Good Raw Stats, Subpar WE. What are my Chances?

I'm a graduate of UC Berkeley with a major in Gender and Women's Studies. I had a 3.94 GPA and a 750 on the GMAT. My WE isn't that good, I've been a "Youth Outreach Coordinator" for Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach. I make like 30k a year.

To be honest, I was overly idealistic and extremely naive. I was extremely liberal/socialist, and that got worse at Berkeley, where I thought good intentions and a pedigreed university would empower me to change the world. I was deluding myself of the employability of my Gender Studies degree. It's actually been a con to some corporate employers. I'm disillusioned.

Social justice work isn't for me, and I want out. The fact that I've learned, is that some marginalized groups are definitely victims of their circumstances, but others are there for genuinely poor decisions, and not all are deserving of unvarnished empathy. I can't take this anymore. But I haven't been able to get non-retail or non-low-level sales jobs in the business sector.

My dad was a management consultant at Bain, and I miss my family's lifestyle and standard of living. I want to go into management consulting now. I'm fine with tier 2/big4/boutiques, doesn't have to be MBB. What are my options?

Someone even told me I could aim for a top law school, and aim for MBB there (with my high GPA and aptitude for test taking, if I got a 173+ on the LSAT, a Harvard Law admit is likely, and I can go to MBB from there). That said, I have no desire to be a lawyer.

What do you think? Thanks

 
Best Response

I'm by no means an expert on the business school admissions process, but I'll throw in my two cents.

With a 3.94 at Berkeley and a 750 on the GMAT you will definitely look academically impressive to bschools. Your work experience is in the social sector is also unique, so while it's not a BB or MBB, it can still be a differentiation for you.

The biggest piece for you will be framing your story right. In this post you say you're disillusioned by social justice work, which is completely fine for the purposes of WSO, but you'll want to spin it more like "I've realized I can affect more change as a consultant at MBB with greater resources behind me than I can now, and that's why I need an MBA."

As far as law school is concerned, if you don't want to be a lawyer then don't go. There's other, better, ways to break into consulting.

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