Berkeley / Haas - 06-22-2021 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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June 21, 2021 6:59pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, London Business School, U. Washington / Foster, UCLA Anderson, USC / Marshall, UT Austin / McCombs

Intake Year: 2022

Pre-MBA Career: CPG finance rotational program

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology

GMAT: 690

GPA: 3.8

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: Seattle, WA

Post MBA Location: West Coast (preferably CA) or London

Notes:

Long-time listener of the podcast! My girlfriend who is not interested in getting an MBA is also now hooked on the podcast and we listen to it together every week. I am a white male in a finance rotational program at a very large CPG company and have gained experience in factory finance, pricing and promotions, and brand finance in various parts of the United States. I have had several large impact projects in each rotation that I can discuss in my applications. At work I am also involved in campus recruiting and have been a peer mentor for several interns. Before joining my current company, I graduated in the top 10% of my class at a state school and have strong extracurriculars in both academic and non-academic pursuits (i.e. president of sports club, student portfolio manager of $3m investment fund, interdisciplinary research projects). I have dual citizenship with the UK and spent a summer studying abroad at the LSE. Will this help my application to LBS? Post MBA I am hoping to pivot into a marketing role at a tech company. I took the GMAT and was scoring in the 730's on official practice tests, but never achieved a score that high on an official test and have now maxed out my attempts until October 2021. Is it worth studying for the GRE, or waiting until October and attempting the GMAT again in order to boost my profile?

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Show Comments (7) Last: June 28, 2021

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Are you currently engaged in ECs/additional activities? WE sounds interesting, GPA sounds good (I wouldn’t bank on the LSE experience impacting LBS other than you have experience in London). What are your long term goals, and do you have a geographic preference, post MBA? Ok, now I see that. Might be worth looking at the GRE. Your GMAT is within range, but as you are aware, it’s lower than average for the best. (1)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1245 Thanks for the kind words about the podcast! (Note: Your girlfriend deserves a medal for listening as a non-applicant!) Your work experience, undergraduate track record (including semester at LSE), and career plans all look very solid! Dual citizenship gives your candidacy a nice twist (especially as you fall into a ORM category). It's a bummer that the GMAT hasn't worked out for you, since it would appear to be your main hurdle where the top schools on your list are concerned. How many times have you taken it in total? Is one section weaker than the other? It could be worth considering the GRE if you find that you can notch a result more in keeping with the averages at your target schools. As to Alex's question, would be good to know more about current ECs. Best of luck and thanks for listening!
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anon40354 Likes Earned: 13 Thank you both for the feedback! Due to COVID and relocating several times within the past 18 months I have not been able to commit to much in terms of volunteering, but before COVID I was heavily involved with planning and hosting volunteer events at work. I am also a tournament tennis player and have been competing in leagues and tournaments since graduating from college (where I was the President of the school tennis club). I have taken the GMAT 5 times now, and did not have the best of times testing during COVID (last minute test date changes, travelling 3+ hours to test, etc.) but also know that everyone else was in a similar position. I scored a Q47, V38 on the test but was not seeing a significant drop in one section or the other in comparison with my practice tests. Would your recommend focusing on the applications, studying for the GRE, or just noting on my applications that I would be open to re-taking the GMAT in October? Thanks again! (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Hmmmm. Is there a need to get your apps in for the first rounds? If you think waiting a few months, retaking the GMAT, or taking the GRE, will yield a better test score, might be worth doing? (0)

anon Likes Earned: 0 I thought it would give me a better chance of getting in if I applied in R1? What score increase would be worth waiting on applying in a later round for? (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 I don’t think there’s a difference for you, R1 vs R2, if you think you can bump that score up 20-30 points, that might make a difference. Maybe split apps across the two rounds? (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2021/06/episode-169-wire-taps/ (0)