First of all, thank you for taking the care to read this little paragraph and for your advice on this for my application to HBS 2+2. I would be applying for the 2023 intake.

Relevant Academics:
Top European Master in Finance (LSE/Oxbridge/HEC Paris): GPA 3.7/4.0
1 Year Exchange program US (Ivy League/MIT/UChicago/Stanford): GPA 3.7/4.0
BSc in Economics at Target uni in Spain (GPA 8.5/10 - Top 5% of Class)

Relevant Work Experience:
McKinsey & Company (full-time Business Analyst) starting Sept 2020
GS/JPM/MS/LAZ/EVE/MOELIS/PJT - M&A Analyst (Summer 2020)
Top Strategy Consulting Boutique in Spain (Summer Business Analyst 2019)
Past internships in Strategy Consulting and in Corporate during Bachelor (2016-2018)

Extracurriculars:
Start-Up Founder: €200k valuation at seed-round (€25k funding) + lead Start Up to become finalist of major European Start Up Event
GMAT: 710
Participated in various university Clubs
Languages: Fluent in English, Spanish, Catalan and Intermediate in French

Goals:
Access a top Managerial role in corporate with the MBA on which I can make use of the knowledge I acquired in McKinsey + Corporate Finance knowledge acquired in my MIF

Do you think I should re-take the gmat that I took to access the MIF?

Eval request, experts!

So I have secured admits from INSEAD and LBS and currently await the final decisions of Booth, Kellogg and Tuck. The only other school I applied to during R1 was CBS (but they rejected me without interview). I was wondering if I should put in the effort for a Harvard or Stanford application. Any thoughts? Profile below.

Nationality / Age - Indian, 27, F
Undergrad - Graduated with a law degree from one of India's top 10 national law schools: My 66% grades would place me in top-10% of my batch of 120.
GMAT - 710 (V40/Q49/ IR5/ AWA6)
Work Experience - Over 4 years PQE at this date, with 5 years completed by the time of the MBA start: (i) 2 years in a tier 1 law firm (top-6 law firms in India); and (ii) currently in India's #1 law firm from the last 2 years. Recently promoted to Senior Associate (i.e., 1 of 3 promotions to reach partnership in the firm). Have extensive M&A/PE transactional experience from a legal perspective. Work exclusively with foreign clients, including global PE funds such as WP, BX, Brookfield and GS.
Leadership - One of under 15 transactional lawyers in India with expertise in bank-NBFC mergers. Have played the role of corporate lead or due diligence lead in multiple transactions.
Recommendations - One from current law firm supervising Partner and one from my former firm's supervising Partner. Can replace the latter with a client recommendation as well, if considered better (think: 2016 HSW grad working at Warburg/BX/GS or a Chinese client overseeing their international business strategy).
Post MBA goals - To shift into consulting, and eventually set up my own small advisory that combines strategy consulting with legal advisory for M&As.
EC experience both during and post graduation - Quite strong.

Hello LadyGaladriel,

If you would prefer to attend HBS or Stanford than LBS or INSEAD, then it makes sense to apply to HBS/Stanford. Given your achievements, your application will be given serious consideration. Although your GMAT is below average for both programs, it is not so low that they will question your ability to thrive in their programs. Given your goals, especially if you see yourself wanting connections and network in the U.S., I can see where a Stanford or HBS degree would be helpful to you.

Go for it.

If you'd like help with your application, please check out these resources:

Accepted's MBA Admissions Consulting
Get Accepted to Harvard Business School, a recorded webinar that dissects the HBS application and provide advice on completing it.
Get Accepted to Stanford GSB, a recorded webinar for Stanford's MBA program.
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Hi LadyGaladriel,

Congratulations on your INSEAD and LBS acceptances! And fingers crossed for good news from the other US schools that you're waiting on.

I assume that you're thinking of applying to Harvard and Stanford right now, in R2 for matriculation in Fall 2020 -- is that correct? My main question for you would be whether the opportunity to potentially enroll at Harvard or Stanford is worth enough to you that you would be willing to wait another year and apply in R1 or R2 2020 for matriculation in Fall 2021 instead. While your acceptances to INSEAD and LBS are definitely super positive signs, the fact that CBS didn't give you an interview raises some questions for me about how your application could be strengthened for a Harvard or Stanford-caliber applicant pool. If I were you, I would want to put my absolute best foot forward when applying to these top programs, rather than pulling something together at the last minute (this year's R2 deadlines are VERY close at this point).

If you would consider waiting a year, then I would recommend retaking the GMAT to try to boost your score to at least a 730 (unless you've already taken the GMAT multiple times by now) and really committing yourself to writing stand-out essays. I love your legal background, as that will certainly make you stand out, but that also means that you've got some explaining to do with regards to why you want an MBA now and how you've developed not only your legal skills but also business acumen during your 4-5 years of work experience.

If you don't think that waiting a year is worth it, then you still have some wonderful programs to pick from this year, so you're really in a win-win situation!

Hi,

I would like an evaluation of my profile to decide if it’s worth considering Harvard please:

Work Experience:
Accenture: Management Consulting for 2.5 years. Steadily increased responsibility and managed a team in the last project; chosen for best newcomer award.
New job as an in house consultant at a ‘scale-up’ that uses data from connected vehicles to form insights and help improve productivity and operations. 6 months so far and have managed a National rollout project of an ops dashboard.

Undergrad: MEng Aerospace Engineering, 2:1 (66%), University of Southampton (UK).
This was an integrated degree, so you graduate with a Masters.
Please note I had some serious health issues during my undergrad and there is a big variation in my grades on my transcript - I would like to know if this may be viewed too negatively.

Extra Curriculars:
Currently interviewing for school governor positions.
Regularly help with teach first and stemette charity workshops to encourage secondary school kids to take up STEM subjects and consider jobs in tech.

Background: I attended a state comprehensive school in the UK and achieved the highest grades at GCSEs (exams at age 16) and A Levels (Age 18) at my school.

GMAT: haven’t taken it yet

Would like to apply for R1 this year to hopefully start Fall of 2021.

Posted from my mobile device

Please help in profile evaluation for HBS

GMAT - 730
Undergrad - B.Tech in Biotechnology (major) and Computer Science (Minor) (Undergrad) from IIT Guwahati (Top 10 in India)
GPA - 8.6/10 (Top 15% in my class)
Background - Indian - non IT Male
Total Work Ex - 5.5 years (~1 Year in IT consulting and ~4.5 years in )

Brief Summary

During my 2 month B.Tech internship at University of Strasbourg - France, I published a research paper on HIV in International Journal of Virology. I have spent almost 3.5 years in a early stage start-up , where I was the first Data Analyst to be hired and went on to lead the Analytics team as Associate Director - Data Analytics. I was also working on Central Growth strategy and helping the CEOs office in raising a $50 Million Series D funding. I am currently working in a mid stage startup as a Sr Manager in Strategic Business Planning Team, scaling and commercialising the Commercial Interior Design vertical and refining the Annual Operating Plan for the entire organisation. I have also worked with an IT MnC in India for about a year as a Validation Consultant for the Regulatory Domain in the Medical Devices Vertical where I was helping the clients as well as internal teams to create products compliant with the FDA rules. I have done volunteering work with an NGO for 2 months, during which I trained the students from Primary Government School to participate in city level competitions where the children secured top positions. I have also taken a few online courses on Data Science and a executive course on Project Management from IIMB, one of the top B schools in India. I can get recommendations from the Founders/CXOs in the startups which I have worked. My short term MBA goal is to get into a startup and contribute in a larger capacity or join a corporate strategy team of a big organisation. Long term goal is to start a business on my own.