Congressional staffer with high GMAT->top 10 MBA possible?

Holy shit, so you're basically Sam Seaborn (from The West Wing) but in real life? How awesome is your job on a scale of 1-10? Why on earth do you want to transition to business (assuming that's why you want the top MBA)?

I wouldn't say HSW are out of the question. It's sometimes harder to get into HS as a banker versus someone who wasn't initially interested in business undergrad. Undergrad school isn't that important as well with your GPA - HBS takes kids from tons of random schools. You need to decide what career you want to pursue pre business school - this is absolutely critical as business schools want a reason for wanting to attend them (exploration isn't it!). Legislative work has nothing to do with an MBA and you will be dinged if you don't make it clear that you want to pursue "business". An MPP might be a better option as you have the stats for any school in the country and your interests seem to be more aligned with politics.

i'm no admissions consultant, but i can tell you that you are probably a very strong candidate for top programs, HBS and Stanford included. i think your unconventional background gives you a strong advantage over the sea of ibankers and consultants who will be applying, and your stellar GPA and GMAT scores will erase any doubts that may arise from your undergraduate institution.

the biggest challenge you will probably face is getting your story straight... what are your career goals? how will an MBA help you achieve these goals? a "not sure" career path isn't really going to cut it, but this is an easy hurdle to get over.

Depends. Republican or Democrat?

You are severly overestimating your competition which are mostly bland asian bankers.

JohnDoe86:

Hi all, I was just wondering if people could assess my chances in the event that I decide to apply to B-School. Here's my story: I graduated from an absolutely no-name university with a 3.9 GPA with a major in poli. sci. and a minor in finance five years ago and have a 760 GMAT. After college, I went down to DC and began working as a lowly staff assistant and moved up the ladder fairly quickly, and am currently a legislative aide for a powerful, nationally known Senator (I don't want to reveal too much but I'm sure you can narrow it down) with a very well-connected staff, not to mention the Senator as well. I'm being trained/groomed by the legislative director to take over at that position when they move on (within the next year, from my understanding). I've been in high-level negotiations between parties and chambers of Congress, authored successful legislation and so on.

Outside of Congress, I'm involved in a lot of volunteer (not grunt work) work for top non-profits in the area and serve on the board of a small one here in DC.

I'm not entirely sure of exactly where I want my career to go, but I'm simply curious about where I stand on b-school chances at the moment. I'm sure HSW is out of the question given my undergrad institution and not the typical MBB/IB/etc background (for someone not coming out of the military), but was curious how my chances stack up somewhere like Columbia, Haas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and apologies for the long-winded post and if I omitted anything important, please let me know!

Hi JohnDoe86,

Your academics (GPA, GMAT) and work experience (strong career progression in less common field for MBA applicants) will enable you to be competitive at all of the top business schools.

As others have mentioned, the pedigree of an applicant's university can help their b-school application. However, having a very strong GPA at a lesser known school can actually work to your advantage as it shows you had to be more resourceful to reach your current job level than an Ivy league grad.

A third key area to consider in your competitiveness will be your extracurricular activities. For example, having elected leadership roles in college is an important dimension to your application.

Hope that helps! Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] for a free detailed profile evaluation.

Best, Heidi

Heidi Granner Clear Admit, LLC [email protected] 215.568.2590

JD:

I think in your case, the hard numbers are there (one small caveat: is the Quant section competitive given your mostly-qualitative work experience?), but the real issue seems to be the "why MBA" and "why now" of your application. Without being able to articulate those key questions, the numbers themselves aren't enough. Top adcoms are going to wonder--if you've already started amassing a power base, why on earth are you looking to leave for two years (e.g. what are you not telling them)? Wouldn't law school be a better fit?

If I'm not mistaken, we met at a prospective student event at H/S/W back in April--best of luck!

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far, the responses have been informative and a bit surprising to me. This is definitely more of a feeler-type post to get an idea of where I stand in the event I decide to pursue this as I'm sure you guys can tell; I would definitely not try to go through the entire process involved with applying if I did not have a compelling story and reason for wanting to pursue an MBA. In terms of something more concrete for admissions officers, missions/programs like the Social Enterprise Initiative at HBS is the type of thing I find very appealing as I've started gravitating towards that sort of work through involvement in organizations outside of Congress. An organization featured on their site, the Endeavor organization, is one I'm fairly familiar with and I like their work with identifying entrepreneurs in developing countries, increasing access to capital, etc. a great deal. Is there a place that ranks the reputation of joint-degree programs such as HBS-HKS? Or does anyone have a general idea?

Heidi and others who wish to comment: My undergrad extracurriculars are essentially non-existent. I did not push myself very hard outside of my academics at the time. I hosted a radio show playing hipster douchebag music and that's pretty much it. I was not a well-rounded student and only began pursuing other things when I became a legislative correspondent, which had me in meetings with organizations on a daily basis, and I became considerably more involved with them once I became an aide.

Suit Up: You are mistaken, heh. I have never gone to a student event of any kind. Best of luck to you as well, however!

By "familiar with" I simply meant that I know of them, not that I've been involved with the organization or have connections to them. I do not know anyone there. Phrased that poorly.

With your background and a social enterprise goal post MBA, you have a pretty compelling case. On the surface, it sounds like you are exactly the type of candidate MBA programs are looking at in order to diversify their classes. If you can put a decent package together and have recommenders who don't undercut you, I would bet some serious money that you would get into at least one of the H/S/W trio.

As a non-business career person, the no-name undergrad DOES hurt, but the numbers are EXCELLENT and the story is potentially interesting; execute well (easier said than done) and you'll be a competitive candidate somewhere in the top 10.

Depends on whether you fuck up with the debt ceiling or not.

Based on the story and the great stats I would say you have a strong shot at H/S/W (probably best chances at HBS). Just put a good post-MBA story together.

Why not wait till you are a legislative director and wield far more power (and if you don't like it, you are in a much better position for H/S/W).