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21 Apr 2022, 08:03
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi mbaMission,
I would really appreciate a profile evaluation. I am considering retaking the GMAT and thinking through what else I need to round out my application and think your opinion would be extremely valuable as I consider my options. I am planning on applying to business school fall of 2023 and targeting Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton
Demographic:
27 year old white-male. Married with 2 children (2yo and 8 weeks old). Economics undergraduate with minor in business strategy (3.99 gpa) from BYU. Fluent in Spanish (lived in Spain for two years as full-time service missionary for my church) and Portuguese (wife is from Brazil and I learned with her / taking college courses)
GMAT
720: Q46 V44 IR 7 AWA 6
WE:
During college, I had internships at a tech startup (~100 employees, now valued at ~$3B), Goldman Sachs (operations), a MM PE fund, and Bain & Company. I also started a student-run consulting organization that does consulting work for companies across the country as a means for introducing students to consulting, getting them real consulting experience, and creating new recruiting pipelines for students at BYU. The organization is still running today and has expanded to 9 consulting teams with 3 managing directors. I joined Bain & Company after graduating from college and have worked there for 2 years. During my time at Bain, I have only done work in the private equity practice (~20 months) performing a wide array of commercial due diligences for private equity funds. This August, I will start as an associate at Bain Capital on their Tech Opportunities team, a growth-equity, tech-focused fund.
In addition to my full-time work, my wife and I also started a baby products and accessories business called Peebuddies, which helps solve some of parentings "messiest" problems. I invented, designed prototypes and manufactured the product which we now sell via our website, Walmart (online marketplace), and amazon.
ECA:
During school, I was involved in the leadership of the management consulting association and an active member of the economics students association, which mainly involved planning and executing weekly events to improve recruiting outcomes for students. Outside of work, I am active in volunteering in my church.
In all honesty, I am still searching for causes that I am passionate about and feel that this is an area that could use further thought and effort to build out my application. I think finding a way to get involved with the Brazilian community in Boston once we get there or organizations that help parents would be areas I could look to get more involved in the community.
Post MBA goals:
I am extremely passionate about entrepreneurship and ultimately want to start a company that can help individuals feel comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Some of the areas where I feel I might be able to do that are in the area of immigration, language learning, or parenting, where I have had past experience. My experience at Bain & Company has given me the skills to evaluate market dynamics and competitive landscape, as well as some operational learnings. I hope that my time in investing will help me understand the process of raising capital and add more depth in the operating of technology companies. Lastly, my experience with Peebuddies has given me a taste of running my own company and the joys of helping people who are in difficult situations make their lives a little bit easier, though I have had difficulties scaling from such a small size. By doing an MBA, I hope to learn the skills I need in operate a small-scale business and to achieve scale as well as better understand who I am as a leader so that I can create a company that has a strong and distinct culture.
Evaluation request:
As I previously mentioned, I am currently targeting HSW as my top choices and want to understand what I should be focusing on in order to increase my chances of acceptance. Key questions on my mind are whether or not I should retake the GMAT ( I recently attempted the test again and made no improvements ) and what other activities I should focus on to round out my application.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
Cheers!
I would really appreciate a profile evaluation. I am considering retaking the GMAT and thinking through what else I need to round out my application and think your opinion would be extremely valuable as I consider my options. I am planning on applying to business school fall of 2023 and targeting Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton
Demographic:
27 year old white-male. Married with 2 children (2yo and 8 weeks old). Economics undergraduate with minor in business strategy (3.99 gpa) from BYU. Fluent in Spanish (lived in Spain for two years as full-time service missionary for my church) and Portuguese (wife is from Brazil and I learned with her / taking college courses)
GMAT
720: Q46 V44 IR 7 AWA 6
WE:
During college, I had internships at a tech startup (~100 employees, now valued at ~$3B), Goldman Sachs (operations), a MM PE fund, and Bain & Company. I also started a student-run consulting organization that does consulting work for companies across the country as a means for introducing students to consulting, getting them real consulting experience, and creating new recruiting pipelines for students at BYU. The organization is still running today and has expanded to 9 consulting teams with 3 managing directors. I joined Bain & Company after graduating from college and have worked there for 2 years. During my time at Bain, I have only done work in the private equity practice (~20 months) performing a wide array of commercial due diligences for private equity funds. This August, I will start as an associate at Bain Capital on their Tech Opportunities team, a growth-equity, tech-focused fund.
In addition to my full-time work, my wife and I also started a baby products and accessories business called Peebuddies, which helps solve some of parentings "messiest" problems. I invented, designed prototypes and manufactured the product which we now sell via our website, Walmart (online marketplace), and amazon.
ECA:
During school, I was involved in the leadership of the management consulting association and an active member of the economics students association, which mainly involved planning and executing weekly events to improve recruiting outcomes for students. Outside of work, I am active in volunteering in my church.
In all honesty, I am still searching for causes that I am passionate about and feel that this is an area that could use further thought and effort to build out my application. I think finding a way to get involved with the Brazilian community in Boston once we get there or organizations that help parents would be areas I could look to get more involved in the community.
Post MBA goals:
I am extremely passionate about entrepreneurship and ultimately want to start a company that can help individuals feel comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Some of the areas where I feel I might be able to do that are in the area of immigration, language learning, or parenting, where I have had past experience. My experience at Bain & Company has given me the skills to evaluate market dynamics and competitive landscape, as well as some operational learnings. I hope that my time in investing will help me understand the process of raising capital and add more depth in the operating of technology companies. Lastly, my experience with Peebuddies has given me a taste of running my own company and the joys of helping people who are in difficult situations make their lives a little bit easier, though I have had difficulties scaling from such a small size. By doing an MBA, I hope to learn the skills I need in operate a small-scale business and to achieve scale as well as better understand who I am as a leader so that I can create a company that has a strong and distinct culture.
Evaluation request:
As I previously mentioned, I am currently targeting HSW as my top choices and want to understand what I should be focusing on in order to increase my chances of acceptance. Key questions on my mind are whether or not I should retake the GMAT ( I recently attempted the test again and made no improvements ) and what other activities I should focus on to round out my application.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
Cheers!
25 Apr 2022, 00:31
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi, mcjenks23, thanks for writing in. I think your profile is already quite promising in a lot of ways-- I like your professional trajectory, your entrepreneurship experience, your GPA, and your story. I have worked with multiple Mormon candidates and you remind me a lot of a recent successful client with a similar background and a similar list of target schools. With a bit more development and great execution, I think you have a real shot (though I would suggest rounding out your list with a couple of other programs to improve your odds of success in an ultra competitive process).
As for a GMAT retake, although this probably isn't what you want to hear, I do think you should consider a test retake if you think you have it in you. While a high test score won't get you in, schools do tend to rely on so-called "over-represented" candidates to pull averages up...and at these tough programs, "more is more" sometimes. In particular, it looks to me like the quant score is the issue -- a 46 is rather low for the schools you are aiming for (correct me if I'm wrong, but a 46 is usually around a 50-60th percentile). Most top schools hope to see a 75th percentile plus in quant. That said, I'd want to know a little more about your testing experiences so far...you mention a retake didn't improve your results, I'd be curious about your preparation and how the experience went/whether you had any particular content struggles or perhaps time management...maybe you can make more headway with some dedicated effort since you still have some time to work on it. However, if you really don't think you can do better at the GMAT, perhaps it's time to consider the other main test, the GRE. There are some free diagnostics at some test prep companies-- feel free to set up a consultation and I'll send you the link up (not sure that's OK to do here). Perhaps that is a preferable test for you; I find that many of my clients who are stronger in verbal on the GMAT end up clicking better with the GRE.
As far as what else you could be working on, the mantra should be "leadership and impact" and looking for ways to go above and beyond at work and in your community. I love your passion for entrepreneurship, and if you are offering that as a goal, then they will look for evidence of how you've acted on this. So, keep working on Peebuddies (or other related initiatives in entrepreneurship) too. I'd also suggest that you cultivate strong recommenders -- you might want to keep one warm from your consulting job and look out for a supporter at Bain Capital as well. Finally, when the time comes to apply, you'll also want strong execution on the application to show your candidacy in the best light; that's where working with an mbaMission consultant can be helpful, and we'd certainly be happy to describe how we work with clients in a consultation when the time is right.
Best of luck!
Warmly,
Julie-Anne Heafey
Senior Consultant
mbaMission
As for a GMAT retake, although this probably isn't what you want to hear, I do think you should consider a test retake if you think you have it in you. While a high test score won't get you in, schools do tend to rely on so-called "over-represented" candidates to pull averages up...and at these tough programs, "more is more" sometimes. In particular, it looks to me like the quant score is the issue -- a 46 is rather low for the schools you are aiming for (correct me if I'm wrong, but a 46 is usually around a 50-60th percentile). Most top schools hope to see a 75th percentile plus in quant. That said, I'd want to know a little more about your testing experiences so far...you mention a retake didn't improve your results, I'd be curious about your preparation and how the experience went/whether you had any particular content struggles or perhaps time management...maybe you can make more headway with some dedicated effort since you still have some time to work on it. However, if you really don't think you can do better at the GMAT, perhaps it's time to consider the other main test, the GRE. There are some free diagnostics at some test prep companies-- feel free to set up a consultation and I'll send you the link up (not sure that's OK to do here). Perhaps that is a preferable test for you; I find that many of my clients who are stronger in verbal on the GMAT end up clicking better with the GRE.
As far as what else you could be working on, the mantra should be "leadership and impact" and looking for ways to go above and beyond at work and in your community. I love your passion for entrepreneurship, and if you are offering that as a goal, then they will look for evidence of how you've acted on this. So, keep working on Peebuddies (or other related initiatives in entrepreneurship) too. I'd also suggest that you cultivate strong recommenders -- you might want to keep one warm from your consulting job and look out for a supporter at Bain Capital as well. Finally, when the time comes to apply, you'll also want strong execution on the application to show your candidacy in the best light; that's where working with an mbaMission consultant can be helpful, and we'd certainly be happy to describe how we work with clients in a consultation when the time is right.
Best of luck!
Warmly,
Julie-Anne Heafey
Senior Consultant
mbaMission
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