Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi, I'd like to hear the possibility getting into top 7 schools,

Goal - Social Venture Capitalist - Community Finance

Profile

School - not much reknown school in Seoul
Major - Business Administration
GPA - 3.34 (3.78/4.5)
GAMT - 710 (Q 50 / V 35)
U.S. CPA
CFA Level 1
TOEFL - 109

Career

Jr. Accountant (non-profit financial service firm) - 3 1/2 years (Current)
Campaign part-time consultant (one of UN's subsidiaries - 2years (Current)
Internship Agency - CEO and Founder - 1 1/2 year (Current)

Extra activity and point
Organized online study community - 800 members

Target schools
HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth, Berkeley

Thank you for your opinion in advance!

evan059, it looks like you have a lot of really interesting elements to your profile!! And, you are generally qualified (based on the basics of GMAT and GPA) to apply to any school (your TOEFL looks a little low but that's the least important aspect of the profile).

Your background looks like it might be a good setup to go into the social entrepreneurship space -- but VC is incredibly competitive and there just aren't that many jobs coming out of most bschools into VC. The other major concern that we have is you seem to be just targeting the top schools; we're not seeing a cohesive strategy here based on what a particular school can do for you, or why you want to go there. When you develop your essays, you'll need to articulate TO EACH SCHOOL why you've chosen it and how you think it could help you. For Stanford, that seems sorta obvious, based on your goals, but other than that we'd be interested to know what your thought process is in selecting this list. Each of these are obviously the most selective schools around - absolutely the hardest to get into - so you'll need to convince each of them individually why you feel you need to go there. And if you're considering doing SEVEN applications for Round 2.... welll..... we're kinda skeptical that you'll be able to create a strong enough presentation to have a real chance at them. Typically we see three apps, or maybe four, being doable in the December-January timeframe. It's up to you of course, but in the end, essay-writing is a creative task, and it typically requires significant time and space for the mind to come up with quality material.

So your chances are generally equivalent at all these schools: You are checking off the boxes in terms of being a qualified candidate, and it seems you've got some interesting elements to your profile... but most important is expressing how a particular school is the right fit for you (and vice versa) and that comes down to well-written essays that pitch your profile to them in the right way. Putting such a pitch together is not a trivial task! We'd be interested to see more of your reasoning behind choosing each of these seven schools, before offering a more definitive opinion on "your chances."

EssaySnark

Thank you for your detailed evaluation. It is very helpful to get expert's perspective.

Actual target schools are HBS, Standford, Wharton, Columbia, Hass and Yale. I have not made up my mind yet to apply all of them or to select 4-5 schools, but I already developed stories that fit into questions most schools require like leadership experience, creative work experience, and teamwork etc.

The thought process behind the school selecting is that becuase I will do my own social enterprenual business in Korea ater all, I need a strong connection and network which is one of the most important factors to succeed in East Asia.

Again, Thank you very much for your commment.

Young

Hi Young--

All of those schools would obviously be amazing and could definitely help you with your goals. Haas in particular (though it is nearly as selective as Stanford!!), and Yale too, are ones that jump out, beyond the standard H/S/W. Columbia maybe as well though they aren't quite leading the pack with social venture stuff. They do have a decent entrepreneurship track of course, and it's a great school, for anybody.

One school not on your list is Ross. It's not a brand-name school (we understand that some people care mostly about the "prestige" factor of the brand) however it is an EXCELLENT program for social venture - their roots go back as far as Stanford's, and they have strong connections and great professors in this domain. We strongly encourage you to consider Ross for the quality of education in this area. It's just as good as Haas and Yale.

NYU might be another (in fact we often prefer NYU these days over Columbia for certain sectors).

Good luck with all the work ahead of you and we hope you'll report back on your progress!

EssaySnark