Missing Elements

[lightningwit]

Dear Graham,

I want to start off by thanking you for the time and effort you invest in answering the questions on this forum. When a person is entering this unfamiliar and intimidating process, guidance from someone with extensive knowledge and experience can be very comforting.

My question relates to missing elements – factors outside of the academic and professional spheres the presence or absence of which could undermine my chances of getting into a top-10 institution. I am including a brief summary of my situation below and would very much appreciate any advice you can offer on where you think my position could potentially be weak.

Academic:
- 750 GMAT (Q: 49; V: 44) – 98th percentile.
- iBBA from Schulich with a 3.8-3.85 GPA (based on conversion convention) – 5th in my program.
- 2-term exchange to a top Asia-Pacific school with a GPA of 85%.

Professional:
- 4+ years at a boutique management consultancy specializing in the telecom sector.
- Promoted three times: Analyst --> Associate --> Consultant --> Senior Consultant.
- Work in the consultancy’s Private Equity practice; performed due diligence work for many of the tier-1 PE clients.
- Along with two colleagues, I founded a freelance consulting firm aimed at small-medium business. In addition to working on other projects, I personally sold and managed two engagements. Both added substantial value to the client organization.

Extra-Curricular & Life Balance:
- Four languages: English fluency; Russian oral fluency; Spanish & Hebrew are conversational.
- Member of the alumni steering committee of my fraternity.
- Many extra-curricular activates in university, including VP & Treasurer of my fraternity and fundraising director of AIESEC.

Target Schools:
- Top choices: HBS, Stanford & Wharton
- Alternative top choices: Chicago, NYU & Kellogg
- Secondary choice: INSEAD
- Fall back choice: UWO Ivey

My goal is to elevate my position from a fighting chance to a strong chance of acceptance to my top choices. Any advice you can offer as to how I can ‘weakness-proof’ my application and to which elements I should devote the majority of my attention would be sincerely appreciated. Also, I would be grateful for any general comments you can offer about my chances of getting into these highly-competitive schools.

Thank you again for your help.

[Graham]

Dear lightningwit,

Thanks for your post - and for the kind words about our work here in this forum! We're happy to provide our perspective on top-tier MBA admissions, since we know that many applicants find the process to be somewhat overwhelming (not to mention hyper-competitive).

As to my assessment of your profile, I have the following thoughts:

1) Your academic profile looks to be strong. Both the GMAT and ugrad results are above-average for the programs on your target list (assuming the ranking in the top 5 in undergrad is official and will show up on your transcript, etc). [One side note: the fact that you studied business as an undergraduate will place you in a fairly over-represented portion of the pool. As such, I am curious if you took any significant amount of non-business coursework - e.g. a minor in English Literature or something...I presume not, given that Schulich is 100% business coursework to the best of my knowledge, but I wanted to ask just in case.]

2) Your work experience sounds promising. You've got a nice combination of continuity without stagnation (due to the three promotions) and it seems like you've managed to gain exposure to a variety of functions. I presume that the firm will be unknown to the adcoms at your target schools? Will members of the firm be writing your recommendations? Do they happen to have MBAs from any of your target schools?

3) I am a bit skeptical of your XCs - particularly your current XCs. For starters, your language skills feel a bit inflated (since by your own account the only language you can both speak and write is English). Second, I'm curious to know how much time the alumni board for your fraternity actually demands of you. Beyond that, it doesn't sound like you've done much outside of work for the past 4 years - unless you haven't included some hobbies that you could map to future involvement on the MBA campus. Your collegiate activities are stronger - although you'll want to proceed carefully with the fraternity-related roles you held, since for better or worse, many admissions officers think 'Animal House' when they think of fraternities.

4) I'd love to know what your career plans are and how you intend to position those plans within your applications. This is a key element of the process for many schools.

5) I'm curious to know who will be writing your recs (presumably folks from your current job).

6) I'd like to know more about your personal background. Are you 100% Canadian? Where did you grow up? Did your parents go to college, etc. Have you lived and worked outside of Canada? These elements can sometimes play a role.

At the end of the day, you clearly have the building blocks on the professional and academic fronts for a successful candidacy at the majority of programs on your list. Of course, the key will come down to execution - how you pitch your goals, how you position your outside activities and hobbies (and potential for eventual contribution on the MBA campus), how you select stories for the essays, etc.

Feel free to send your resume to Clear Admit if you'd like to speak further about your background and how you can best position yourself in the admissions process.

Best of luck,

Graham