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Question

Applying for fall 2011

Age: 27 at matriculation
Ethnicity: White
Sex: Male
Nationality: US
Undergrad school: top 50 public
Undergrad major: Managerial Economics (Basically business with extra econ classes); minor in Physics
Undergrad GPA: 3.2 - final 2 year avg was 3.8, with a 3.9 for the Physics minor - graduated in 4.5 yrs (does this matter? Stayed extra time to make up for low cum GPA)
GMAT: 770 (50Q 47V) - took once

Work Experience: 4.25 years at matriculation; top 5 US bank
Year 1: Technology Leadership Development Program - Rotational program designed to develop future company leaders. Only ~15 people per year - prestigious within the company
Years 2+: High level corporate strategy team - originally doing expense management initiatives - shifted priorities during financial meltdown, team became responsible for overseeing one of the largest financial services integrations in US history - currently shifting back to expense management
Multiple examples of achievements with significant organization-wide impact; work daily with executive management
Promoted 1 year after joining strategy team
Received prestigious annual recognition award - given to ~1% of employees each year

Extracurriculars
Undergrad:
Held significant leadership role in major campus event (~150,000+ attendees)
Practiced Taekwondo for 3 years
1 year work experience in managerial role

Post-undergrad:
Licensed skydiver
Licensed scuba diver
Backpacked Europe & Southeast Asia
co-founded / currently running young professionals social/development group at my company - oversee ~30 committee members, have ~350 group members total

Unique Experiences
In addition to what's listed above, I lived with a deaf roommate for a year and a half and learned to be somewhat fluent in american sign language
Moved to Arizona for my first 1.5 years after undergrad for work. Didn't know anyone there.

Recommendations
My supervisor is a high level strategy manager w/ MBA from Sloan and will write a stellar recommendation
Also have HBS alum who will write a great recommendation - coworker on my team
Thinking of asking my former roommate who taught me ASL to write my peer reco for Stanford (not sure if other schools ask for that - I haven't done a ton of research beyond Stanford yet) - he'll write an awesome rec and I'm thinking having him write it will be unique & more memorable
My old mentor from technology also offered to write a rec - he has mentored me since I joined the company - midlevel technology executive (has ~200 employees)

Goals
I'd really like to become a technology entrepreneur, and I'm hoping that the right bschool will give me the networking contacts and strategic skills to succeed. Planning to focus on entrepreneurial classes and network with the computer science students and VC/entrepreneur alumni.

Stanford is my top choice, also planning to apply to Harvard, Wharton, Sloan, and Berkeley. Right now I view my undergrad GPA as my biggest flaw, but I'm hoping the 3.9 in Physics and 770 GMAT will overcome the low cumulative.

Thanks for your input!

Edit - sorry for the longwinded post. I'm gonna save this though, it should be helpful to me as I develop my profile

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Sloan, Berkeley - sweet spot; you have a reasonable shot of getting in assuming great applications and no bad luck with a cranky adcom who may happen to read your app

Wharton - stretch, but definitely worth applying; guys like you do get in here, but more do not; however, you have enough of a shot that it's worth focusing on

Stanford, HBS -- between these two you may have more of a shot at Stanford (even though it has a lower overall selectivity); of the two, HBS cares a lot more about pedigree, whereas Stanford is more willing to give folks a shot who can show that they beat to their own drum.

gismb · Answer

When you say pedigree, are you referring to my undergraduate institution not being an ivy? Or the work experience not coming from MBB or ibanking? I'm just not quite sure what you mean here.

You didn't mention GPA - do you think that's going to be a significant issue for me? Or does the upward trend, good quant grades, and GMAT sufficiently remedy it?

Do you think focusing on entrepreneurship is going to hurt my chances, as opposed to consulting or banking?

Thank you for your input!

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Pedigree in b-school admissions means Ivy or comparable (Stanford, MIT, etc), and top tier firms (M/B/B, IB analyst program at a bulge bracket and/or top tier boutique, etc).

GPA -- nothing you can do about it. It is what it is. It's not great, but it' s not horrible. You have a strong GMAT, so all you can do is focus on playing offense (focus on highlighting your strengths) rather than trying to be defensive (spending time trying to explain away your GPA).

As for your goals - your career goals have very little to do with your overall candidacy - it's narrative. Yes, a crappy narrative won't get you in, but coming up with some amazing narrative about your career goals isn't a game changer either.

jb88 · Answer

If you don't mind me asking here, when you say "guys like you do get in here" what specifically in this profile is lacking? IT background? Lower, but not too bad GPA? Really curious.

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Adcoms don't microanalyze to the same degree as applicants may believe them to do.

It's just that there's a lot of people with very similar kinds of backgrounds applying to schools with very few spaces. Adcoms have to choose somehow, and the reasons for someone getting in or not getting in aren't as finely tuned or detailed as one may think.

jb88 · Answer

Thanks for your response.

So you are saying that when an Adcom sees a 27 White Male who works at a generic bank, the odds are already stacked against him?

What are the best ways for these types of candidates to stand out, i.e. what  are  the reasons to get accepted?

AlexMBAApply · Answer

It's not really about ethnicity. It's really about your professional/educational background.

Most applicants to b-schools are either in finance (IB/IM/HF/PE/VC or commercial banking or some variant of finance), consulting (IT or mgmt), or engineering. At the junior levels, the responsibilities are very similar or even standardized -- a lot of grunt work (analytically) with some team/leadership stuff thrown in. Now add in the fact that so many of these folks studied pretty much the same thing (engineering, econ or business) and you have a very large number of people REGARDLESS OF RACE OR NATIONALITY with very similar resumes.

For those folks from conventional backgrounds - it's about finding a way to stand out, to get the adcom to see you as an individual. For those from less conventional backgrounds (military, nonprofit, clergy, etc.) it's about convincing the adcom that you can fit in.

And there is no magic formula or framework. You need to find a way in your application (the written app and interview) to get the adcom to see you as an INDIVIDUAL regardless of your job, education, race, nationality, gender, whatever. There's no plug-and-play approach -- how you do it is as individual as you are. That may not answer your question in a simple way, but if there were a "set framework" then everyone's applications that follow that framework would end up sounding the same right? Which would defeat the whole purpose of coming across as an individual.

It seems like you're looking at admissions as a cut-and-dried process where there are specific reasons for getting accepted/rejected. It's a black box. It's subjective. It's as subjective as who gets the job/promotion (beyond the junior level), dating/relationships, and anything that involves choosing one person over another.

The admissions process from the adcom's perspective is as subjective and case-by-case as it is for the applicant who has to prepare the application.

jb88 · Answer

Thank you very much for your thorough explanation. I'm very impressed by your timely and candid responses. I hope to continue this discussion when I am ready for my own profile evaluation and perhaps your consultation.

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