My Chances at Harvard - Post All Profile Evaluation Requests Here!

Hi, I'd love to get perspectives on my profile for the 2021 application cycle for Wharton/Lauder, HBS, Yale, Staford.

Background: African having moved to study and work in Europe.

Age: mid-twenties

Undergrad Information: 2nd-tier university in Europe, majored in Business Management 3.4GPA. Did an exchange at a top 3 business school in France (top 10 Europe) 3.6 GPA mainly in quantitative subjects (finance).

GRE: 328, 164Q 164V

Work experience and leadership:
Started a startup in college to support my family & me, generated income but lead to a fall in U-grad GPA.
Post-graduation, I worked in strategy & business development at a healthcare startup bringing healthcare solutions to Africa.
Pivoted to business development in healthcare, helping medium international enterprises with partnerships in Europe.
Now work at an F500 US tech company in Sales Development, part of a selective rotational program for sales talents.

Extracurriculars: Leading a team of 15 volunteers in a foundation I started to provide scholarships for young talents in Africa, providing scholarships to ca 30 kids per year.
I'm also part of the LGBTQ organization at work and was during undergrad.

Post-MBA goals: Investment banking as a short-term goal and long term to move back to Africa & create an incubator to advise young entrepreneurs in Africa on raising capital and increase financial literacy.

Languages:
Fluent English, French
Conversational in Dutch

Thank you so much

Hello All - need your help to evaluate my profile.

Background and nationality:
Indian

Undergrad Information:
BE, Electronics & Communication, MIT Manipal
CGPA - 8.1

Grad Information:
MS, Computer Science, BITS Pilani
CGPA - 7.1

GMAT:
720

Work experience and leadership:
6 years of work ex in Cisco across Account Management, Customer Success & Technical Center.
Have been managing Biggest IT Customer & Biggest Indian Conglomerate for Cisco.

Community and others:
Have been associated with Becoming I foundation for a short period and now with Animal Angels for a while now.

Post MBA goals
Getting into Digital Transformation Consulting

Additional Information:
4 Promotions in 6 years.

Hi pocketacescracked,

From the first look itself, your profile looks well-groomed and competitive. You are applying for a Deferred MBA program whereby your current GPA of 3.99 and your GMAT score of 780 is very impressive as it showcases your academic prowess and will thus allow you to target most of the top-notch B-schools.

Coming to your internship experiences, you have mentioned that you have worked as an SWE intern and will be working as an investment intern at a top HF. Here, to differentiate yourself from other applicants you could talk about the kind of projects you undertook, the skills you honed, impacts created and the kind of knowledge you were able to gain throughout your internship experience.

Speaking of extracurricular activities, you can enhance and add value to your profile by digging deeper into the various endeavors you undertook and how you went above and beyond to excel in the same. Here you have mentioned quite a few diverse activities you were involved in along with leadership positions. All these activities showcase a holistically developed profile which is exactly what every B-school is looking for. Moreover, you also have international experience under your belt in the form of a summer study program at Oxford University which you can use to highlight your broadened perspective and adaptability quotient, a trait very much valued by these B-schools. Additionally, you can also take up certain online courses or certifications related to the niche you would want to build your career in to further enhance your profile and proactive attitude.

Now coming to the schools that you are targeting for a deferred MBA program, that is Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, all come under the dream category (where you have a 20-30% chance of acceptance). All said and done, to boost your chances of acceptance at these schools, you’d require to stand out from the thousands of applicants out there with similarly great profiles. Here, your application would play a huge role in enhancing your chances of getting accepted into your target schools as it would highlight your profile USP’s and overshadow any particular weaknesses in your profile. Additionally, you need to ensure that your LORs and Resume, equally depict the strengths of your profile.

That said, if you are contemplating on how to draft an impactful application, you can check out our All-in-one service which is a complete end to end consulting process aimed at providing personalized application suggestions, unlimited editing service, and expert consultants who would constantly be there to help you throughout your application journey! We have a 92% success rate whereby we have helped 2600+ other applicants get into their dream school.

Below is the link to our All in One service:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
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Oh come on, there are not "thousands of applicants out there with similarly great profiles".
This guy is a rockstar and should be in high demand as long as he doesn't say anything terrible in his app.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi jimmybananas -- I'll be happy to provide some feedback. I really like your profile. Although your prior academics are less compelling for the schools you are targeting, I think your high GRE scores will demonstrate you have the ability to thrive in these schools' rigorous programs. Your background and longterm goals are particularly compelling - I think your overall success will depend on how well you are able to tell your story and fit together all of the pieces, including how an MBA from each specific school will best guide you and help you have the longterm impact you want to have. I would be happy to dive in deeper with you during a 30-minute free consultation if you are interested. In any case, best of luck to you!
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Hi everybody! Very new to this forum so sorry if I'm doing something wrong here. I already posted in the 2+2 thread but am posting again here for visibility. I'm a senior looking to apply to HBS 2+2, as well as the deferred enrollment programs at GSB and Wharton. Here's some basic info about me - please let me know if I'm missing anything!

Undergrad school: H/Y/P
Undergrad major: Political Science
Undergrad minors: Statistics, Music
Extracurriculars: Singing group (Music Director), Music youth outreach program (Instructor)

GPA: ~ 3.6 (3.58) - consistent and strong upward trend
GMAT: 770 (49 Q, 47 V, 6/6 AWA, 8/8 IR)

Age: 22
Sex: M
Race: East Asian

2020 Internship: Strategy consulting and data analytics at F500 company (for external clients, not internal consulting) - returning to work FT after completing undergrad
2019 Internship: Engineering analyst at government energy agency

Post-MBA Goals: To either go into strategy at an established renewable energy company (could be anything from NextEra to Arcadia), to continue consulting at another firm and develop a focus on renewables, or to found/join a clean tech startup

Hooks (?): only conversational English speaker in family; neither parent attended grad school; only one parent completed undergrad and works; been responsible for operations of family business since childhood

I guess two concerns I have are: 1) Does this seem like the profile of a person HBS would interview for 2+2, or am I too conventional a candidate; and 2) I was told that my post-MBA goals should be related to my most recent work experience and full-time plans. Does my goal of going into clean energy appear to come out of nowhere for a person with my background?

Hi,

1) Does this seem like the profile of a person HBS would interview for 2+2, or am I too conventional a candidate;

You will be considered. You do have a slightly conventional profile but your grades and GMAT should be enough to give you a look.

2) I was told that my post-MBA goals should be related to my most recent work experience and full-time plans. Does my goal of going into clean energy appear to come out of nowhere for a person with my background?

That is more advice for non-2+2 candidates as they have significant work experience and you do not (internships won't carry much weight) so you can talk about a non-related career goal. You should however lay out what you plan to do with your 2+ years before matriculating.

If you need hep with your 2+2 application, please reach out to us at Admissionado to discuss. We work with candidates such as yourself for their deferred admissions programs all the time.

https://admissionado.com/free-consultation/

Best,
Admissionado

Thank you! That eases my nerves a bit. I'll definitely reach out in the near future!

Hey shreyasalekar,

To begin with, your undergraduate GPA of 8.1 showcases your academic prowess, and the brand of your postgraduate college gives your profile a boost as schools tend to pick out applicants from the top schools of each country. However, while your grades and brands do play an important part, you should highlight your extracurricular activities and other endeavors because AdComs are looking for applicants with holistically developed profiles.

Coming to your GMAT, an overall score of 720 is pretty competitive and would allow you to comfortably target most of the top B schools.

As far as your work experience goes, since an MBA is a manager's degree and requires significant work experience, your 6 years of work experience in varied roles is pretty impressive and would put you at par with other applicants. In order to stand out from the crowd, you most certainly focus on your leadership roles and major projects of your work and how these experiences helped to develop and further groom your skills and knowledge. Moreover, your 4 consecutive promotions in just a span of 6 years will showcase your technical acumen and your passion for the field.
Furthermore, the presence of a big brand in your CV is an added feather to your hat as you will be competing against a pool of applicants hailing from similar backgrounds. Here, showcasing your journey and the learnings gained through this experience would allow you to differentiate yourself and thereby gain an upper hand with equally competent profiles with extensive work experience hailing from top notch firms.

Furthermore, you have a lot of varied roles in volunteering in several NGOs for social causes, which are impressive value additions. These endeavors go on to showcase your ability to impact others and to empathize with other people.

In addition, you could take up some courses or certifications in the field of management, as top b schools are on the lookout for those who are constantly on the path of upskilling themselves.

Coming to the school that you are targeting, Harvard undoubtedly falls under the ultra-dream category and based on your profile, your chances of acceptance stands at around 30-40%. Thus, in order to hedge your bets wisely, it is always better to target schools under the dream and competitive category. On this note, here are some more schools that you can be targeting in the respective mix of categories.

Dream - NYU, Berkeley, Wharton, Cornell, Washington
Competitive - Duke, UNC, Mc Combs, Foster, Michigan

All things considered, while you have a competitive profile, to increase your chances of getting admitted to these schools you would need to ensure that you have a very strong application (consisting of - Essays, LORs, and Resume) that highlights your strengths and overshadows your weaknesses in order to differentiate your profile. You need to showcase your journey, what makes you different from your peers, and how you are a great value addition to the school.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, that has helped 3500+ applicants get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. Not only that, you’d be connected with a B-school alumnus who’d be helping you directly with your application process, right from shortlisting the right schools and submitting an impactful application to the school to preparing you for the interview and bagging scholarships!

Link to our All-In-One Solution-

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
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Hello good folks of GMATClub. Hope you're doing well.

I would like to request an evaluation of my profile for HBS. While I wasn't considering HBS earlier since I was under the impression it would be a waste of application fee, a conversation with one of my friends got me thinking.

Here's a brief of my profile:

Indian Male, 26
GMAT - 770 (Q51 V44)

Education: IIT (top 3 engineering school in India) graduate, Chemical Engg (Bachelors+Masters)
GPA: 8.4/10

Work-Experience (4 years at the time of application): Decision Science and Business Analytics
- 1 year as a consultant with a data analytics consultancy (1 promotion + award)
- 2 years as a product analyst with a top global financial services company (top performer in team, 1 promotion, closely worked with partners around the globe
to drive multi-million $ impact, narrowly missed out on a firmwide prestigious award)
- Current: 1 year as an Associate (decision sciences) with a global Investment Bank

International Exposure:
- Zero physical exposure - no work/leisure trips outside of India
- Plenty of exposure through work - my current team is very diverse in terms of nationalities, my previous job involved collaborating with partners situated across the globe

Extra-curriculars:

College:
- Hostel Secretary (elected by ~400 students), Dramatics, Water-polo team, College festival coordinator, drummer

Post College:
- Recently joined toastmasters to deal with my fear of public speaking, have been giving speeches on a regular basis
- Project Management volunteer for a global non-profit statistical consulting organization: Managing communications with a non-profit client and leading an international team of volunteers towards the creation of a COVID-19 dashboard for major cities of India

Why MBA?
- To prevent being pigeonholed to the financial services industry
- Gain holistic understanding of businesses
- Recruit for management consulting firms
- Gain a global network I can tap into for my future endeavors, especially in the India/Asia region

Post MBA aspirations:
- Short term: Strategy Consulting
- Long term: Analytics Consulting (maybe set up my own shop one day) / Data-driven Strategy leadership (preferably in big-tech)

Would like your thoughts on whether I should give HBS a shot.

Thanks a lot!

Hi ajay94 - I hope you're doing well also! I'm happy to offer my opinion on your profile. Overall you do seem like a compelling candidate for top programs, including HBS, but exactly how compelling will depend on further details beyond what you have provided. We consider HBS a stretch school for even the very best candidates. Having said that, your scores, grades, work experience, and extracurriculars certainly put you in the running. Your work experience seems strong based on the promotions and awards you mention. I would also want to know more about leadership experience, which is particularly important to HBS. Not necessarily management experience (though that would be great), but maybe experience leading projects or work streams, perhaps leading client efforts, or even being able to explain how you lead laterally or from below or within on various teams. It seems you do have explicit leadership experience in your volunteer consulting, which is great. Your chances at HBS will also depend on how well you are able to tell your overall story, including why you want the consulting career you indicate, and why HBS specifically will be the best MBA program to help you get there.

Again, based on what you have shared you seem like you have the makings of a strong candidate, so I would urge you to definitely consider applying to HBS and other top schools. I would be very happy to dig in deeper and answer any specific follow-up questions you have during one of our free 30 minute consultations. If you are interested, please sign up here. In any case, best of luck to you!
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Thank you very much for your insights!

Hey dumbathyp!

To commence your profile evaluation, I would say that your academic background is quite strong. Your GPA of 3.6 not only displays your academic prowess but also opens a lot of opportunities and doors to top business schools for you. However, you haven’t mentioned the school name due to which commenting on the relevance of your brand name won’t be possible. Your GMAT score of 770 is also an impressive score and would allow you to be at par with the stringent competition you’d be facing while applying to a deferred MBA program.

Further on, your ethnicity will work in your favor as cohorts are always looking forward to increasing the diversity of their cohorts by taking in students from various social, economic, and cultural backgrounds.

Moving on to your work experience, you have an internship under your belt undertaken from a government organization. Even though the internship does add relevant and quality work experience to your profile, you should be mindful of the fact that you’d be facing very tough competition from candidates with next to perfect profiles embellished with big brand names and Big4 companies. To negate the lack of big brand names in your profile, talking about the kind of projects you have undertaken, the impact you created, and your career progression with major learning takeaways would allow you to showcase the quality of your work and establish you as no less than a big4 candidate.

Further, on the note of extracurriculars, you must be cognizant of the fact that schools seek applicants having a holistic profile. Hence, accounting for the same, you can take up some volunteering activities or complete a certification in the field in which you wish to pursue a career. Extracurriculars are a great way to showcase your skills like leadership, networking, communication skills, etc. Thus, you must get your hands on some extracurricular engagements/initiatives to strengthen your profile.

Given your school choice, the deferred MBA program of HBS falls under the ultra dream category with an acceptance rate of only 5-8%, hence your chances of acceptance into the program come out to be just 20%. Here, a better approach to increase your chances of acceptance would be to shift your focus from deferred MBA to MiM. A MiM would also allow you to have a 2 years educational experience in which you can take a gap year to take up internships and build up your experience as well. With a profile like yours, you can easily target some of the best MiM programs across the globe in schools such as Essec, ESCP, HEC Paris, Duke, Cornell, LBS, and LSE.

Another aspect that you should be acquainted with while applying to B-schools is the importance of a strong application. Since you wish to apply to a highly competitive program such as a deferred MBA, you’d be facing competition from a highly saturated and holistically developed competitor pool. A strong application would not only allow you to highlight your strengthS but also distinguish you from other applicants.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has allowed us to help 3500+ applicants to get into their dream schools. As you are still in the early process of your application, it would provide you with end-to-end consulting and unlimited edits on your application documents. With the carefully crafted applications, we have helped our clients bag scholarships worth 3.3 million Euros and we’d be happy to help you too!

Link for the ALL-IN-One Solutions:

https://www.mim-essay.com/mim-all-in-one

Hope this helped!
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Hi Everyone! I came across this very interesting thread and I also would like to know my chances of getting into the top B-Schools (Harvard, Wharton, Yale, MIT). Im interested in the 2-year MBA programs across these schools.

Background and nationality: I am a male Indonesian who got very lucky to be able to experience an undergrad education in the U.S. After graduation, I come back to Indonesia to pursue my passion in Finance.
Undergrad Information: Univ. of Illinois Urbana - Champaign majoring in Finance 3.60/4.00 GPA, senior position in an investment club
GMAT: 700
Work experience and leadership: 4 years of experience in the consumer products industry, 1 year in food consumer products (got promoted 6-months in), 3 years in Philip Morris International (tobacco, got a promotion and multiple employee awards, foreign-country assignments to Pakistan & China to represent my division)
Community and others: Leadership position of my local community table tennis association, swimming instructor for children (in the past), passionate in stock value investing (been investing for a long time with decent CAGR returns)
Post MBA goals: I want to pivot and pursue my passion in investments (thinking of getting into GIC, Blackrock, Temasek)

Let me know if you need more information

Hi dangerduck,

Thanks for sharing your profile and MBA aspirations.

My name is Priyanka, Client Manager at ARINGO. You have a very interesting profile! From what I can see:

Academics – Bachelors done from a reputed international school with a good GPA are positive points. 😊

GMAT - Well, 700 is a fine score but the class average of your target schools a bit higher. You can check the same here: https://www.aringo.com/top-mba-programs/ Since you have other merits in your profile and come from different geography, we would need to leverage that in your MBA essays to make a stronger case.

Work Experience –You have strong work experience in multiple industries with promotions. Having worked with international clients will give an additional advantage. We would like to see your CV to have a better idea of the impact of the work done by you.

Extracurricular activities/Volunteer Work – Interesting extracurriculars- table tennis, swimming instructor, stock value investment, investment club, etc. Any volunteer work.

Your career goals - Your career goals look fine but will be able to give more insights once you share your CV and we are able to do justice with the shift.

All in all sounds like you have a good profile! If you send me your CV and other info on PRIYANKAK@ARINGO.com, I would love to connect you with our CEO who will be happy to help further with a detailed review and perhaps work together on some amazing apps.

All the best.
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Hi dangerduck,

You’ve got an interesting profile with good work experience. Talking about your stats, your undergrad GPA is excellent, with a decent GMAT score. The average GMAT of the schools you're interested in is 20 points up to yours. If you believe that you can do more, you can take another chance. Otherwise, just strive to bring out good stories. The combination of your undergraduate GPA and GMAT score is already demonstrating your academic potential.

On the work front, from the details you have provided, I can see a good career progression. You must bring out instances highlighting that you’ve performed better than your peers in the past. You will need to bring forward what you've learned from the roles and responsibilities you have undertaken. Try to dig deeper into your work experience, and I’m sure you'll find some amazing stories to share in your apps, which will make your apps stronger.

Your community experience is also impressive! They emphasise the presence of leadership abilities and are worth mentioning in your essays. Additionally, talk about any hobbies you pursue now or things you like to do in your spare time; this will add diversity to your profile. About your post-MBA goal, you must showcase your passion for finance and investment. Speak about your accomplishments and experience in this field to convince the adcoms that you are confident in your goals. Also, explain how the particular B-school can help you achieve your goal. As you are applying to different B-schools, you will need to optimise your essays following the respective B-school values.

If you are looking for other b-schools such as INSEAD, HEC and IMD and want to get better insights into what the schools look for and how you can better strategise your application, you can look into this session. It's on 27th March, and it's a personalised session to help you assess your chances.

Overall, you have a good profile. I'd like to know some significant highlights of your work experience (such as impact, roles, and responsibilities) to gauge how we can create outstanding stories and help you stand out from other applicants in the pool.

If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and give you a more realistic assessment. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience.

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma
Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
What s app: +65-97158525






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Hi you all, evaluating my chances at Harvard:

Female chemical engineer from India. 27 years old at the time of application
Work ex: 5 years (time of application)
Industry: Oil and Gas
Company: Fortune 100 company
GMAT: 730
GPA: 9.16/10

Current job profile: Technical consultant with immense international experience across APAC, EMEA. Single point of contact at client sites for my company. Responsible to successfully deliver a project at the client site.

Goals: looking to continue in the energy industry with a better understanding and know-how of the business. Knowing the ins and outs of this industry, I’m hoping to enter back into the industry with the aim of participating in the movement of sustainability and digitalization...long term be in a leadership position.

ECA: Immense NGO participation, youth conferences, speaker and MC at office events. Many activities during college time too.

What do you think?

Posted from my mobile device

Hello fringegirl,

Thank you for sharing. Personal MBA Coach happens to have a client testimonial video featuring a female Indian applicant from the oil and gas industry who we helped get into Harvard Business School a few years ago!

Something that was really key to her application success was being able to effectively communicate what value she provided to those who are unfamiliar with the industry (as it is a rather unique business).

Looking at your profile, you have a solid GMAT and GPA. A lot is riding on how you articulate your MBA goals, personal story, etc. These are key components to our comprehensive services. Feel free to take a look to learn how we can help boost your candidacy.

Do not hesitate to reach out to scott@personalmbacoach.com if you would like to further discuss your profile.

Best,
Personal MBA Coach
_________________

Hi fringegirl,

Thanks for sharing your profile. Your profile looks good on the surface. Talking about your stats, they are amazing. Your GPA shows your academic competency, and with 730 GMAT, you are on the safer ground. The average GMAT score for Harvard is 730, so this part is pretty sorted for you.

On the work front, your work experience seems good with international experience and elements of leadership and initiatives. You will need to bring stories with impact. Try to dig out the most amazing Unique selling point about you (which doesn't necessarily be from your professional life), which will make up for your spike factor. Try to bring a good blend of the professional and personal self to bring a person in your application. I would like to know some significant aspects of your work experience (such as impact, career progression) to guide you accordingly.

Talking about your ECs, they are good and will definitely help you add an interesting perspective to your overall profile. Your post-MBA goals are in alignment with your prior work experience. Also, to give you some context, we have a hundred per cent conversion rate for people from oil&gas to Top US and Europe schools. You may want to read one of the successful essays to INSEAD. It will help you give a good idea about your chances to HARVARD and will instil “right” confidence in you

If you are looking for other b-schools such as INSEAD, HEC and IMD and want to get better insights into what the schools look for and how you can better strategise your application, you can look into this session. It's on 27th March, and it's a personalised session to help you assess your chances.

Overall, you have a good profile. You need to connect the experiential dots and build a great story to stand out from the pool of applicants. If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and give you a more realistic assessment. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience.

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma
Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
What s app: +65-97158525






_________________

Hello!

Looking for feedback on chances for HBS. I love Boston, and it would be my top choice if I got the chance to attend.

Profile:
White Male, 26
GMAT - 770 (Q48 V48)

Education:
Princeton graduate, Philosophy Major Comp. Sci/Entrepreneurship Minors
GPA: 3.3 / 4.0 (3.6 major gpa, 3.6 junior/senior years gpa)

Work-Experience (4 years):
Entrepreneurship/Venture backed company experience
- 1 year CEO of angel (~250k) funded company I founded, close to raising a seed round, ended up folding
- 1 year working directly with the VP of marketing for a funded startup. Was there when they raised 10m A round off great sales.
- Current: 2 years as Director of Biz Dev for a technology consulting firm. One of two business people in 20 person company

International Exposure:
- Little exposure outside of a choir tour to South Africa in college

Extra-curriculars:
Very involved in Rock Climbing, climb 4+ times per week
Profitable trader in the crypto, forex, and options markets with self developed quantitative strategies (trading 6+ figures)

College:
Treasurer of Climbing Team, 2 years
President/Captain of Club Squash Team, 2 years
Leader of Freshman orientation week long wilderness trips, 3 years
Member 100 person classical choir, international tour, 10 hrs per week

Post College:
Community choir
Rock climbing (Still 4+ times per week)
Alumni Interviewer for Princeton
Competitive Gaming (top 1% of players in 3 large competitive games)

Why MBA?
- I'm very interested in business ethics, and I wrote my 75 page undergraduate ethics thesis on the topic. I'd like a more formal business education to understand how to best make business more ethical. Benefit companies are also of interest, and I'd love to learn more about those. This I think is my main hook and is a very genuine interest of mine long term.
- I'm almost entirely self taught in my investing, and I think I could benefit greatly from a formal investing/finance education
- I'd like to found a company again (founded one out of undergraduate), and B School is a great place to search for co-founders
- My favorite classes in undergrad were entrepreneurship classes that used HBS case studies

Post MBA aspirations:
- Short term: Either found a company or join a successful B corporation like Patagonia in a general management role
- Long term: Have an impact driven Venture Capital fund and be a thought leader on business ethics and ethical investing

Would like your thoughts on what I can best do to present myself most strongly.

Thanks!