My profile:
- Ivy grad, 3.8 GPA, magna cum laude, science major, philosophy minor, English minor
- 337/340 GRE (170 V/167 Q/5.5 essay, 99th percentile, 1600/1600 on old scale)
- White
- 1st job: worked at M7 b-school for 2 years as research assistant
- 2nd job: Startup for 1.5 years
- 3rd/current job: Business analyst at Google for 2+ years, working on ads and policy with PMs and engineers designing tools and implementation for controlling sensitive content in search and YouTube (beheadings, porn, terrorist content, etc., personally led 4 high visibility projects that affected feature use for millions of users, great performance reviews, very strong recommendation)
-Why Business School: I want to transition in geo-political strategy consulting for F500 companies facing problems with extending operations internationally. Don't want to do policy writing for government, want to work + solve problems for private actors (legislation and national consensus-building is not my thing). Dream job might be working with a team of specialists doing qualitative + risk analysis for big Private Equity or multi-national corporation, but want big consulting experience (at an MBB firm) rather than a master's in public policy or IR (which is less relevant and, I think, less bankable). I need an MBA for more hands-on biz training in the basics of accounting, finance, management and the transition opportunity into consulting, which requires a stepping stone from the type of hyper-specialized work I do now.
Applying to MBA and MBA/MA in IR at: HBS, GSB, Sloan, Booth, maybe Columbia, maybe Tuck, maybe Kellogg
If I get into HBS, Sloan or Tuck, I'll apply to HKS for dual MBA/MPP halfway through 1st semester.
I don't want to waste the opportunity cost and tuition fees on any school very distant from HBS, frankly. Should I wait another year and try to get promoted, or apply now? Also considering staying at my team and trying to transition organically without MBA stepping stone.
you're definitely in play at HBS/GSB and should be pretty strong for Booth/Sloan
Thanks for the input. My biggest weakness is that I'm too wonky / not leadership-y enough for the conventional MBA angle (especially HBS, I believe).
Is there a way to address this in my essays (currently about my interest to transition my intuitive, big-picture/evangelist skill-set from nitty-gritty, painstaking quantitative analysis to a larger, more impactful plane), or if I haven't somehow demonstrated it in a truly stellar way (founding a $10 million startup - giving a TED talk), is it just going to be treated as more of the same?
i'm probably not the best person to advise here, maybe Betsy Massar or MBAApply can give their input
Developing into a better leader is a valid reason behind considering an MBA; I would state it as a reason why you are applying to b-school. You profile is very strong and, in my opinion, you have better reasons to apply than many. Make a compelling argument concerning how it will lead you from your situation now to your longer-term goals and, if I were you, I wouldn't be to worried.
You're in range for any of the top 8 schools.
With that said though, it's a numbers game, and you want to apply to enough schools to minimize the randomness in admissions results from one school to the next. Look at around 4-6 schools and you should have a reasonable shot at getting into at least one if not more of the schools on the list.
As for HBS - as I mentioned above, all anyone or I can say is that you are at least in range enough that it's worth applying (i.e. you're not a long shot that it's not even worth pursuing).
When it comes to applying to b-school, yes you and many other applicants may have preferences, but you don't want to pin all your hopes and emotions on one or two schools. You need to take a portfolio approach to it.
And yes, apply now. Don't waste time waiting another year (and no, your chances won't be better next year).
Thanks for the input, Alex!
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