How is F500 FLDP for M7 admissions?

I'm curious as well, and I couldn't find much relevant information with the search function. I will be in a similar position in 3 years.

AsianMonky, do you have any new information? I don't have enough SB to send private messages yet.

Sure, but there are many people out there with a similar profile. A lot will depend on why you want to do an MBA and how the school will help you achieve your goals.

You are asking a banking forum about FLDP... This forum is so biased and full of high school/college kids. The truth is FLDP is probably one of the best work experiences for MBA admissions. You are learning to be a leader, getting to build relationships with executives, and get to see several areas of the business. Of course MBA ad com will eat that stuff up.

AsianMonky:

Non target Big 10 Finance major - 3.8 GPA
FLDP at a household name F500 company - 3 years WE
720 GMAT
Very good ECs

How is this profile for M7 MBA admissions (assuming the story makes good sense and essays are fine)? Is this person likely to get admitted to few of the top programs?

You seem like a great candidate to me

shrug

Here's my take on it (disclaimer: this is my first year out of college, so until recently, I was the high-school/college-kid wallstreet101 is talking about):

People from firms like Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, BCG and even Google, Disney etc. do well for b-school admissions because -

(a) these places are ridiculously hard to get into and serve as kind of a filter (b) they are the leaders in their industry, and even analysts here tend to work on some of the most interesting problems that industry has to offer, making their work experience "rich". (c) they have people who went to the top schools and know what the schools are looking for (so guidance) (d) the people who get into these places are just generally quite driven

I think a F500 FLDP covers all these points, but to a slightly lesser extent. This is not to say that everyone at Blackstone > everyone at [insert-name-of-F500-firm], but when speaking generally, this is arguably true.

What will matter a lot is what YOU have done during your time at the F500 and what your recommenders have to say about you. It will not help you like an "elite" employer will, but it will not hurt you at all. So if everything else is kosher, you should be good for an M7. If it means anything - there are many post-MBA consultants who went to H/S/W at my firm who worked for F500 companies before their MBA.

consultingboi:

Here's my take on it (disclaimer: this is my first year out of college, so until recently, I was the high-school/college-kid wallstreet101 is talking about):

People from firms like Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, BCG and even Google, Disney etc. do well for b-school admissions because -

(a) these places are ridiculously hard to get into and serve as kind of a filter
(b) they are the leaders in their industry, and even analysts here tend to work on some of the most interesting problems that industry has to offer, making their work experience "rich".
(c) they have people who went to the top schools and know what the schools are looking for (so guidance)
(d) the people who get into these places are just generally quite driven

I think a F500 FLDP covers all these points, but to a slightly lesser extent. This is not to say that everyone at Blackstone > everyone at , but when speaking generally, this is arguably true.

What will matter a lot is what YOU have done during your time at the F500 and what your recommenders have to say about you. It will not help you like an "elite" employer will, but it will not hurt you at all. So if everything else is kosher, you should be good for an M7. If it means anything - there are many post-MBA consultants who went to H/S/W at my firm who worked for F500 companies before their MBA.

i agree with this. however, if M7 schools "bucket" applicants, and you're competing against other F500 FLDP for spots, it shouldn't be terrible. your competition for spots could well be a different set of people

There are tons of folks from F500 companies at my school. They come from all different parts too, not just the leadership development programs. The unknown is how many people apply each year from these programs. It is really hard to say. So while they are definitely strongly represented in the class, it is unclear if your odds are good or bad. I'd definitely say that your stats seem typical of someone at an M7 school, so you're at least going to be competitive against your peer group.

at my F500 tech co. every FLDP analyst over the past 10 years that has applied to an M7 school has been accepted...this is about ~2-5 or so per year with ~80% attending HBS or GSB. From my understanding of the admissions process, the benefit of an LDP vs. banking or consulting is that you are not put in the same bucket as all of the banking, consulting, PE and VC applications...so its less competitive. For example, if you are part of the LDP at a very brand name corp like a Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Disney, etc. you are being compared to all of the other random non-LDP applications from all corps. vs. being compared to the hundreds / thousands of banking, consulting, PE and VC applications.

OP we might be walking around the same building....very interesting to hear the comments of people with primarily banking backgrounds. I think people would be surprised how many non Wall Street people use this as really a top level career advice forum.

My stats are all but identical to the original poster and I plan to apply to m7 only. Each year we have about 7-12 people leave to b-school and if they don't go local they get into m7. Only 1-3 get HBS each year but its definitely possible.

Sure wish my company was tech/sexy industry (not shocked about harvardgrad's comment). What roles you get within your LDP will make a big difference too. The people I've seen go to h/s/w usually made it into corp dev or another higher profile role just before bschool.