Sex! A non-traditional profile if ever there was one

Question

Hi all, thanks for this forum. It's a great place to spend some time. I am coming from a non-traditional background and I would love to hear your thoughts about my profile and my chances.

Demographic information: I'm 25/GQ, from the US.

Education: I got my BA from Hampshire College in the design of assistive and adaptive sex toys for people with disabilities. Hampshire gives written evaluations, not grades, which means that my transcript, when I send it places, is about thirty pages long and all positive.

Work: I built a business out of my thesis work at Hampshire and spent a year after college designing and selling a range of nifty assistive technology devices. Strapping dildos to wheelchairs was not the most profitable of careers so I supplemented my income with IT consulting - mostly organizational technology planning and training. For the past two years, I have been doing similar IT work with a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurship education at the college level by way of grants and venture development education.

Extracurriculars: My spouse and I are pretty hardcore when it comes to local food and slow food and dedicate a lot of hours to farm shares, food preservation, and food preparation. We also hike a bunch and engage with LGBTQQIA activism.

Goals: I've worked in education since I was very young and am passionate about creating opportunities for young students to utilize entrepreneurship education to learn the sorts of holistic, opportunity-obsessed thinking skills it takes to be a an engaged and effective student and citizen in the world. I'm heading towards nonprofit with a reach out to some education-focused electives.

Schools: I applied to Babson, Boston University, Berkeley, Yale, and Harvard. Accepted with incentives to Babson. Interviewed at and confident about Boston University. Rejected from Berkeley without an interview. Submitted Yale and Harvard for Round 2 and have yet to hear anything.

I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person who mentioned dildos in this year's batch of applications to Yale SOM. What do you think?

The waiting is killing killing me. It would be nice to chat with other folks from unusual backgrounds.

Aenigma · Answer

Hi there,

I have no special insight into your chances, but I wanted to wish you good luck. I think of myself as a non-traditional applicant, but you've got me beat in spades! You have a very interesting profile and you get major props for highlighting the disappointing dearth of dildo discussion during the application process. Good luck - and let us know how you do.

zakh · Answer

Thanks very much, Aenigma. My experience has been that people like to hear the sex toy story - besides the titillation of it, there is a social justice foundation that grounds the enterprise. It has definitely been an asset at places like Babson where entrepreneurship is so fundamental to the program. I don't yet have a good picture of how it plays at schools like Yale.

dehumanised · Answer

wow!! if I was an ad-com going through your post I would definitely give you a shout for an interview!!! I knew there would be somebody out there who would be thinking of strapping dildo's to a wheelchair!! 
kudos!! (no sarcasm intended!!)

is it okie if I use your profile as an example in other GMAT forums??? esp. the diversity strapped ones like the indian IT profile moaners??

All the best!! an hope you do make it!

zakh · Answer

Hi dehumanised, absolutely, that would be great. Thanks for the kind wishes.

asimov · Answer

wow, good luck. I actually wondered if anyone from the sex industry ever apply for top schools.

anyways, you are taking a HUGE risk in writing about dildos in your essays, especially at what I consider to be the "ol' boys club" schools like Harvard and Yale. you have to think about it from the AdCom/B-school perspective. Would you want "designed sex toys for disabled" in your resume book if you were running these schools, which place a huge value on appearance? I think Stanford probably be more lenient on that, but not HBS and YSOM.

anyways, again, want to wish you luck and keep us updated on your b-school progress.

zakh · Answer

Agreed. I had expected Berkeley to be into the sex toy story but that was not my experience. In any case, I've always found it best to own the story and the very good reasons for it.

My educational and professional backgrounds are such that personal passion trumps marketability in most situations. It's been interesting to bring that experience to bear at more staid institutions like HBS and Yale. I still believe in the quality of the project and the pitch but it will be a while yet before I see if those schools believe in it.

I used to have business cards that read, "sex industrialist." I can tell you that the sex industry, or at least the queer activist part of it, is a great place to work. It's full of brilliant, thoughtful, and, of course, sexy people.

Posted from my mobile device

zakh · Answer

By way of explication, here is the dildo story:

Describe a situation in which you devised and implemented a creative or unique solution to a difficult problem. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them? (500 words maximum)

Acsex was my thesis-cum-business, born of the Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center (LATDC) at Hampshire College. I designed adaptive, ergonomic, and assistive sex toys for people with disabilities. Acsex provided people all along the dis/ability spectrum with access to an empowered sexuality. Acsex was personal. The first customer I ever had was my spouse.

People with disabilities face an extraordinary lack of accessibility-enhancing assistive media, devices, toys, and other products that can help provide increased positive sexual experiences. Consensual sexuality is out of reach for many people with disabilities because of stigma, lack of funding, or lack of access. Further, people with disabilities also unfortunately face an increased incidence of sexual assault, and a dearth of support and advocacy networks to combat that abuse.

Those resources are lacking for a number of reasons. The most immediate reason to me at the time being that serious-minded people were unwilling to touch a project like mine with a ten-foot pole. Even at Hampshire - famous bastion of the Frisbee Thesis For Social Change - I was questioned for my academic path, and was warned of the resume stain that Acsex would represent. Though I had the full support, encouragement, and even guidance of my academic department, and was the premiere student of my year in my program, I was denied access to seed funding that students of distinction in LATDC are typically granted to launch their fledgling ventures upon graduation.

I was undeterred. I self-funded Acsex and its original retail model through a combination of industrial design and information-technology consulting engagements. As time went by, it became apparent that Acsex was unsustainable as a product-driven business. My market research and direct experience indicated that the intersection of people with disabilities and people with a thousand dollars to spend on adaptive equipment for the bedroom was small. My marketing experience indicated that the people who met those dual criteria were difficult to reach.

The knowledge I had gained through research, product development, and customer interaction for Acsex was far more valuable than the products on my shelf. The mission of Acsex was to bring an empowered sexuality to people with disabilities, and the best way to sustain that mission was to sustain the knowledge I had accumulated.

In its present form, Acsex is a low-key consultancy, providing knowledge resources to clients that I receive by referral. There are so few disability-focused consensual-sex-positive information resources in the world that the best thing I do for most people is let them know that someone out there has faced the same issues they are facing (and also that I still have a few remotely actuated vibrators and easy-on harnesses in stock discounted 10% this week - only when you buy as a set).

Posted from my mobile device

JoeMahmah · Answer

Wow, man. I thought I was a non-traditional applicant. I hope you get in somewhere worthwhile. I would love to have someone like you as a classmate. You should apply to NYU Stern....it is in the Village and by virtue are very LGBT friendly. I am surprised you were spurned by Berkeley. I grew up in the surrounding area and would have expected them to love your story.....best of luck!

adalfu · Answer

wow, this was indeed very interesting... thanks for that profile.

Keep us posted as to what happens w/ the schools' decision.

Sex! A non-traditional profile if ever there was one

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards