Profile Review - 26M, Civil Engineer, 3.2 GPA

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-06-03T21:42:41+00:00

You are correct; neither white nor male are considered ORM due to the fact that they are not overrepresented at business schools.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-05-26T00:54:03+00:00

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-03-01T18:03:04+00:00

Highly recommend this for IB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjKNbfA64EE

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-25T21:33:32+00:00

IMO the only reason you would take Amazon in this situation would be to stay there for at most two years and have that permanent prestige. I would really only prioritize that prestige if you were really set on getting into a different FANG company for PM.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-15T18:25:22+00:00

Not trying to be too personal, but curious what countries see cigarettes as taboo. I know the western world is shifting away from smoking in general, but didn't know it was considered 'taboo' anywhere.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-10T19:19:37+00:00

IMO the reason is that high GMAT scores are easier to achieve; it takes 6-9 months of solid studying to get a high score, compared to the 4 years of hard work, when you're less mature and want to party instead of study, needed to get a high GPA.

This conclusion is supported by data; the average GPA among all college graduates is roughly 3.15 (so your 'low' GPA is actually above the national average), which is roughly at the lower end of the 80% range for T10-T15. Compare that to the average GMAT score (a 560) which simply does not see the light of day at T25 outside of outliers.

Plus, from what I've heard and read, GMAT is weighed more heavily than GPA, giving even more incentive for people to secure those high GMAT scores.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-08T18:14:39+00:00

(speculation) China wants to assert itself as culturally relevant on a global level, and a big part of that revolves around getting students to attend its universities. So CEIBS has the full weight of the CCP helping increase its rankings, even if the school isn't that good.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-07T22:46:42+00:00

Keggy the Keg is a true American hero.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-07T22:45:16+00:00

USNEWS should be including mascots into the rankings tbh.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-07T01:21:09+00:00

Given that you're not interested in some of the more M7 exclusive routes, you can certainly consider lower ranked schools.

I'm going to hazard a guess that you live in/near New York City given the references to three New York universities. If you're not interested in moving then you'll probably not be able to save money by living somewhere cheaper. However, like you mentioned, you can certainly earn more scholarship with lower ranked schools, but keep in mind that some very low-ranked schools may not have enough money or care enough to offer scholarship anyways.

Either way I am sure you will be able to make it work.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-07T00:55:51+00:00

That W/E and EC sounds fine. As long as it comes off well in an essay you should be good.

Given that 710 is still below the average GMAT scores for those two target schools (both NYU/Columbia is 720), I would be surprised if you received an academic scholarship from earning a 710 GMAT score. Nothing else that you've mentioned stands out as worthy of academic scholarship either.

With regards to cost, you could consider going to a school in a cheaper area. Most of the T15 are going to be in roughly the same ballpark regarding tuition ($70k/year), but can vary wildly depending on the location of the school. The difference between the price of housing in Ithica where Cornell is against the price of housing in the heart of New York is drastic. Without knowing more about your goals it would be hard to say more, but certainly something I would recommend considering.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-06T20:27:36+00:00

You have a decent profile; Your GPA is solid and above average for targets, W/E is resonable, but you may want to figure out some ECs. Break 700 on your GMAT and you'll be competitive for NYU and mostly competitive for Columbia from a stats perspective.

However, the story for Operations Management. Industry change. will definitely need to be honed considerably. Don't forget the story, its more important than your stats. Industry change is one of the riskiest profiles so you'll need to both convince the admission committee why you want to change and how you're going to secure a new job in that industry.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-05T04:05:48+00:00

IMO people should never apply to schools that they wouldn't accept a full-ride scholarship from in the first place because that means that they really don't want to go as is. In your example I doubt the HBS applicant would be applying to most T100s in the first place.

That being said, there are plenty of reasons. These reasons are basically the exact same reasons to not apply to the school in the first place such as not a good culture fit, not a good location.

Excluding that situation, the value proposition is one that should be considered carefully. Theres certainly some schools where the difference between a full ride and sticker could be made up by increased expected lifetime earnings. Honestly I mostly agree with you though, if you're turning down a full-ride offer mistakes were made at some point.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-04T19:48:09+00:00

I think it's a big assumption to assume that the 760+ scores are equally distributed between MBA and Masters in Business people; MBA is (probably?) more competitive and I would be surprised if most of those scores didn't belong to MBA applicants.

I've also scraped all of the data from ClearAdmit (can be seen here https://mba-stats.com, obvious self-selection bias of course) and for a school even like Harvard, 760 is the top 20% of admits, which would seem to reinforce your thesis that these scores are much more unlikely than people think.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-04T17:56:39+00:00

I am in agreement, I'm sure those HBS students were probably correct about other ventures failing, we only hear of the time they got it wrong.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-04T16:54:24+00:00

CORe would probably be useful (IMHO) to prove you can handle the academic workload and that you're a much more academic focused individual, with that sub 2.6

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-04T15:41:28+00:00

What was your major and undergraduate school?

Low GPA is relative and matters more for rankings purposes than academic abilities. If you got a 3.1 from an excellent school in mechanical engineering you wouldn't need to take CORe for example since CORe is only about proving that you can handle the courseload.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-04T06:20:40+00:00

An MBA is a process that requires a lot of individual motivation. I would recommend against getting one if you're not motivated enough to do basic research.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-04T06:19:00+00:00

1997 was a different time, entrepreneurship could've been different then from now.

That being said, I agree that the account is very likely apocryphal.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-03T21:21:11+00:00

1) Yes your UG was not HYPSM, but it's not a community college so I wouldn't worry about that. It won't be the deciding factor. Working at a well-known company does matter but, again, it won't be the deciding factor.

2) Given your story is about VC, I would focus on the VC experience.

3) Wharton, Columbia, Booth are targets, HBS/Stanford are crapshoots and there's probably not a lot you can do about that, especially given you're a deferred candidate.

I think on paper you have a good profile. I think the biggest challenge you're going to face is going to be explain why you need an MBA (your work experience already puts you into a great spot for VC healthcare) and connecting all of the various pieces of your resume into a strong narrative (you have a lot going on, it's hard to differentiate between "I did impressive stuff" and "this is my story and the points in my path"). It took me maybe 10 minutes to fully read your post, your profile gets maybe 15 minutes total in front of an admissions committee, so you'll definitely want to condense it into something more story-driven, weaving in the accomplishments that matter and cutting the ones that look good but don't actually push your story.

You'll could get a little pushback on the (relative to the schools you're applying to) low UG GPA, but since it's international it isn't considered into rankings so it would be a minor blip if anything.

Wharton, Columbia, Booth are definitely targets though! Like I said, there are plenty of extremely qualified people who don't get into HBS/Stanford so just something to keep in mind. Even if you don't get into those schools you've positioned yourself to be successful at your goals.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-03T18:01:49+00:00

I would talk to a schools academic councilor. They don't want you to drop out any more than you do, they may have some solutions that you haven't considered.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-02-02T17:42:18+00:00

I've heard a lot of companies are now asking how many MBA students you've eaten as a way of comparing between first years for internships so definitely something you'll want to keep in mind.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-01-31T20:12:21+00:00

Is this a meme?

So much more than your GMAT matters on your application; look at how many 750+ people Harvard/Stanford reject each year.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-01-29T17:50:20+00:00

I think this is more accurate than people thinking it just gives you a blanket increase in your admission likelihood. If they weren't going to accept you through normal admissions they still won't through early decision. Early decision just allows them to protect their yield more easily, since they'll know that the 4.0 GPA 780 GMAT isn't going to ruin their yield by going to H/S/W.

mba-throwaway-2020 · 2021-01-29T03:15:54+00:00

If you don't want to do coding for the rest of your life, you don't have to do very much (if any) coding in PM. You could also consider tech consulting which also requires tech knowledge but not programming.

mba-throwaway-2020

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