Dear Elisa123,

Thanks for your post! I have responded to your questions below:

1) What are my chances at Haas, Wharton, Stanford and Kellogg? You are certainly 'in the running' at all of these programs, so I suspect much of it will come down to your ability to craft strong applications. The fact that you are a strategy consultant from one of the top three firms helps your case. So does your economics major (albeit not terribly uncommon) and your strong ugrad GPA. In addition, don't forget that your being a woman gives you an edge in the male dominated applicant pool.

2) Will the number of years of work experience I have be a problem with the Haas and Wharton applications? I know they have a slightly higher Avg. age / no. years of WE than the other schools. While you may be on the younger side for each of these schools, I am not at all concerned about this aspect of your candidacy. You will have 3-4 years of full-time experience upon matriculation, and that is absolutely sufficient.

3) How big of a problem is it that my quantitative portion of the GMAT is in the 68th percentile? I have taken the GMAT 2x, and do not think I can score higher. However, I have taken 2 calc course in college, and received As. It is certainly a concern, given that most of the leading programs like to see candidates cross the 80th percentile in each section of the exam. I'd need to know more about your history with the exam and the exact details of your college transcripts to help you devise the best approach to this issue with the adcom.

4) Will my lack of EC involvement harm my application? The short answer is yes. Having said that, you may want to read our tips on ECs to help think about ways to address this.

https://blog.clearadmit.com/2009/03/admi ... ctivities/

At the most basic level, the adcom needs to be convinced that you are an active person who is likely to contribute to campus life (based on your wide array of current hobbies/activities). Keep in mind that you might be compared to other strategy consultants who have found time to do more with their spare time, etc.

Feel free to send along your resume to [email protected] if you would like to look at some these issues in greater detail with one of our counselors. There is no charge for an initial discussion of your background.

Best of luck,

Graham