For the past 20 years, I've been telling applicants from banking, tech, consulting and even non-profits what their chances are. I have a regular feature, "Handicapping Your Elite MBA Odds," on the leading business school blog Poets & Quants, and would like to share some of my predictions below. Do you recognize your type?
The Big 3 Consultant: After a two-year stint with one of the three big global consulting firms, this 27-year-old Asian woman has been working at a big tech firm as a senior analyst in search marketing. With a 3.67 grade point average from an Ivy League college and a 730 GMAT, she now wants to go to business school.
The Ed-Tech COO: In the past year, she's been working for the chief operating officer of an education technology company, a job she landed after spending two years with Deloitte Consulting. With a 740 GMAT and a 3.8 GPA from the University of Virginia, she hopes to create her own financial education company for young adults and women.
The Euro Sovereign Wealthy Fund Guy: He is both French and Moroccan and has spent four years in Europe with PwC as a financial auditor and three years as the financial controller of a big sovereign fund in the Middle East. This 29-year-old professional now wants to pursue an MBA to advance his career and gain a senior management role
See below for my complete handicapping.
Ms. Search Marketing
- 730 GMAT
- 3.67 GPA
- Undergraduate degree from an Ivy League university in economics
- Work experience includes two years with MBB and a senior analyst in search marketing in a big tech firm
- Extracurricular involvement includes doing alumni interviews for alma mater, member of women's leadership group at work; chair of a volunteer group for mentoring adopted children in college
- Learning Mandarin and wants to work in China
- "I'm thinking about changing jobs to a brand management marketing consulting firm"
- 27-year-old Asian female
Odds of Success:
Harvard: 35% to 45%
Stanford: 25%
Wharton: 50%
Northwestern: 50%+
MIT: 50%
Chicago: 50%+
Sandy's Analysis: I'm impressed. What we have here is Ivy, 3.7, 730 GMAT, and Bain. Where you are now becomes important. If it's a big brand name in tech, that's fine. If that's the case you have a classic case of two great jobs. You are rock solid.
Let's deal with the hard question: Can you get into Stanford? I could be wrong, but I don't think so. What I don't see here is the X factor for Stanford. For Stanford, the X factor is having impact beyond yourself. If you are part of the non-victim majority group, impact beyond yourself is important. Your numbers at Stanford are only average for Stanford.
People like you get into HBS and get dinged by HBS depending on execution of the application, luck, solid recommendations and not blowing the interview. HBS takes people like you day in and day out. I think you are a strong candidate at HBS.
You are a strong candidate at all your other schools. She says she is thinking about changing jobs to a brand management marketing firm. In a bloodless analysis of whether changing jobs will make you a better candidate, I don't think that is going to help. You are as developed in terms of your qualifications as you will ever be.
A 750 GMAT will do you more good than changing jobs. It pains me to say it but it is true.
Ms. Ed Tech
- 740 GMAT (46V/47Q,8 IR)
- 3.8 GPA
- Undergraduate degree in finance and accounting from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce
- Work experience includes two years at Deloitte Strategy & Operations Consulting, with past year working for the CFO/COO at an education technology company (he and CEO are HBS alums) doing all financial modeling, strategic analysis, and support for fundraising/M&A
- Extracurricular involvement as author of a personal finance and investing blog to educate young women and engage them in the markets; also held multiple, free financial workshops and talks, and have the series 65
- Goal: To build on my extracurricular activities to create my own financial education company for young adults/women.
- 25-year-old white female
Odds of Success:
Harvard: 30% to 40%
(If you use my goals! Yours could be destabilizing)
Sandy's Analysis: Lots to like including
1. 25-year-old female
2. 740 GMAT
3. 3.8 GPA at University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce (finance and accounting concentration).
The rest of this is silver and not gold (from what I can tell, maybe more information would change my mind). That includes two years at Deloitte Strategy & Operations Consulting, which is a fine job and might be made to connect backwards and forwards to your goals and career at UVA but it is not planet MBB which emits many, many applicants against whom you will, to some degree, compete with.
I can live with that, and applicants from Deloitte get into HBS, even white ones, depending on what else is going on. What comes next for you needs real explaining, "past year working for the CFO/COO at an education technology company (he and CEO are HBS alums) doing all financial modeling, strategic analysis, and support for fundraising/M&A."
A lot of your story is going to turn on the size of that company and why you chose to work there-the two are inter-related. I myself was not totally sure what "education technology" meant, but a quick search came up with this recent tidbit from Forbes:
Education technology is getting a lot of attention these days. The Obama Administration proposed nearly $4 billion to help wire our schools. Meanwhile, more than $600 million in venture capital poured into ed tech last year - a 32% increase over the prior year.
Teachers have also embraced the use of technology - almost unanimously. In a recent survey, 96% of teachers reported that technology is making a significant impact in their classroom.
Well, I still don't know what it is, but I can imagine, and $600 million dollars worth of "diligenced" VC investing means at the least that something is going on, in addition to the usual VC follow-the-leader investing patterns.
If your company is a serious player in that field, or a serious start-up (that is often even better, there is no success like potential success), and you can relate what they do to your own passions for education, growth companies, and systems etc. THAT makes a good HBS story. And it explains why you went there from Deloitte, making it a seeming
excellent second job. That is important.
What you say your goals are, and what is behind them, is somewhat less effective in supporting this lovely story.
You note:
"Author of a personal finance and investing blog to educate young women . . . I also held multiple, free financial workshops and talks and have the series 65."
And then add:
"Post MBA Goals: To build on my extracurricular to create my own financial education company for young adults/women."
This could be a close call, and I could be wrong because there is no right answer, but I don't see that goal as growing directly enough out of the best thing in your story, the very fact that you are already employed in a powerful and insider role at an "innovative" educational tech company. As the quote from Forbes makes clear, the magic of ed-tech is that it sells stuff to suckers, er, schools!!!! And schools have a well-documented history of buying lots and lots of educational tech- whether it works or not. I myself am old enough to remember Language Labs.
You will be selling to young women. Young women and young men have a well documented history of buying lots and lots of things, but financial advice is not usually in their shopping carts. Why not say you want to build out your Ed-Tech experience and become an impactful and innovative leader in that. Talk about new directions in Ed-Tech, name powerful players, etc. It just makes more sense.
You can still talk about your interesting extra extracurriculars. Say an ed-tech idea you want to explore is how gender makes a difference in processing math.
Being a regular player in the fun and ineffective and fully funded world of Ed-Tech is way more palatable to adcoms than the the idea you propose is-"to create my own financial education company for young adults/women."
That is something we expect to see flogged on PBS by book sellers who have expanded their books into product lines. Or exercise gurus with CD's to sell. You don't need an MBA for that.
Well, as I have often noted, HBS cares way more about your past (which is real and measurable) than your projected future, but goal statements, while they cannot help you, can damage you if they sound odd, unreal, affected, scripted to stand out, etc. You are a strong but no shoe-in candidate, and saying goals my way makes your entire story consistent.
It may not make a difference, but there is no downside to my way, and some possible danger to yours, if you are a close case, and some other threads start to unravel in the application or interview process.
Ms. Boston Tech
- 800 Q, 700 V GRE (expires soon though)
- 760 GMAT (47 Q, 48 V, 5 AW, 5 IR)
- 3.82 GPA
- Undergraduate degree in international studies, with minor in French Studies
- Presidential Scholar at a NESCAC, Phi Beta Kappa, Faculty Honors each semester (spent a semester in Paris and studied at a French institute).
- Work experience includes four years of marketing experience at Boston tech companies with three promotions, managing two people; Established Global Marketing and Marketing Automation strategies at last company to accelerate their European marketing expansion; currently manage customer communications and retention strategy to optimize customer lifetime value.
- Extracurricular involvement in mentoring others in college; now involved with a small local charity in a marketing & analytics consulting role; passionate about art, ranging from DIY endeavors to museum touring.
- "Why I want an MBA: I want to help solve the marketing inefficiencies that international companies face. Leading global marketing operations at a top tech brand, I'd focus on expanding into new markets, driving international strategy and improving customer engagement."
- 26-year-old white female in Boston
Odds of Success:
Harvard: 30% to 35%
Stanford: 15%
INSEAD: 40%+
MIT: 30% to 40%
Dartmouth: 40%
Sandy's Analysis: What we got here is a 3.82 and 760 GMAT, white female, NESCAC college grad*** with more than one marketing job over four years at Boston tech companies.
***Important note about NESCAC: it is a conference of 11 New England Small Colleges including highly selective schools like Amherst and Williams and moderately selective schools like Colby and Bates and lots of others solid places like Tufts, Wesleyan and Bowdoin. If you in fact attended Williams or Amherst, that is a small plus in this game, other NESCAC schools are fine, but usually don't have strong history (there is a history) of sending kids to elite B schools.
Just doing a gross analysis:
Stanford: There is no X factor pushing you into Stanford, despite your ace GPA and GMATs. I might change my mind if you currently work for a Stanford favorite high tech company but those are mostly in California. Stanford, for instance, often admits more than 1 HR person from Google; I would like to know if any other company routinely sends HR people to Stanford (well, Apple excepted).
Marketing is not considered as infra dig as HR, but my guess is, white, women marketing admits to Stanford from companies not on their insider list are either zilch or a couple of people with some other X factor.
HBS: Repeat the Stanford analysis but with some hopeful exceptions. You do work for a Boston company that the HBS adcom might have heard of. Your current company is actually a pretty important part of your outcome.
Another issue is that you will need to explain if you have had more than two jobs in four years.
Three jobs make the jobs seem sketchy and we get a vision of you just going from one pick-up gig to another.
As to what you have done:
"At last company I established Global Marketing and Marketing Automation strategies to accelerate their European marketing expansion. I currently manage customer communications and retention strategy to optimize customer lifetime value." I sort of get that, but when crafting an introduction to your classmates, as per HBS essay, put that in real simple English without the marketing gibberish.
As to goals:
"I want to help solve the marketing inefficiencies that international companies face. [As the leader of ] global marketing operations at a top tech brand, I'd focus on expanding into new markets, driving international strategy and improving customer engagement."
Grrrrrrr. Sure, but if you are really savvy about marketing, and it sounds like you are, you should be able to do better than that in terms of excitement, au courant-ness, and giving reader a sense you both know what you are talking about and are excited. What you propose is generic, random and oddly blended froth containing specific and general ideas in an annoying way.
Marketing has a varied reputation as a business discipline. HBS has a marketing bucket which traditionally favored admitting applicants who had worked at big, consumer-focused marketing giants like P&G, Toyota, Disney, Verizon and American Express. No doubt, high tech marketing of the kind you seem to be engaged in might be a welcome wedge entrant for them, but you need to sound like you totally know the issues.
I say this because selling yourself as a "case-method value add" could make the difference at HBS. And I do not say that to everyone. You got a lot to like but you've had an unusual career that you sort of fell into. For many strong traditional applicants with solid schools, scores and jobs, the watchword at HBS (in both essay and interview) is Do No Harm. That is not you. You gotta explain yourself a bit, while also doing no harm.
INSEAD, MIT, Tuck: Not sure INSEAD is a good call for you unless you want to work in Europe post grad. You probably will get in but take my HBS advice to heart when applying.
MIT does not often ding local female applicants with your stats. And they may know your company.
Tuck will like you if don't flunk their sniff test, i.e. come off as totally non-Tuckie.
Mr. Sovereign Fund
- 680 GMAT (84V/68Q)
- 3.3 GPA
- Undergraduate degree from a top ten French business school
- Work experience includes four years for PwC in Europe as a real estate financial auditor and three years (current) as financial controller for a big sovereign fund in the Middle East
- "I am in the real estate business, and I am happy to remain in that business even if I am open minded for a change. I'd like to pursue an MBA to advance my career quicker and reach a management role before my 40s (in finance, ideally CFO)"
- "Given my current good job (tax free!!!), I wont go for anything else than the best MBAs"
- 29-year-old male, French and Moroccan, who has lived in five different countries
Odds of Success:
Harvard: 15%
London: 50%
Sandy's Analysis: This is a mixed bag of low-ish scores, OK jobs and confusion as to career trajectory. Where did your current job, "3 years as financial controller for a big sovereign fund in the Middle East" come from? I realize you are both Moroccan and French and may have some contacts or relations in the region, but that still needs explaining.
Further, you add, "I am in the real estate business, and I am happy to remain in that business even if I am open minded for a change." What does that mean? To what extent are you currently in the real estate business while working for sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East -- you don't have to answer, but I am getting a real film noir vibe.
And further, what does being "open minded for change mean?"
OK, moving right along, let's say you optimize this story, do not incriminate yourself in the application, and manage to put together a clear through-line of how a PWC gig in real estate audit, plus a job as a financial controller for a big sovereign wealth fund and a "MSC from a French business school (top 10)" adds up to the need for an MBA.
Perhaps by saying, "my goal is to build out my audit and controller roles to become a CFO of an MNC where I would be engaged in blah, blah, blah.
What exactly is blah, blah, blah in this context.
Oh try this,
▪Assist in formulating the company's future direction and supporting tactical initiatives
▪Monitor and direct the implementation of strategic business plans
▪Develop financial and tax strategies
▪Manage the capital request and budgeting processes
▪Develop performance measures that support the company's strategic direction
[Digression and tip for all essay writers: the Internet is the most overlooked tool BY FAR in writing business school essays. And I mean beyond searching for consultants and generic essay writing tips, both of which are often of marginal utility ;-). I mean for finding jive just like those bullets above, which can easily be broken down and incorporated in an essay to transform this confused slacker dude into someone who sounds like a solid fellow with a passionate desire to use his financial and audit experience in a strategic and MBA-like way.]
OK, let's say you do all of that.
This is not likely to fly at HBS, too much crud on the windshield including low stats and odd jobs. A "Hail Mary" (will some reader please post the Islamic equivalent ) approach at HBS is to play up the Sovereign Wealth angle and hint that you want to join or start a consulting shop that advises Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth funds while hinting you gots lots of connections there.
At LBS, if you make your bed and straighten up, all of a sudden you got a lot going for, including all of the above and a much wider door. Your inchoate dreams can certainly come true there.
And no one has lost money in London real estate for the last 100 years except the very unlucky. That does not seem like you.