Ask Veritas Prep Admissions Consulting

Here are my stats:

-American male, mid twenties
-BBA in finance and BA in economics from top state school (3.9 GPA)
-Three years investment banking at a top bank (think Goldman Sachs / Morgan Stanley / JP Morgan), with third spent in an international office
-Two years experience at a middle market private equity firm (good track record but not much of a national brand name)
-Worked on several high profile deals as a banker
-760 GMAT
-174 LSAT
-Decent extracurricular involvement during school (some work for nonprofits, executive board for a couple of student organizations, paper published in undergraduate economics journal)

My goal is to work at a fund specializing in distressed debt and other unique and illiquid investments. The main thing I'm worried about with my apps is that my profile just seems too generic - good student at a state school works at a bank and then does private equity. It just doesn't seem unique enough. The programs that I'm really interested in are Harvard, Stanford, Penn/Wharton, Chicago/Booth, Columbia and Northwestern/Kellogg.

What makes an application interesting are the stories you tell. The more personal you make it and the more relevant detail you bring out, the more likely you will be remembered and will stand out. you have all the right "stuff" to qualify for your target schools, but tying it all together and especially telling them why you want to get the MBA and why you want to work in distressed debt will peel back the layers and reveal more about yourself. This is what most applicants fail to do, and instead fall for the embellished description technique where they try to impress the committee by describing their achievements with adjectives instead of speaking a narrative from the heart. Passion, conviction and inspiration win the day, and just like any news or human interest story, you must pull from the personal side to make it work. I hope this helps.