Please Evaluate my profile

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your posts. At present, I would say there is a good bit of work for you to do here. If you're from an overrepresented demographic (as a consultant, you are already are from a professional standpoint), then almost all of the schools you've listed are unfortunately going to be very difficult or out of reach. With much improved goals and superb application execution, I could maybe see you putting up a fighting chance at Fuqua or Johnson, but those would still be no picnic.

GMAT SCORE

My first advice would be to try boost your GMAT score (and within that, to improve your Q score, which right now is only in the 58th percentile). As a consultant applying to these schools, you are going be up against a whole lot of candidates coming from blue-chip firms with GMAT scores of 740+, unique post-college leadership / community engagement, and really clear goals and reasons for pursuing an MBA. The middle 80% GMAT ranges at most of the schools you've listed is 700 to 760, so applying from the back end of that range without differentiating factors elsewhere is extremely difficult. (Even if you were to boost your score to 740+, HBS and Stanford would still be moonshots, as they are for almost everybody, and Wharton / Columbia would be very, very difficult.)

INVOLVEMENT AND CAREER GOALS

Beyond your GMAT score, your extracurriculars and career goals can stand to improve. Most of your ECs look like they come from college, which is "nice" but not as compelling as super deep involvement, leadership, and impact in your post-college professional years. Your goals -- and why MBA, why now, how exactly an MBA and each school enables those goals -- also need to be way more focused and specific. (At present they seem quite scattered. The nice thing is that you can work on those... I encourage you to read this blog post for more detailed advice on that.)

GET TO KNOW THE SCHOOLS

Finally, I encourage you to really read up on the schools that you're considering. You eventually have to get to know at a super deep level to make your case for how each school enables your goals, how exactly you'd contribute, and to articulate your "fit." You'll need to get know specific courses, clubs, special programs, conferences, case competitions, culture, community, recruiting opportunities, etc. and build a specific narrative around all of that. (Where and how exactly this manifests in applications depends on the school.) Moreover, you will be exposed to some of the fundamentals of applying, like some of the school profile elements that I referenced above (which help you figure out how you line up). Also note that most schools explicitly do not want academic recommendations.

Right now, I see more school alignment for you in the T17 to T25 range, with the back end of the T20 still tough, and your chances in that whole range still highly contingent on strong application execution (in line with the above). You could include a couple of reaches above that range and some down-ranking schools below it, depending on your exact preferences. If you boost your GMAT score in line with the above, you can potentially calibrate that alignment up to the T9/10 to T16 range, but again, your career goals, why MBA, and why XYZ school narrative will need to be significantly enhanced in order to convert.

HAPPY TO CHAT

I realize this outlook might shake-up what you currently had in mind, but the goal here is to provide as honest an assessment as possible. If you have any questions or would ever like to chat, please feel free to email me at greg@avantiprep.com or sign up for a Free Consultation via this link: https://www.avantiprep.com/free-consultation.html. Yes, there's a lot to do, but you can definitely make major strides forward, and I'd be happy to talk through how to go about it.

Best Regards,
Greg