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Request for Profile Evaluation:

Education
Undergrad: 3.5 GPA in Finance from small liberal arts (unknown)
Extra curricular involvement in school: President of studnet club, top student government officer positions, and a month long Business china study tour.
Graduate degree 3.5 GPA in Finance from one of the top small liberal arts schools

Gmat: 740

Volunteer: Spent 2 years in eastern europe as a missionary

Work experience: 2 years as missionary
2-3 years at boutique investment bank in Canada
Worked in 4 different countries countries between NA and Eastern Europe

Extra Curricular involvement post college: failed mobil application and website start up

Nationality: US and Canadian
Demographic: 50/50 white and black male. Age 29 at matriculation.

MBA goals: Gain entrepreneurial knowledge to apply towards future start up projects while at the same time leveraging my experience in IB to move into a larger bank at the associate level.

Target schools:
Wharton - reach
Booth
Kellogg
MIT
Columbia
Tuck
Stern - safety
Fuqua - safety

How realistic are my chances of getting into at least one of the M7+tuck schools? My main concerns are lack of brand name prestige with both my undergraduate and work experience.

Thank you so much

Hi specialxknc22 - It's always tough to be definitive with a brief sketch, but from the info you've provided, we are all systems go for you! You have a lot going for you in terms of GMAT and grades, and your background looks super interesting. We're betting that you'll have lots of material from which to pull good stories of leadership and impact for those essays. The essays themselves are a helluva lotta work - more so even than the GMAT!! - but you're starting the process early enough that you're going to be in good shape.

In terms of the 'lack of brand name' thing about your schools or employers - it's truly a non-issue. What you'll want to do is present your work experience on your resume in a way that helps explain what your company is/does; if the adcom is unfamiliar and wants to know more, they may check out the website. Not a big deal. A lower-ranked college also matter less than what you did with the opportunity while you were there. The adcoms examine transcripts with a fine-toothed comb and they'll be looking at what classes you took and how you challenged yourself; plus they have enough data from taking so many apps over the years that they likely have a baseline against which they can compare your school (relative difficulty, grading systems, all that jazz). Your US minority status is also helpful; there's not nearly enough diversity in the bschools (or in the executive suite for that matter) and the adcoms are always interested in people of color. So you've got a lot going on!

The one cautions to offer:

a) some adcoms don't much care for the M7 designation; it's a little artificial
b) Stern is by no means a safety school (neither is Duke but NYU definitely not)
c) if Wharton is a "reach" then so is Kellogg, MIT, and Columbia

If we can help in other ways feel free to write back! But you should be feeling pretty confident - you have the pieces of the puzzle and it's going to be about putting them all together in a way that resonates. Good luck!!

EssaySnark