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Hello,

I am interested in getting dome feedback regarding my chances at the Wharton Lauder program. I havent been able to find any info, but does anyone know what the Lauder program acceptance rate and class size is? Here is my info:

Demographics: 28 year old male. Half Japanese. Born in Japan, but grew up primarily in California. I lived in Japan for about 8 years.

GMAT: 710 (47Q/40V/6.0 AWA/8 IR)

Academics: 3.43 GPA from Brigham Young University. BA in Japanese with a minor in business (3.79 major GPA). Graduated in 2008. (Note: I moved back to the US when I was 10 years old and didn't speak Japanese again until I was 19. I decided to major in Japanese to deepen my understanding of the language and the culture that was such a large part of my heritage.)

Work History: 1+ years at Goldman Sachs as an operations analyst. I have been promoted once and expect to be promoted to an associate in January. At matriculation, I will have 2 and a half years at Goldman.

-Prior to Goldman, I spent 2 and a half years at an HR Consulting firm/corporate milestone and recognition award manufacturer and distributor. I worked in international operations managing client and vendor relations in Japan, China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia. I started at the company as a general international operation rep, but moved up to managing those international client and vendor relations.

Extracurricular: In early 2011 I founded a non-profit organization to help increase community awareness of childhood sexual abuse, and to provide financial assistance to underprivileged victims in need of one-on-one counseling. We have helped several victims and I have had the chance to speak to hundreds of members of the community. I was awarded the Lieutenant Governor's Volunteer Recognition Award in 2011 for my work in the community.

-I have also been a mentor/instructor for Junior Achievement since the beginning of 2013.

-I am also an ambassador for the Trevor Project in my state, and I regularly respond to LGBT teen's questions regarding struggle they are facing in everyday life.

-I am an avid runner and have run in several marathons.

-I served a two-year mission for the LDS church in Japan. For one of those years I was a regional leader and oversaw the work and well-being of 20 to 30 other missionaries.

Post MBA goals: Short-term - To transition from operations in the financial industry into an operations leadership role at a global consumer products company (Ideally a place like Nike).

Long-term - To become of the COO of a global consumer products company.

Thank you!

MBAreapplicant84 wrote:Hello,

I am interested in getting dome feedback regarding my chances at the Wharton Lauder program. I havent been able to find any info, but does anyone know what the Lauder program acceptance rate and class size is? Here is my info:

Demographics: 28 year old male. Half Japanese. Born in Japan, but grew up primarily in California. I lived in Japan for about 8 years.

GMAT: 710 (47Q/40V/6.0 AWA/8 IR)

Academics: 3.43 GPA from Brigham Young University. BA in Japanese with a minor in business (3.79 major GPA). Graduated in 2008. (Note: I moved back to the US when I was 10 years old and didn't speak Japanese again until I was 19. I decided to major in Japanese to deepen my understanding of the language and the culture that was such a large part of my heritage.)

Work History: 1+ years at Goldman Sachs as an operations analyst. I have been promoted once and expect to be promoted to an associate in January. At matriculation, I will have 2 and a half years at Goldman.

-Prior to Goldman, I spent 2 and a half years at an HR Consulting firm/corporate milestone and recognition award manufacturer and distributor. I worked in international operations managing client and vendor relations in Japan, China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia. I started at the company as a general international operation rep, but moved up to managing those international client and vendor relations.

Extracurricular: In early 2011 I founded a non-profit organization to help increase community awareness of childhood sexual abuse, and to provide financial assistance to underprivileged victims in need of one-on-one counseling. We have helped several victims and I have had the chance to speak to hundreds of members of the community. I was awarded the Lieutenant Governor's Volunteer Recognition Award in 2011 for my work in the community.

-I have also been a mentor/instructor for Junior Achievement since the beginning of 2013.

-I am also an ambassador for the Trevor Project in my state, and I regularly respond to LGBT teen's questions regarding struggle they are facing in everyday life.

-I am an avid runner and have run in several marathons.

-I served a two-year mission for the LDS church in Japan. For one of those years I was a regional leader and oversaw the work and well-being of 20 to 30 other missionaries.

Post MBA goals: Short-term - To transition from operations in the financial industry into an operations leadership role at a global consumer products company (Ideally a place like Nike).

Long-term - To become of the COO of a global consumer products company.

Thank you!

Class size is roughly 60 -- usually split in half across two cohorts in your first year.

As for the competitiveness, it's a combination of your overall profile (like it would be for the regular MBA program) as well as the language stream you're looking at. Mandarin tends to be a popular one, as are Spanish and French. Languages like Japanese, Portuguese, and Arabic are less represented (which can help).

In your case, I think you have a strong enough chance that it's at least worth applying. Your competitiveness for Lauder is dictated as much if not more by how competitive you are for Wharton, since that's really the first hurdle. Again, I think you have a decent enough shot given your work experience AND your extensive history of public service (activities which look like the real deal that you'd be doing regardless, and not just "resume builders").

Lauder is really focused on getting folks who love learning for its own sake, and tends to attract a more intellectually curious type of person (a lot of the Americans for example grew up like yourself in different countries and/or lived in multiple countries).

Are you fluent in Japanese? My understanding is that is a requirement (fluency in 2nd language stream) to apply to Wharton lauder prgram. And there is a language interview. For what its worth, I have a friend, also half japanese half American, who graduated from lauder, and in her experience, it was much easier to get into wharton thru lauder and not general MBA track.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I am fluent in Japanese. Basso25, I saw you profile on another post in this forum, it looks pretty solid. Did you ever live in Japan?

hey reapplicant84: good deal, just making sure.

yeah, i was actually born/raised in tokyo and lived there for the first 18 years of my life. we shoot connect offline - if at all to support each other in our endeavors! i have to add -- i would give my left arm for your gmat score. well done, and good luck with your apps.

Last month, I attended AIGAC's annual conference (this year held at Wharton). Mauro Guillen, Direct of the Lauder Institute, presented about the program.

The Lauder program has nine language tracks of which a medium level of fluency is necessary (which the poster clearly has in Japanese (the other eight for those curious are Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Russian, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish); this year Lauder also introduced a Global Program (multilingual).

Your background, interests, and language proficiency are competitive for the program.

Best of luck,