Sold company for 10 million
Hi everyone, i need your opinion. I had a low gpa in undergrade school due to depression and low motivation (2.7) at a mid-tear school (top 40 us news). I started my own restaurant company with a fairly new concept and sold it for 10 million. I am now working in PE and have been working there for about a year. I scored a 740 on the GMAT. What are my chances at a top tier Business school (Internation student) such as harvard and standford?
I'd say you have abysmal to low shot at Stanford and Harvard. Not impossible, but I would suggest an even higher GMAT. Unless it was like a technologically inclined restaurant, which Stanford might open up.
With $10MM in the bank why do you want to go to Business School?
With a 2.7 GPA you might not get into a top 20. That's pretty low! But you had a reason. Your restaurant. Make sure to tell them that's the reason why you had a low GPA, ie, you were concentrating on your business. Also make sure to add pictures and proof that you owned it and sold it, otherwise they won't believe you.
No offense intended, but it's pretty clear both the prior commenters have little first-hand familiarity with the MBA application game.
You aren't a lock, nor are you automatically out. Your fate lies entirely in your own hands here. You have a remarkably uncommon applicant profile. While the quantitative or objective elements of the application (undergrad institution, grades, gmat score) compose the bulk (at least 80%) of the application dossier for the stereotypical applicant who went to a top-30 school, got a 3.5+, and worked for 2-5 years at a big brand-name employer (whether that's finance, consulting, corporate, or nonprofit), it simply doesn't hold true for off-the-reservation candidates like you.
You fall into the 'wow, look at that' candidate pile. Professional athletes, successful entrepreneurs, celebrities, and other such people comprise this camp.
Starting your own company is not uncommon. Scaling it and getting past the '80% of new businesses die within the first year' statistic is. Even more uncommon is driving it to a successful eight-figure exit. (Congratulations, that's a fantastic achievement.)
Adding on work experience in PE, a competitive industry where slackers simply don't exist, only sweetens the deal further. On top of it all, your 740 GMAT proves that you're no intellectual slouch. If anything, you were someone who simply didn't engage the undergrad academic material well.
Your job now is to say: (a) exactly all that above (b) in a coherent story (c) without bragging
Your real job here is to explain in a defensible story how what you've learned and where you've been has unlocked a goal that school's MBA program will empower you to pursue. Your applications should be individualized to suit the specific characteristics of each school. (This is where most applicants fail; they're recycling 90% of the application for each school when it should really be closer to 50%.)
I know someone who's done something really similar to you (college fail-out, not even a dropout ... slightly higher exit, technology company) and is graduating from HBS in two months.
I know someone with a 2.9 from a shit-tier school who got hired as an outsider into a family business in his city after caddying for the owner/patriarch at the local course. Started as a gofer, moved to the equivalent of a general manager, then to COO, and doubled the company's revenue in three years. Kid is a complete people person and a selling machine. He helped connect the family to a business broker, took two points for basically introducing the relationship that led to the sale, and once he found out what a search fund was because the acquirer was a search fund, decided that if there were schools that enable people to get institutional backing in a fund despite having no operational experience, he was going to one. He started at GSB this past fall and already has a search fund set up (which makes sense given that he's done the exact equivalent previously).
In short, your story is absolutely compelling enough that you could make a real go of it. Don't listen to someone who's never seen more of an M7 school than its website tell you that you couldn't get in. I'm not here to say you're automatically in; you're far outside the normal lines, but if you execute well on your story and really coach your recommenders to say the right things to fill in gaps or assuage the predictable concerns ad-coms will have with your application, the best schools are an option.
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