MBA Chances (Canadian, Law Graduate)

Age/Sex: 26 y/o Caucasian male

I hope to apply in...: 2-3 years.

Law School: 3.25 GPA (grades deflated, ~top 3% of students get 3.7, I was in about top 1/3 of class), top 3 in Canada.

Undergraduate: 3.95 GPA, another top 3 in Canada, bachelor of arts in social sciences (not economics, not business related). Took multiple quantitative courses such as stats, business calculus, and economics courses that required calculus. I won multiple awards and scholarships, and ranked very highly within the school.

Work Experience: only summer internships thus far. I am currently getting my first full year of work experience at a national law firm (not a sister 7, but a top 15 firm nationally, and also not in Toronto, but in Calgary which is one of the four major markets in Canada). The firm is relatively prestigious amongst the Canadian legal crowd and most of my friends who work at Big 4 professional services firms know it/work with the firm a lot. The job is an "articling" job which is a first year qualifying requirement in Canada before you can pass the bar, where you act as a generalist student who does similar work to an associate but you are not hired into a specific group yet (you work for any and every group). I am working a lot with M&A, restructuring, and banking particularly in the mining and natural resources sectors. Hopefully I get hired on to stay at this firm, otherwise I'll likely end up at a smaller boutique type firm working in corporate/M&A.

Test scores: no GMAT yet, a >97th percentile LSAT. For GMAT, I got a 660 on my diagnostic after not having done any math for 4-5 years. I am also good at standardized tests in general as reflected in my LSAT.

ECs: Leadership positions at law school, not much in undergrad. Determining what interests me for once I'm in the work force but there is some charity stuff I have lined up.

Career goal: shape more strategy, be closer to where decisions are made. In law, you are basically just taking instructions from your client such that they adhere properly to the law. Consulting seems to be the right fit although internal strategy at a large company could work.

It is a goal of mine to move to the US if possible otherwise I'd be happy to work in Toronto since that is where most of the large business deals and companies are located in Canada. Citizenship will likely be an issue, especially under the new Trump regime.

Goal Schools: Not holding my breath for M7. Would love Kellogg or Booth as I'd like to live in Chicago post-MBA. Yale SOM and Tuck seem great. Interested in Duke, Ross, Darden as well. Open to applying to LBS and INSEAD as well if I have a shot. The lowest I'd go is some place like UCLA or UT Austin, maybe Tepper.

  1. Given my trajectory, what level of MBA program in the USA/Europe can I have a shot at? In other words, do I have a shot at Kellogg/INSEAD/LBS level schools, or should I be aiming lower like UCLA/Cornell/Michigan/Virginia, or is that not even attainable? (I've basically written off HSW given my background).

  2. Are my chances crap if I only apply one year out of law school?

  3. In general, I am just wondering if a top MBA in the US is something realistic for me? I'm just wondering if my low law school GPA, my BA background, my "non-hyper-elite" law firm, or my legal background period will cap what level of MBA program I can get into.

I'm really passionate about making the transition to a business career and I'm highly driven. Any advice is appreciated.

 
Best Response

I know / have seen of a few Canadian lawyers making it to MBA business schools ">M7 / LBS / Insead and they all pretty much had similar stats (graduated at or near top of class at UofT or McGil law and worked for sister 7 firms) so based on that, I would say that schools in that tier would probably be a reach and you should stand a pretty good chance in the next tier (ie. Yale, Duke, etc). That being said, stats are obviously very important in getting admission to bschool, but having a clear solid reason as to why bschool will be relevant to your career is just as important and "I hate being a lawyer and don't want to be in a client-facing job" just isn't going to help your cause. Right now, it just seems that you don't know what you want with your career. I would advise you to perhaps reflect on this.

 

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