How to pick schools/Prof Eval

Question

Hi Alex, would appreciate info on picking schools and a prof eval. I've been looking through the boards, I think comparatively my experience is on par but my stats are in the dumps, which is making school selection an interesting process!

Nat: 
US Citizen, Indian descent

Gender: 
Male

Age: 
29 in Sept

Ugrad: 
Public Low Tier; GPA 3.2, Finance and Economics, minor: French; Freshman GPA of 2.3 then trends up (had incoming schol., lost it)

GMAT: 
690 88th (V: 39, 87th Q: 46, 75th)

Work Exp: 
1. 2 years, analyst with publicly traded REIT
2. 1 year, real estate placements and asset management with inv. bank
3. 3 years, transferred internally, promoted to Associate, placements/IR with private equity fund
4. 1 year, taught entrepreneurship abroad (volunteer)
5. 6 months unemployed (waiting for start date, will be volunteering 
again with an MFI)

EC: None really, although triathlon and marathon in 2009/2010, sailing (bareboat charter certified) if that has value

Goals: Social Enterprise, Social Investment, Consulting (as an intermediary step)

I choose these schools based on:
1. GMAT, US News Rankings
2. Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking
3. Personal preference (location, brand, class size)

Super Reach: Indian School of Business, Duke
Reach: Cornell, UNC
Reach (but above both median and average GMAT): Georgetown

I will not apply to schools outside of Tier 1 (rather invest that bonus money). My dream schools would have been Stanford, Berk, NYU, Mich but a combination of Age and GMAT preclude me from considering them. Thoughts?

Thanks!

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Yale is the preeminent school for social enterprise, so I'm not sure why that's not on the top of your list.

Stanford: too much going against you (age, GMAT, GPA, and you're up against enough candidates with stronger resumes)

The rest of the schools are within reach if your GMAT were stronger: Yale, Duke, Cornell, Haas, Michigan
But with your current score, they'd be slight stretches. Your GMAT is right on the margins, so my hunch is that with strong applications, it could really go either way (and maybe more than a few waitlists).

Schools outside the top 16 such as Georgetown and UNC are within reach with the current score you have. With ISB - from what I know they seem to be a GMAT oriented school, so although it doesn't have as strong an overall rep as the top 16 schools, its GMAT distributions are more similar to those at the top 16 schools.

gargamel · Answer

Thanks for the response Alex.

I would love to go to Yale, but I excluded Yale for the same reason I excluded most of the top ten: GMAT. The Yale mean/median is 722/720 and the 80% range is 680-760, similar to H/S/Berk. From the ISB website, mean/median is 710/709 and the 80% range is 670-760.

So, just to confirm my takeaways, here's what I interpreted:

First: Cornell is not within reach, its a stretch (aka my "Super Reach").

Second: UNC is not a stretch, its within reach (as are the schools outside the top 16 in USNR).

Third: ISB is beyond stretch (aka bordering impossible) because their students' median/mean GMAT score is heavily concentrated above my score [which sucks because I really wanted to go to India for a year]. Yale and Berkeley are not beyond stretch because...[need a little help here!!! :lol:

]

Fourth: With respect to the stretch schools, I would be equally on the fringe at Yale and Berkeley (despite that each of those schools have a 20th percentile GMAT score of 680) as Duke or Cornell [640 and 620, respectively).

Fifth: By fringe, we're talking about sweating out some waitlists, if not getting an outright ding!

Anyways, I'm contemplating a change in strategy. I could take the GMAT again (this was my first attempt) but I am not confident that I will achieve a significantly different score and would rather concentrate on the rest of my application. I'm willing to roll the dice, and I'm also willing to get b***h-slapped back down to Earth. Actually, if I got dinged from every school, then it would be more like down to :twisted:

My new approach (I will probably cut at least two schools away from this list):

Stretch (high GMAT range): Yale, Berkeley, ISB
Stretch (avg GMAT range): Duke, Michigan
Reach: UNC, UT-A

Advice on this approach is much appreciated, especially clarification on my candidacy for Yale/Berkeley vs Duke/Michigan/ISB (meaning is there a tier within these schools that I'm ignoring or is the probability of getting into any one of those schools relatively the same).

My new approach (I will probably cut at least two schools away from this list): Stretch (high GMAT range): Yale, Berkeley, ISB Stretch (avg GMAT range): Duke, Michigan Reach: UNC, UT-A Advice on this approach is much appreciated, especially clarification on my candidacy for Yale/Berkeley vs Duke/Michigan/ISB (meaning is there a tier within these schools that I'm ignoring or is the probability of getting into any one of those schools relatively the same).

AlexMBAApply · Answer

You're overthinking and overanalyzing the GMAT stuff, but your revised school list looks fine - it's a good mix of schools and you should have a good chance of getting into a few of the schools on your list (i.e. there's a low chance that you won't get in anywhere, so you should feel somewhat assured that you'll likely get in somewhere next year, and maybe even have some choices -- no applicant gets into every single school they apply to, but with your list like most applicants you have a reasonable shot of getting into a few on your list).

gargamel · Answer

*HUGE*  THANKS  Alex. Your advice was not only valuable, but a needed affirmation!

gargamel · Answer

Hi Alex, don't mean to beat a dead horse but the script has flipped -

At the screams and hoots of former colleagues, took the GMAT again:
710 92nd, (V: 38 83th, Q: 49 86th)

I also decided that the cost to go to B-School was too high and decided to do more research and really drill down to my favorite prospect. So - I'm applying Columbia or bust. I'm going to apply no matter what, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the value of applying ED vs. RD. Are there ANY reasons why someone would rather apply RD even though Columbia is their top school (or in my case, only school)? Does it have an affect on financial aid?

Thank you for your patience.

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Apply ED.

gargamel · Answer

Works for me!

gargamel · Answer

Hi Alex,

I was rejected from Columbia ED (you probably are not surprised!) and I hedged too much on deciding whether or not I wanted to get my MBA from any other school. Now I'm thinking of applying round three.

Can you provide some advice on how I can pick schools? I imagine the schools we discussed that were less competitive than Columbia (Yale, Duke, Michigan, etc.) are out the window at this point. Can I still look at the top 25 or am I looking at tier 2 now? I'd like to make this cycle the last time I apply to an MBA program!

Appreciate any advice you can provide, specific or general, as to applying third round. (For instance, is choosing schools where my GMAT is 30+ higher than the mean/median necessary?)

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