Hi WSO,
I wanted to give back to the community now that my MBA admissions journey is over. I've left some facts and thoughts below, would by more than happy to provide additional insights if it would be helpful.
Undergrad: Non-Target
GMAT: 720+
Work experience: Several years at a Big 4 firm
Admitted to: Columbia, Kellogg, Yale, NYU, Darden, and Duke
I'd start with saying, never sell yourself short. I'm happy with my results but I can't tell you how many times people thought the two M7s and Yale on the above list just weren't going to happen (and anything beyond that was near impossible). Be honest with yourself and realistic, but don't be afraid to throw some Hail Mary's. If you are a strong applicant that can present well, go for the best. I would have thrown apps to H/S/W if I could do it over again. Don't have any regrets. I agonized over my quant score on the GMAT (BB IB or MBB experience that you are going to lose out to those folks. Similar to the GMAT point above, that is simply not necessarily the case. A capable person is a capable person, regardless of work or undergrad pedigree. Let that shine through your essays, resume, and interview. Adcoms are people too, remember that and craft a compelling story. I was told on multiple admissions calls that my essays really pulled them in and made an impact, take your time on those.
From a timeline perspective, I wrapped up the GMAT this past October after about 2 months of studying, and then knocked out all applications between November and early January. The only way I was able to do this was by taking a ton of vacation. If you have a demanding job, I don't recommend you apply to as many schools as I did, at least not in the same round. Another thing that was tough for me was the interviews from a timing standpoint. In February I felt like I was getting on a flight (or multiple) every week to fly to a school to interview. Make sure you have the support at work, otherwise this can get difficult to manage. In short, split up your applications among rounds 1/2.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can share if it would be helpful to you. Best of luck!!
Hi there - It sounds like we have nearly identical profiles.
As far as story is concerned, I agree with Frank. I used an admissions consultant (hourly charge) and he was fantastic at fine tuning my writing. Overall, you should focus on being incredibly specific when relaying stories. Everything should have an "impact" focus, and quantify achievements whenever possible. My first drafts in retrospect were incredibly vague, which to a 3rd party reader will come off as boring and less effective. As a Big 4 manager, I focused on my efforts on coaching and leading engagement teams whenever possible. Stories where you invested in a staff/senior and that investment led to positive results both for them and the firm I found to be a good route to go down. On another note, don't forget to have fun with a prompt when the school leaves the door open. Also, you definitely need to have two other people besides yourself read the essays. My strategy was to have my consultant look at all of them, and a trusted friend to take a final pass as well.
For recommendations, I asked my direct supervisor who I work with on nearly all my engagements, and I asked a former manager. They know me extremely well and I knew they would be strong advocates.
As an aside, I spent a TON of time on my resume. When I was just starting this process, I thought I had it in good shape. But after spending probably 12 hours on it, it really became a great looking document. My point is, it can really surprise you how far you can push something if you are willing to give it some love. As with the essays, everything needs to be "impact focused" (don't let it read like a job description). Quantify whenever possible (hard numbers, percentages etc).
Let me know if you need anything else. I think you could snag some of the places that dinged you this time around with a revised focus next cycle. Best of luck!
Hi Froggen,
I thought that extracurriculars were one of my weaker areas, but I definitely "checked the box." They basically consisted of some local volunteer level work around assisting less fortunate families in my area. I did not hold significant leadership roles in my ECs.
With that said, I did highlight my efforts on non client serving work at my firm throughout my applications. Things like instructing and recruiting are all areas where you can highlight your desire to give back and make an impact on other people.
My personal take is that S1-S2 is a little soon, as its much easier to position yourself as a leader of engagements and people at the manager level. However, if you want to make the jump at that level, just make sure that you are doing everything you can to branch out of doing pure audit/tax related technical work. For example, if you are an auditor, you will want to be able to speak to your impact on areas like business development, coaching of staff/seniors, and dealing with difficult client situations. You'll be able to begin speaking to these areas as a senior, but its easier IMO at the manager level. You'll find that the professional anecdotes that you'll be able to share will get much stronger with time, and will be very helpful to draw on for your essays and interviews.
Congrats DilutedEPS! Amazing business school results!
Question for you: what do you think about applying to B-Schools after 3.5 years of work experience (4 full years upon matriculation)? You are generally a second year Senior in all Big 4s (except for PwC, where you are just a 1st year senior) in 4 years. Would you have applied earlier if you had a chance or do you think sticking around until you became a manager was detrimental in getting the results?
I am planning to apply to H, S, W, Booth, Columbia, and Sloan next year in rounds 1 and 2 with harder schools being in R1.
Hi CPA,
My personal opinion is that the big selling points to an MBA program coming from Big 4 are your technical skills, people leadership, engagement management, and business development experiences. At senior 2, you will have some of these, but they ramp up very quickly throughout Senior 3 / Manager 1 and beyond. I personally wanted to hit manager because I would be able to confidently pull from a deep pool of experiences in these areas. Heavy senior / Manager is when you take a turn from being a technical workhorse to becoming a client and engagement leader, which are aspects of the Big 4 experience that I think play well in an MBA admissions context.
With that said, if you have been getting these experiences early, then go for it! Just know that your top Big 4 competition coming to B school will have this experience in spades, so just make sure you are confident that you have the requisite experiences to speak to these areas. After getting through a ton of top B school interviews over the last few months, you will need to talk about more than audit workpaper or tax return prep to make a strong impression.
I'd add in a Duke/NYU/Darden level school to your list as well, just to mitigate risk.
Good luck!
Hi Strictly,
You are very welcome! I do believe that making sure your post MBA plans are reasonable and achievable is hugely important. You need to be seen as an employable candidate. I did feel like the CPA to IB route was very natural, and it was easy for me to tell my "story" as to why this transition makes sense. In interviews and your essays, I would say one of the things you will be answering over and over is "why do you want to do XYZ" and "what have you learned in your current role that will help you be successful in XYZ." My experiences at my firm were very well suited to crafting a story around why IB made sense for me given my past experiences and my goals.
I think saying you want to do consulting (if that's what you want) is definitely okay coming from Big 4. At the end of the day, consulting is a professional service, and so is Big 4 work. Your project management, junior talent development, and client handling skills are all going to be highly relevant in consulting. I personally felt that making the CPA to IB connection was slightly easier (accounting underlies all of finance), but I would have definitely said I wanted to move to consulting if that is truly what I wanted to do.
In short, if you want consulting post MBA, tell the schools that. It will be much easier pulling from your passion in your essays and interviews than saying you want to do something you actually don't. Of course, I don't recommend you saying you want to leave audit/tax for a VP role at KKR ;) - any reasonable goal will be fine.