Berkeley / Haas - 01-28-2020 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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January 27, 2020 8:33pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, U. Chicago Booth, UCLA Anderson, UPenn / Wharton, USC / Marshall, UT Austin / McCombs

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: Strategy Consulting and Wine/Spirits

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consumer Goods, Other, Undecided Companies: Other

GRE: 323

GPA: 3.84

Years of Work Experience: 3

Location: Los Angeles

Post MBA Location: Urban U.S. City

Notes:

Graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA in 2016 with a major in Economics and minor in Entrepreneurship.Major GPA: 3.84 and overall GPA: 3.81. GRE is a 323: 162 V, 161 Q, and 5.5 AWA. I retook the test and got a 321: 158 V, 163 Q, and a 6.0 AWA. After graduating, I worked at a smaller, top-tier strategy consulting shop (think A.T. Kearney, Oliver Wyman) for 1.75 years; took 4 months off to travel and figure out next career move. Ended up at a growing direct-to-consumer wine/spirits company, top 25 U.S. domestic producer, as an analyst working in operations. Within a year of starting at new company I was promoted to a manager level role, focusing on strategy and analytics. Would love to gain some insights into school list and GRE score (a lot of conflicting information online). Also, I've been listening to the podcast, really appreciate Alex and Graham's content! Would love to be profiled on the podcast, though I bet there are a lot of interesting candidates. Happy to provide more details if helpful! Alex, if you have time to respond to this post, your insights would be very appreciated!

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Show Comments (7) Last: February 3, 2020

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Nice GPA, GRE, at 323, is OK. The combo is decent. Do you think you can improve that score? I see you've had a go at improvement. Curious why you left your consulting gig before two years, and before having your next position in place? It does sound like you've done well in your second job. It will be important to show impact at work. Are you involved in activities outside of work? What are your post MBA goals? It will be important to have those well developed. You have a good spread of target programs, but the list will need to be cut over the next year. Goals should help you do that. (1)

anon16138 Likes Earned: 4 Hi Alex, thanks again for the feedback. I might be able to improve the GRE score, though I did take the test again before Christmas and think I might have hit my ceiling, though I could have a good day and best my score. I really didn't like the transactional nature of consulting work and with the hectic lifestyle, it was very hard to recruit while consulting. Outside of work, I do some volunteer activities and am a volunteer career mentor for undergraduates, as well am an avid golfer and basketball player. Post MBA I would like to work for a CPG or retail company; potentially in a strategy and analytics or marketing analytics role. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Ok, good. Best to be straightforward about your reasons to leave consulting, in your apps. I think that should work well, having the "courage" to adjust your chosen career path, etc. Which then puts you in a successful scenario. Post MBA goal makes sense, long term goal, assume a leader in the industry? Might be good to ratchet up your volunteer work over the next several months, if these are activities you're truly passionate about. (0)

anon16138 Likes Earned: 4 Thanks Alex. Yes, definitely want to be a leader in industry. Would you prioritize retaking GRE or upping extracurriculars? Curious where the highest ROI is. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 That's a tough question. Both will help strengthen your candidacy. But if you think there's not much improvement left re the GRE, then I'd focus on EC commitments. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/02/episode-78-wire-taps/ (0)

anon16138 Likes Earned: 4 Amazing feedback, can’t thank you and Graham enough for the detailed feedback on the podcast! (1)