Ask Veritas Prep Admissions Consulting

Hello all,

I would really appreciate if you could help me evaluate my chances to be accepted to an Ivy-League MBA-program in the US (main targets are Harvard and Stanford) which I plan to attend three years from now. Especially the fact (I read it here somewhere) that work experience before/during undergraduate studies is not considered makes me worry a lot since this my largest/only asset.

Here my profile:
- Undergraduate degree in Germany 1.7/5.0 (upper 10%), semester abroad in China (+ one year in Australia during high school)
- GMAT 720
- Internetship at Roland Berger (Strategy Consultant) and PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Co-Founder of 5 companies (all during undergrad, I sold them all now!). One trading company, one Chinese-German Joint Venture in the manufacturing industry, one Real-Estate Private Equity Fund (two projects with deal values of xx million), several smaller start-ups (all successful on a small scale)
- Co-Founder of a Charity Organisation - collected and donated >500k dollar to children in need
- When I apply for the MBA I will have one more internship, a Masters degree in Finance and Accounting (see below why and where I will attend it) in the upper 10% and two years of work experience in Consulting/IB; I will be 29-30(maybe even 31) years old since I am 25 now
- Very good letters of recommendation from my professors - they are not well know though internationally

I know I am quite old already but in Germany students finish a lot later (undergrad with 23/24) than in the US. Our career here progresses faster in the beginning (if we start working in Germany/AU/Switzerland) because our education is a lot longer and prepares us quite thorough. After a Masters degree (other than in the US almost everyone in Germany does a Masters degree; as undergraduate you start one-two positions lower in any company here, exceptions being only in Investment Banking).

Because I graduated at a normal/good German University I plan to attend a Masters program at London School of Economics, University of Mannheim, Goethe University (Frankfurt) or at St. Gallen in Switzerland. I want to go to LSE because of the international reputation although every German student that I know who attended a UK/US top university somewhat found the education in Germany a lot tougher and much deeper/more thorough (+exams and competition are much harder). I really don't know why the German education is ranked so low internationally but it is how it is and I hence I take it how it is.

Best regards and thank you very much

HBS and Stanford are known for a younger class and tend to accept far fewer applicants over 30 than say, Wharton or Booth. If your heart is set on one of those schools, you might consider applying now in the last round and see how you do. If you don't get in, you could go get your Master's degree which will be a nice "improvement" to your profile, which is expected of reapplicants. By the way, reapplicants have a bit of an easier time in the admissions process, since they get an extra measure of consideration for trying again. Your GMAT is strong and your work experience and academics are good, so I don't see much reason to wait. Schoools like HBS and Stanford will consider leadership and work experience while in college as long as you can articulate it well and show that it will be valuable to your classmates and also sets you up for success in your chosen post MBA career.