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Hello,

I would be grateful if you could evaluate my profile, and tell me whether I have any chances in the nearest admission for Stanford B-School!

Target schools: Stanford
- 22 years old, white male, Middle-East Europe

Short-term goals:
- Gain adequate experience in top VC fund in Silicon Valley
Long-term goals:
- Run own hi-tech startup

Education:
- Bechelors of Quantitative Methods, graduated in July 2013
- GPA: 3.1 (first year: 2.7, second year: 3.5)
- Graduated in 2 years (even though the course takes officially 3 years to finish)
- CFA Level 2 Candidate, passed a local stockbroker exam as one of the youngest candidates
- GMAT: 770

Work experience:
- 6 months (till now) of participating in expansion to US (silicon valley) of one of the portfolio companies,
- 6 months as an analyst in VC fund, evaluating new business ideas and supporting establishing of a new VC fund,
- 2 years working part-time as an analyst in VC fund, duties similar as in the full-time job
- Summer internship in one of the biggest investment funds in Poland, valuating stocks and making investment recommendations.
- Founder of 3 business initiatives operating under business incubator (during high-school)

Achievements:
- 3rd place in finals of Global Management Challenge, world's biggest business competition, national winner. Participation in the competition was funded by KPMG. The challenge was to develop a model linking together financial, optimization and predictive aspects, sold later to a consulting company
- 3x national winner in various Business / Data Analysis Competitions (success rate of each strongly below 0,5%), representing Poland in world finals
- 2x finalist of country finals in Business Competitions (success rate below 1%)
- During High School, 5x laureate of national entrepreneurship competitions

Awards:
- 2x awarded a scholarship of Ministry of Education among 25 other individuals in country, due to extraordinary scientific achievements (during High School)

Leadership:
Ran several initiatives to connect and establish relations between business (Business Angels, VC Funds, Business Accelerators) with university environments (and between business and tech universities). During these initiatives over $40k was raised and I managed 45 people
- Introduced to Poland a 3 Day Startup certified event (3daystartup.com), where 40 students from various environments had an opportunity to create a new startup from scratch under the care of business and industry professionals. An event resulted in 3 established startups.
- Introduced to Poland a student version of Dragons' Den (licensed), during which 5 students had an opportunity to present their business ideas, in front of 5 successful Polish entrepreneurs. 3 of them on the list of top 100 richest men in the country. During the event bids of overall value of $120k were made and 2 startups were established.
- Launched university based consulting group that included students from top business and technology universities, offering analysis to startups and business angels societies. We worked for the biggest business angels society in the country.
- Project manager of Start-up Conference. Over 350 participants and 4 speakers form silicon valley.

- Ran a business competition for high school students. During an the event tightly cooperated with CIMA. Raised $30k and managed 35 people. There were over 7 500 participants from all the country. Winners were offered an internship in an energy company.

References:
- I have strong references from my boss, entrepreneur and a VC fund owner, business angel, recognized as Global Leader of Tommorow by the World Economic Forum in Davos

Other:
- An enthusiastic runner. Ran 2 marathons so far

Why my GPA is so poor? I lost my focus on school in the first year due to my part-time job that was the best thing could happen to me at that time. I also participated in competitions like crazy (fortunately, with effects) and decided to shorten my education to 2 years instead of 3.

I am wondering if you could tell whether above listed achievements could make up for my very likely poor GPA score, which right now, unfortunately I cannot do anything about.

Duplicate...

Hi,

So you are working at a VC fund in Poland/EU?
What school did you do your undergraduate degree at (and what is it's ranking)? Likewise, even though your GPA converts to a 3.1 (I'm assuming you did your undergrad in the EU) - what is your class rank?
Are you involved in one of the leadership activities you listed on an ongoing basis? If not, get involved with one of them again because Adcoms like to see consistency and impact over time (not <1 year).
Which nationalities do you hold?

Stanford is the most selective school out there - so there are no guarantees. If your GPA & Class rank really work out to a B average.....that is well below their average (though your GMAT does help :) I would keep Stanford as a reach but you also need to apply to some other schools.

I agree with Bhavik from Critcal Square - you should hold off on applying and get more WE.

As far as telling a school that you want to to work in VC - well they would much rather you worked in something post-MBA that large employers actually recruit for on campus (consulting). It's a crap shoot whether you would actually land a spot working in VC (if you are working in a smaller/lesser known VC firm in Poland/EU now...not sure if that is true).

Best,
Leah Derus
fxmbaconsulting . com

Velati,

The statement "have any chance" sets the bar low in that of course you have some chance.

Where is your exact Country of Origin as this bears on which applicant group you will be placed into? From which undergraduate school did you graduate?

Your GMAT is obviously strong.

Because your goals are in VC/PE, I agree with Bhavik and Leah in waiting to gain more experience. Read Stanford GSB's page for College Seniors - https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/mb ... ge-seniors. I realize you have graduated, but the logic still applies to you.

Good luck,

Leah, Bhavik, Michael - many thanks for your response!

I am from Poland and graduated from Warsaw School of Economics - it is top economics school in Poland, however in comparison with foreign universities it does not hold an outstanding position. But, it is worth noting that my field of study is unique and is tought only by two schools in Europe.

There are no rankings provided by university regarding students' GPA. However, I suppose that my second year GPA places me amongst TOP 10% students.

Yes, I am currently working for a polish VC Fund, but I am my based in silicon valley, where I cooperate with one of the portfolio companies and support their expansion to US.

Leah, I was involved on an ongoing basis in only one of the mentioned initiatives, as in my opinion, further participation in these events wouldn't produce valuable results. I would block that way development of other people engaged in project that during the cooperation gained sufficient independence to lead the next editions of projects. Don't you think that I prove consistency through all these activities focused on entrepreneurship and startups? It is over 6 years since that became my passion (as I established my first startup when I was 16).

Since you are in Silicon Valley, head to Stanford GSB (along with Haas) for an information session. Discuss your profile with Derrick Bolton and/or other members of the Admissions team (keep in mind to be emotionally intelligent in that how you carry yourself could be remembered).

Also, over the next year start trying to gain more advanced VC skill sets in sourcing deals, leading execution teams (if possible), providing strategic guidance to portfolio companies, etc.

Best of luck,