Ask Stacy Blackman

Hi Stacy,

I've watched a lot of your interviews and read a lot of your posts and I have been very impressed by your council that you have given to applicants, so I thought I would write a post (my first time ever!) and ask you for some advice.

I graduated from a State University (a good school not Ivy though, if you would like specifics I am more than happy to give them) with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies heavily focused in Public Health, Health Education, and business. I have a 3.37 GPA but my quantitative classes were all A's and A-. I am studying to take the GMAT this August and I think that I can score around 750 (realistically not just shooting for the stars).

I have worked as a project manager in a competitive internship where we did some C++ programing and worked a lot of with customers and successfully manged 7 separate accounts. I am currently working as a Franchise Analyst/Consultant for a small franchising company which is a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company. I have worked for about 10 months.

I have a lot of experience in leadership, but I am unsure about my ability to use them in my essays.
1. I successfully organized a huge local 5k race for drug and violence prevention including getting sponsors and volunteers in collaboration with the local Health Department. Over 800 participants. Including instructional materials to be used in the local school districts on drug and violence prevention.
2. I have served in a local community ecclesiastical leadership position where we provide welfare assistance to over 100 families in our area, both members of our group and non-members.
3. During my Freshman year of College I went to the Czech Republic on a service mission for 2 years where we taught English courses and smoking cessation courses for free. Where I also learned to speak the language fluently.
a. On that service mission I coordinated a meetings with various organizations to collaborate efforts to provide community service for local communities.

I suppose I have written enough specifics.

I want to know if I really have a chance to get into the schools I listed in the subject line. Particularly HBS. I have done an immense amount of MBA program studying and I deeply desire to go to HBS. Is it probable (I realize everything is possible) I just struggle with how to utilize some of my ecclesiastical experience as leadership without breaking some kind of rules. I also don't know if my normal work experience is long enough to get in.

I simply need to talk this over and help me to get a realistic expectations and understand what steps I need to take to prepare myself. I would like to apply to HBS this fall round 1.

Whatever your council is I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you so much for your time in reading my post,

JP