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5 years
Canada
2024
Male
Score: 740 GMAT Classic
GPA: 3.23
Pre-MBA industry: Energy
Post-MBA industry: Consulting
Booth
Full Time MBA
Full Time MBA
Round 2, 2024
2 years ago
25 Sep 2023 08:09
2 years ago
25 Sep 2023 08:09
Hello! Just posting to get an idea on where I stand in terms of school applications, chances for good scholarship and what programs would make the most sense to apply to based on my profile. I was thinking anything between T10-25 range made the most sense but as of right now, not stuck on any specific school. Any advice would be appreciated!


Stats:
27M/Canadian
Gmat Score: 740 (Q48, V42)
Undergrad: 3.3GPA (Chemical Engineering at a respected Canadian University)
3.5 YOE currently (4.5 YOE at matriculation)

Professional Certifications:
PEng

Work Experience:
Spent first year post undergrad at a well known Defense Manufacturing facility as an Engineering associate. Was a very technical role that I enjoyed and the work-life balance was great but I wanted to work on sustainable energy. So I transitioned to the country's largest Nuclear company where I have been working for the last 2.5 years with a promotion to Project lead where I currently work on different nuclear plant refurbishment projects in Europe. I plan to work here the next year as well so will end up working a total of 3.5 years in this role.

EC:
Community Outreach executive at my "North American Young Generation In Nuclear" company chapter where I go to elementary schools, universities, and conferences to educate and promote STEM careers in Nuclear to the youth in different communities

A volunteer at my local food bank every holiday season and have been doing this ever since I was in highschool.
Event Planner for Community center weekly basketball sessions for students under 18

Why MBA:

I hope to go into Strategy/management consulting as that has been a personal goal of mine. I love the aspect of being able to work with people and network while working on different kinds of projects. Working as an engineer has been fun but I feel very boxed in in terms of the daily responsibilities and the type of projects I get the opportunity to work on, with tasks becoming very repetitive.
Comments 2 comments
User avatar
2 years ago
25 Sep 2023, 13:38
Welcome to GMAT Club!

You have a solid stats profile for any school really. In terms of chances and opportunities, it won't help for the top 10 to get a higher score or anything like that. The higher score only kicks in if you ware looking for scholarships and that's more predictable in the 10-20 band of schools.

Your work experience sounds super unique and exciting and I think that may be a more likely candidate of making you an attractive applicant and having a school offer a scholarship. One idea could be applying to a variety of schools, meaning not just the M7 but across T15 and then leveraging offers. I have heard people having to leverage multiple school offers to improve their scholarship situation. E.g. first a school would offer 25%. They would have to get a 50% offer from a peer school and up it to 40% for example and then use that 40% offer to go a third school. You have to work for your money and the situation is the same with scholarships. Sometimes it works out but in reality, we usually all have to work for it.

The good news is that most T15 programs have strong feeder programs into consulting and MBB. Obviously there is a small mid-life crisis happening there right now with MBB recruiting but that's expected to be largely gone by the time you are looking for an internship or a job. People can be yoga instructors only for so long :lol: (I hope you know the reference as otherwise, it will be super weird). So I would consider applying to some of the strong consulting placement programs such as Kellogg and Booth, Sloan obviously (there are some interesting other possibilities there too), in mid-tier perhaps Tuck and Fuqua as well as Darden on the end of the spectrum. Darden has been very generous with scholarships last few years but this is assuming you have the energy to make so many applications. (There are ways to waive the app fees by the way https://gmatclub.com/forum/list-of-all- ... 67465.html) but don't underestimate the pressure on your recommenders if you are going to apply to 7 or 10 schools. It is hard work for everyone and while there are reusable parts, some are not reusable and the stupid grids in the LOR's can be daunting and the last few LOR's won't be really high quality as they click and breeze through them). Again, it is hard work but applying to a spectrum of schools and larger quantity has benefits - both as data feedback and also as a probabilities game.

-BB
User avatar
2 years ago
26 Sep 2023, 08:29
Thank you so much for your detailed response and I will definitely take everything you have said into consideration! Hoping to make it in to Kellogg's or booth as those are my 1a and 1b choices but I understand how difficult the competition is and they would ultimately be my reach schools. How do you feel about Cornell/Ross/Columbia as as schools to apply in the T15 range?