MBA Admissions Strategy / Profile Review

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Hi Stacy,

Below please find a summary of my profile and a few application strategy questions. Thank you in advance for your help!

PROFILE
- 25-year-old white male
- Grew up in Poland and am a bilingual dual-citizen
- GMAT: 760
- GPA:3.7
- Undergraduate degree in Economics from "Little Ivy" (Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan)
- 3 years of Strategy & Operations consulting experience at Deloitte Consulting; top ratings and promotion after two years; MBA sponsorship likely

Undergrad EC
- Founded a pro-bono consulting group during undergrad
- General Manager of 100+ student sub-division of the undergrad IT department
- Psychology research lab; lead multiple studies
- Internships in asset management (Dodge & Cox) and economic consulting (Brattle Group)

Post-Grad EC
- Volunteering with Junior Achievement of NY (3yrs)
- Volunteering with Future Leaders Institute Charter School (2yrs)
- Pro Bono consulting volunteer trip to Panama
- Co-founded social impact group/initiative at Deloitte
- Developed proposals to gain Deloitte funding for non-profit projects
- Deloitte NY Analyst Committee networking lead

Goal:
Short Term: Rejoin Deloitte to focus on market entry/growth strategy and build the emerging market practice
Long Term: Return to Poland and Eastern Europe to help renewable energy and smart grid technology penetrate the eastern European market which is currently dominated by shale fracking and "dirty" energy (energy experience from Deloitte and both undergraduate internships)

Target Schools:
Round 1: Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia, MIT
Round 2: Haas, Duke


SCHOOL SELECTION
Given my profile detailed below, I would greatly appreciate your input on my proposed target schools by rounds and the distribution of reach/fit/safety. More specifically, should I consider adding another "reach" like HBS, another "safety" like Yale/Ross/Darden?

PERSONAL STORY
I have laid out my goals in term of location and industry. Given my long-term goal does not fit into a specific industry (i.e., I-banking, consulting, asset management),, would my story be improve by including a specific role and company?

RECOMMENDATIONS
Given I will be submitting 6-7 recommendations:
(A) is it advisable to ask my recommenders for all 7 recommendations upfront, or should I ask for round 1 and round 2 separately?
(B) is it acceptable/reasonable to ask each recommender to write all 6/7 recommendations?

Thank you,
Matt

GMAT/MBA Expert

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by MargaretStrother » Sat Jun 27, 2015 6:34 am
Hi Matt,
Great profile here! Your choice of top business schools seems about right given your numbers. I wouldn't say Yale is a "safe" school anymore, it's a really hot program these days; Ross might be a good round 2 backup. Three in the first round and two in the second round is an ideal distribution. Have you visited the campuses you are applying to?

Now, let's talk about recommendations: My suggestion is to use the same two recommenders for all schools. Remember, for top MBA programs, the recommendations are not free-form: your recommenders have to write "essays" themselves, answering specific questions. Getting recommenders to do this is a bit like herding cats, and procrastinating cats at that, so I recommend doing the recommendations all at once, just to get it over with.

The good news is that most of the schools are now asking the same questions, so much of your recommenders' work will be recyclable. MIT and Haas have additional questions, but you can work with those and simply edit them down for other schools.

Just briefly, your long-term goals: it's good to be specific, but within reason, since we have no idea what the business world will really look like 15 years from now. Your approach, focusing more on desired impact, industry and region, is pretty much what I would recommend.

Good luck with your applications! You sound like a really interesting candidate for top business schools, and you should do well.

Margaret Strother
Margaret Strother
Senior Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting

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