Ask Veritas Prep Admissions Consulting

Hi!

Below please find a summary of my profile and a few application strategy questions. Thank you in advance for your help!

PROFILE
- 25-year-old white male
- Grew up in Poland and am a bilingual dual-citizen
- GMAT: 760
- GPA:3.7
- Undergraduate degree in Economics from "Little Ivy" (Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan)
- 3 years of Strategy & Operations consulting experience at Deloitte Consulting; top ratings and promotion after two years; MBA sponsorship likely

Undergrad EC
- Founded a pro-bono consulting group during undergrad
- General Manager of 100+ student sub-division of the undergrad IT department
- Psychology research lab; lead multiple studies
- Internships in asset management (Dodge & Cox) and economic consulting (Brattle Group)

Post-Grad EC
- Volunteering with Junior Achievement of NY (3yrs)
- Volunteering with Future Leaders Institute Charter School (2yrs)
- Pro Bono consulting volunteer trip to Panama
- Co-founded social impact group/initiative at Deloitte
- Developed proposals to gain Deloitte funding for non-profit projects
- Deloitte NY Analyst Committee networking lead

Goal:
Short Term: Rejoin Deloitte to focus on market entry/growth strategy and build the emerging market practice
Long Term: Return to Poland and Eastern Europe to help renewable energy and smart grid technology penetrate the eastern European market which is currently dominated by shale fracking and "dirty" energy (energy experience from Deloitte and both undergraduate internships)

Target Schools:
Round 1: Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia, MIT
Round 2: Haas, Duke


SCHOOL SELECTION
Given my profile detailed below, I would greatly appreciate your input on my proposed target schools by rounds and the distribution of reach/fit/safety. More specifically, should I consider adding another "reach" like HBS, another "safety" like Yale/Ross/Darden?

PERSONAL STORY
I have laid out my goals in term of location and industry. Given my long-term goal does not fit into a specific industry (i.e., I-banking, consulting, asset management),, would my story be improve by including a specific role and company?

RECOMMENDATIONS
Given I will be submitting 6-7 recommendations:
(A) is it advisable to ask my recommenders for all 7 recommendations upfront, or should I ask for round 1 and round 2 separately?
(B) is it acceptable/reasonable to ask each recommender to write all 6/7 recommendations?

Thank you,
Matt

I think you have a good handle on your target school categories and don't see why you shouldn't proceed given your profile. I like that you started social impact group since that will be good evidence for your long term passion, but you might consider getting some experience or exposure to the energy industry to tie that goal in a bit better to your career thus far. Otherwise you risk sounding too dreamy about your long term goal. As for recommenders, many top schools are going towards a standardized questionniare, so your recommenders may find it easier to file several schools without too much trouble. Having said that, I think 7 is indeed a lot to ask one person, so you might consider having backup recommenders who do no more than three schools each. Of course the determining factor will be how much time do your recommenders have to put into the process. Let us know if we can help. We have specialists who graduated from all your target schools and can provide detailed insight into how to best position your profile to gain the attention of the admissions committees. Good luck!

Bryant,

Thank you for your perspective and insight. Following up on your industry comment, my energy exerience is veiled giv the brevity of a forum posting. However, I have an internship as an energy equity analyst, an internship as a energy analyst and an economic consulting firm and have worked on projects for energy clients during my time at Deloitte. Given this new information, do you still think this is an area that I need to beef up? If so, what is the best way to do so in such a short time frame?

Thanks!
Matt

No but I think highlighting this experience would obviously be something you'd want to do in the application. Connecting your past to your future is important and demonstrating passion and genuine interest in an area is often the key to success. No better way to do that than to showcase the work you have achieved in the energy field.