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mholmes2101
Joined: 29 Apr 2016
Last visit: 10 Mar 2019
Posts: 26
Given Kudos: 1
Schools: Wharton '19
GMAT 1: 770 Q50 V46
29 Apr 2016, 12:10
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Amerasia,
I'm applying in round 1 this year for full-time MBA programs enrolling fall 2017 and would love to get a profile evaluation as a gut check for my chances at top programs. Any evaluation or advice you could give me would be great!
White male, 24 years old
Education:
"Southern Ivy" (Duke, Emory, Vandy, etc.), graduated in 2014, Mathematics and Economics BA, GPA: 3.25 (started out pre-med which did not go well. Started to do better when I switched to math and econ, but suffered family tragedy fall of senior year which hurt my grades as well)
GMAT:
770 (50Q/46V/8IR/5AWA)
Work:
-1 year as a business analyst in the Operational Excellence department at a large media conglomerate located in Atlanta (working in the automotive division, where they are a global leader in wholesale and retail technology and facilitation). Acted as a liaison between business operations and IT development for the development of enterprise mobile applications, completed heavily statistical analysis to complete the business cases for these applications as well as justify a multi-million dollar acquisition, created operational tools for field use and trained several GMs on their use.
-1 year as a manager in the Financial Planning and Analysis department in the same company. Promoted to manager 3 years ahead of schedule for being recognized as a top performer. Manages 2 contractors and an intern. Currently in charge of budgets and forecasts for several smaller portfolio businesses and on the leadership team of these businesses to provide insights that drive strategic decision-making. Created a service offering that's being implemented at the location level and has proven to be profitable in test runs.
-Internships include summer internship at same company where I currently work and a summer as a finance intern at a wealth management fund.
Extracurriculars:
-Pro Bono consultant at an eCommerce retail store, creating the business plan, social media marketing strategy, and pricing methodology
-Half marathon participant in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training program. Raised $2000 for cancer research
-Event planning volunteer at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
-Finalist in my company's internal StartUp business plan event
-Liaison between my current company and a start-up non-profit whose goal it is to provide low-income teens with exposure to successful professionals.
Post-MBA Goals:
I want to use my automotive and tech industry knowledge to move into MBB consulting with a focus on the technology industry.
Schools under consideration:
Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, MIT, Kellogg, Haas, Duke, Michigan
Thanks in advance for your help!
I'm applying in round 1 this year for full-time MBA programs enrolling fall 2017 and would love to get a profile evaluation as a gut check for my chances at top programs. Any evaluation or advice you could give me would be great!
White male, 24 years old
Education:
"Southern Ivy" (Duke, Emory, Vandy, etc.), graduated in 2014, Mathematics and Economics BA, GPA: 3.25 (started out pre-med which did not go well. Started to do better when I switched to math and econ, but suffered family tragedy fall of senior year which hurt my grades as well)
GMAT:
770 (50Q/46V/8IR/5AWA)
Work:
-1 year as a business analyst in the Operational Excellence department at a large media conglomerate located in Atlanta (working in the automotive division, where they are a global leader in wholesale and retail technology and facilitation). Acted as a liaison between business operations and IT development for the development of enterprise mobile applications, completed heavily statistical analysis to complete the business cases for these applications as well as justify a multi-million dollar acquisition, created operational tools for field use and trained several GMs on their use.
-1 year as a manager in the Financial Planning and Analysis department in the same company. Promoted to manager 3 years ahead of schedule for being recognized as a top performer. Manages 2 contractors and an intern. Currently in charge of budgets and forecasts for several smaller portfolio businesses and on the leadership team of these businesses to provide insights that drive strategic decision-making. Created a service offering that's being implemented at the location level and has proven to be profitable in test runs.
-Internships include summer internship at same company where I currently work and a summer as a finance intern at a wealth management fund.
Extracurriculars:
-Pro Bono consultant at an eCommerce retail store, creating the business plan, social media marketing strategy, and pricing methodology
-Half marathon participant in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training program. Raised $2000 for cancer research
-Event planning volunteer at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
-Finalist in my company's internal StartUp business plan event
-Liaison between my current company and a start-up non-profit whose goal it is to provide low-income teens with exposure to successful professionals.
Post-MBA Goals:
I want to use my automotive and tech industry knowledge to move into MBB consulting with a focus on the technology industry.
Schools under consideration:
Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, MIT, Kellogg, Haas, Duke, Michigan
Thanks in advance for your help!
29 Apr 2016, 16:51
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hey mholmes2101:
Thanks for reaching out to me with a very well thought out post. Let's see if I can do it justice with my analysis.
My initial thought with respect to your GPA is this – Harvard and Stanford are going to be a bit tough with that lower GPA. I do not think that it takes you out of the running per se, but you have to consider you are competing against. Most of the successful Harvard and Stanford applicants that I have personally worked with have GPA's that are about 3.6 or higher. Again, it does not exclude you from being seriously considered by Harvard or Stanford, but it does make it a bit of an uphill battle.
Now, I do understand that you have extenuating circumstances. Of course, this will need to be explained in any optional essay that you are provided. But, beyond anything extraordinary, there will be plenty of other applicants who simply did better, even with any personal constraints. One more thing, if these personal circumstances are enough to change how you think, reflect, interact with others - that is, if they are somewhat transformative – then they should be written into Harvard's "introduce yourself" essay prompt. This is also the case with Stanford's "what matters most to you and why." Put another way, if you can break it into the narrative and have it be a meaningful story, then you are leveraging these personal circumstances in the best way possible. And of course, this mitigates the need to address this in an optional essay for either school.
Your work experience seems solid. And it is definitely advantageous to be 24 and managing several FTEs. The early promotion will look good as well.
What I do not know is how this career path or how you approach your management responsibilities is related to your personal approach to leading or conducting your affairs. that is a whole other conversation to be honest. But if you want to be a solid candidate for Harvard or Stanford, you need to connect some type of personal passion or set of beliefs to the path you have chosen professionally. Sure, your personal - outside of the office pursuits - could demonstrate a passion or set of beliefs, but really what they are looking for are applicants who have pursue careers that reflect an innate drive and ethos.
I do see how you are trying to connect your current work experience to your goals. That is exactly the right place to start. However for schools like Stanford and Harvard, as I mentioned above, you really need to bring a more profound level of conviction. Why? Because it is that level of conviction that will convince them that you are ultimately the type of person who wants to and will "change the world". And yes, they actually are looking for people who say they are going to change the world in one way or another.
With respect to MBB, you are on the right track. For any given school, there will be about 30 to 40% of its graduates going back into consulting. The one thing you have to think about when you state this goal is the type of problem you are trying to solve. Rhetorically speaking – what have you learned that your current job that has inspired you to want to go on and solve problems within the tech and/or automotive sector? What do you see as an opportunity? What do you want to help change in the longer run (think industry–wide change here)?
I do like your commitment to community and I think it speaks well of your value set. I am going to guess that some of the personal events you alluded to (with respect to your lower GPA) have to do with cancer. I say this because of your involvement in the leukemia initiatives.
I am not so sure as to what drives your involvement with the e-commerce initiative. Again, this does speak highly of you and your commitment to community, but for schools like Stanford and Harvard, as I mentioned above, you really need to have this type of conviction baked into your professional path as well. Of course, that is not always possible. But the reason I call this out several times in this analysis is because that is the number one thing I see in successful applicants to Harvard and Stanford. They demonstrated a type of self-awareness early on in their life and when it came time to choose a career, it is almost as if they were predestined to enter or do what they did.
With respect to the rest of the schools in the list - Wharton, Chicago, MIT, Kellogg, Haas, Duke, Michigan - you should be able to get into all of them. When I say "should", course you have to write essays that resonate with the admissions committee. Do not let me undersell the amount of work that is involved here. But if you nail the essays, if you do all the homework that is required (i.e. visiting schools, understanding completely how you fit in where you will contribute (in addition to what you will learn)), then you should be able to get into all of the above. With a 770 GMAT, most likely thing that will happen here is that you are actually offered money by number of these schools. I completely understand that your contributions to the school are more than the sum of a three digit score, but the reality is that the schools will want you to boost their average GMAT score, and they are willing to pay money for that privilege.
If you would like to set up some time to speak with me or any of our consultants, please email me at MBA@amerasiaconsulting.com. The call should last for about an hour and I can give you a more detailed assessment based on a more complete set of information.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
/
Thanks for reaching out to me with a very well thought out post. Let's see if I can do it justice with my analysis.
My initial thought with respect to your GPA is this – Harvard and Stanford are going to be a bit tough with that lower GPA. I do not think that it takes you out of the running per se, but you have to consider you are competing against. Most of the successful Harvard and Stanford applicants that I have personally worked with have GPA's that are about 3.6 or higher. Again, it does not exclude you from being seriously considered by Harvard or Stanford, but it does make it a bit of an uphill battle.
Now, I do understand that you have extenuating circumstances. Of course, this will need to be explained in any optional essay that you are provided. But, beyond anything extraordinary, there will be plenty of other applicants who simply did better, even with any personal constraints. One more thing, if these personal circumstances are enough to change how you think, reflect, interact with others - that is, if they are somewhat transformative – then they should be written into Harvard's "introduce yourself" essay prompt. This is also the case with Stanford's "what matters most to you and why." Put another way, if you can break it into the narrative and have it be a meaningful story, then you are leveraging these personal circumstances in the best way possible. And of course, this mitigates the need to address this in an optional essay for either school.
Your work experience seems solid. And it is definitely advantageous to be 24 and managing several FTEs. The early promotion will look good as well.
What I do not know is how this career path or how you approach your management responsibilities is related to your personal approach to leading or conducting your affairs. that is a whole other conversation to be honest. But if you want to be a solid candidate for Harvard or Stanford, you need to connect some type of personal passion or set of beliefs to the path you have chosen professionally. Sure, your personal - outside of the office pursuits - could demonstrate a passion or set of beliefs, but really what they are looking for are applicants who have pursue careers that reflect an innate drive and ethos.
I do see how you are trying to connect your current work experience to your goals. That is exactly the right place to start. However for schools like Stanford and Harvard, as I mentioned above, you really need to bring a more profound level of conviction. Why? Because it is that level of conviction that will convince them that you are ultimately the type of person who wants to and will "change the world". And yes, they actually are looking for people who say they are going to change the world in one way or another.
With respect to MBB, you are on the right track. For any given school, there will be about 30 to 40% of its graduates going back into consulting. The one thing you have to think about when you state this goal is the type of problem you are trying to solve. Rhetorically speaking – what have you learned that your current job that has inspired you to want to go on and solve problems within the tech and/or automotive sector? What do you see as an opportunity? What do you want to help change in the longer run (think industry–wide change here)?
I do like your commitment to community and I think it speaks well of your value set. I am going to guess that some of the personal events you alluded to (with respect to your lower GPA) have to do with cancer. I say this because of your involvement in the leukemia initiatives.
I am not so sure as to what drives your involvement with the e-commerce initiative. Again, this does speak highly of you and your commitment to community, but for schools like Stanford and Harvard, as I mentioned above, you really need to have this type of conviction baked into your professional path as well. Of course, that is not always possible. But the reason I call this out several times in this analysis is because that is the number one thing I see in successful applicants to Harvard and Stanford. They demonstrated a type of self-awareness early on in their life and when it came time to choose a career, it is almost as if they were predestined to enter or do what they did.
With respect to the rest of the schools in the list - Wharton, Chicago, MIT, Kellogg, Haas, Duke, Michigan - you should be able to get into all of them. When I say "should", course you have to write essays that resonate with the admissions committee. Do not let me undersell the amount of work that is involved here. But if you nail the essays, if you do all the homework that is required (i.e. visiting schools, understanding completely how you fit in where you will contribute (in addition to what you will learn)), then you should be able to get into all of the above. With a 770 GMAT, most likely thing that will happen here is that you are actually offered money by number of these schools. I completely understand that your contributions to the school are more than the sum of a three digit score, but the reality is that the schools will want you to boost their average GMAT score, and they are willing to pay money for that privilege.
If you would like to set up some time to speak with me or any of our consultants, please email me at MBA@amerasiaconsulting.com. The call should last for about an hour and I can give you a more detailed assessment based on a more complete set of information.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
/
mholmes2101
