommending suitable semiconductor solutions by leveraging internal applications and systems teams.
Other key functions of my job are Channel Management, Revenue forecasting and development of 'pricing strategies' based on market and competition analysis.
I have been able to generate a business pipeline of $1M since I joined the field sales role.

Also,worked in the US for 8 months in different product groups and conducted market research on upcoming technologies. The data was utilized by the strategic marketing team to affirm the market strategy.

Extra Curricular Activities:

- Chief organizer of the Literary events in the college cultural festival.
- Organized and represented my employer in technical training and workshop at my college.
- Mentored new hires.

MBA Goal :

My immediate goal is to transition to a Product Marketing role in technology company. Long term goal is to get into strategic marketing.
A school strong in technology marketing courses and having a good alumni network in the hi-tech product/ renewable energy companies would be suited for my needs.

Target Schools are :

1) Kellogg
2) Haas
3) UCLA
4) Tepper
5) Tuck
6) NUS

I believe a relatively low GMAT score and a slightly less work-ex and no volunteer activities can hinder my chances for admission at top B schools this year. Would want to hear your views and other recommended B-Schools that I can apply to.

Also, would love to hear your views on what can make my profile stronger for these schools if I choose to apply next year.

Thanks!

Thanks Christine for your comments and advice
I want to get into analytics and corporate strategy, and thus my short term and long term goals align accordingly (to keep it short).
Also, given my GMAT score, GPA and the demographics, I guess an MBA from Cornell would be well beyond my reach.
Let me know if you think the schools I mentioned are within reach, or if that list needs some tweaking.

Thanks again!

HI,

Hi,

I would be happy to help. Just email me your resume at clin@marveladmissions.com, and we can set up time to talk.

https://marveladmissions.com/contact-us/

Thanks.

Christine Lin

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Gmat 650, V - 37, Q - 43.
Undergrad 3.56 - Berkeley
Employed in sales ops at Google Inc.
1 year + of experience

I have two great letters of rec from two managers directly above me.

Target schools - Oxford, Cambridge (I am from the U.S. and am planning to pay full tuition), USC, Northwestern, Duke, Darthmouth.

I am not sure what I would like for my primary concentration as of now, but generally in the field of management, sustainability, or human resources.