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Hello,

I am a big fan of HBS and Columbia, would like to know if I would get a decent chance to get into either school.

School Stats:
- Undergrad 3.1 GPA (Top 5% of the class)
- BBA, Information Systems Major
- Best honours project (Research paper) among 300 undergrad in my final year
- Postgrad A- Average (Top 3% of the class)
- MSc in Financial Analysis - Security Analysis Major
- Designation: CPA / CISA (Information Systems auditor)
- 760 GMAT (50M, 46V 5.5 AWA)

Work
- 4-year at Big 4 public accountancy firm, worked in risk advisory, audit and due diligence and currently on secondment to marketing department
- Assist on family business of wine trading, active business in france, UK, singapore and china (not on full-time nor having a "specific" position)

Extracurricular
- Active volunteer in various organization like UNICEF, Oxfam
- Founding member and EVP of a foreign student assistance club in college
- Fonnding member and Financial Secretary of a young member committee in a professional society

I would also like to know if I really wanna be admitted, is my assistance to family business a positive or I should not include it in the experience? And, if I shall include that, who I should get for a recommendation letter? Will a family member recommendation be less reliable?

Thank you so much!

Best regards
Zonia

Dear Zonia,

Thanks for your post!

There are a number of positive elements to your profile here - namely your high GMAT result, strong marks in your master's degree, generally solid work experience, some extracurricular/community involvement plus work in your family's entrepreneurial venture. Having said that, the level of competition at both Columbia and HBS is stiff, so I have a few questions to help clarify where you may fall in the applicant pool:

1) Where did you attend undergraduate? As you know a 3.10 is well below the average GPA for admitted students at the top schools. This will put some added pressure on you - something I hope you can overcome by pointing to an official class ranking and by showcasing the fact that your university is well reputed, etc.

2) As there are many applicants working in accounting/audit, I'm curious to know if you have any unique leadership experiences or 'faster-than-usual' promotions, etc. You will need to show that you are rather accomplished in your field so as to stand out from what is often an over-represented portion of the applicant pool.

3) What is your personal background? Are you male or female? Where did you grow up and attend school? What countries have you worked in for the accounting firm? These aspects of your background can make a fairly significant difference in the admissions process.

4) What are your career plans? How do they relate to your experiences to date?

5) Who will be writing your recommendation letters at your current employer? What sort of experience do they have supervising you? What sort of background do they have?

Those are just a handful of the questions that I would have for you if I were truly aiming to measure your competitiveness with CBS and HBS.

As to your question about the family business, the short answer is that it sounds like something that could serve as a great differentiator for you (to help set you apart from other accounting/audit folks). Of course, in order to really judge here, I'd need to know the extent of your involvement in the enterprise (leadership experiences, milestones, etc). Also, just because you choose to discuss the family business, doesn NOT mean that you have to source one of your recommendation letters from this role. [And on that note, it would be foolish to use a family member to draft a letter - this is a major 'no-no' in admissions - so you'd need to come up with an impartial writer (like a client of the firm, etc) if you take that route.]

Feel free to send your resume to Clear Admit ([email protected]) if you would like to take advantage of our free initial assessment and spend 30 minutes on the phone with a member of our team.

Best of luck,

Graham