Berkeley / Haas - 02-11-2020 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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February 11, 2020 7:40am ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: Project Management in Entertainment Tech

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology, Media

GMAT: 780

GPA: 3.84

Years of Work Experience: 4

Notes:

Hi guys! Thanks for your support on this site - reading your advice has been a great resource for me over the last few years! I studied computer science and business administration at a top 25 undergrad in the U.S. and went straight into a tech-focused project management rotation program at a huge bank conglomerate (F150 or so) - spent 2.5 years there, one promotion. Now I’ve been at a large entertainment company (also F150) for a little over a year as a project manager for one of their public-facing apps - a pretty cool product that is relatively unique in the industry. Total work experience at this point is about 3.5 years, which would put me just over 5 at matriculation in 2021. Decent amount of leadership in school (very unique extracurriculars in music during school and until now) and, since then, through work and at a non-profit for which I’m a local director (about 3 years there at this point). Several awards/scholarships (primarily GPA-based) in school. I’m looking to pivot from project management into more of a strategy and/or product ownership role within my industry post-MBA (ideally in entertainment tech such as streaming/gaming/VR). The biggest red flag on my profile for which I wanted your opinion(s) - I was given 5 months of disciplinary (non-academic) probation in school by the housing department (junior year) for a pretty small incident that was ultimately placed solely on me. For context, this is something every college kid does that I expect won’t be considered a big deal - I was dealt with surprisingly harshly (hint: underage ______). It’s done now and I didn’t appeal in time, so I really just have to own up to it and say I learned my lesson and took the punishment. Is this something that could noticeably affect my candidacy and/or scholarship potential? The juxtaposition of my ‘Outstanding Student’ award plaque side-by-side with the disciplinary letter I got the previous year from the same university is actually pretty humorous in retrospect and screams ‘wild card,’ but it is what it is. Thank you for your input!

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Show Comments (10) Last: February 17, 2020

eliot Verified User. Likes Earned: 1903 Thanks for your note. Given your strong academics and your solid work experience, you will most likely still be competitive at top tier MBA programs in spite of your disciplinary letter from college. While it isn't ideal to have been disciplined, you can mitigate its impact by disclosing it in a short separate note to the adcom 1) Explain what happened (several years ago when you were in college you made a poor decision by drinking underage and as a consequence you were disciplined 2) You definitely learned your lesson, you have matured and it hasn't happened since and it won't happen again.

In summary, if it was a one time incident from several years ago, you will be fine. I have seen plenty of applicants disclose and overcome similar infractions and still gain admission to a top school. Thus, I don't think you will be dinged as long as you disclose it.

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alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 I'd agree with @eliot. Deal with the issue in the optional essay, be upfront and honest, and provide the lessons learned (that's important). Keep it all succinct. The rest of your candidacy looks interesting. Great numbers. Interesting work, Strong ECs. Continue pushing both, over the next several months. For your specific goals, might also look at Stern, possibly Anderson too. (1)

anon20747 Likes Earned: 50 I've met many successful applicants with similar events. Disclose it if and when the school asks about it. Most schools have something for this and will force an open-ended response. (1)

anon25720 Likes Earned: 1 OP here: should I write about it in the optional essay regardless of each school asking explicitly? Some ask about infractions and include ‘disciplinary probation.’ I’d obviously write about it there. What if a school only asks explicitly for ‘academic probation?’ (0)

clearadmitadmin Verified User. Likes Earned: 10 If a school's application form asks the question and gives you space to explain, then use that space (rather than the optional essay). If a school only asks about academic probation, don't put this under there...save it for the optinoal essay... One side question: is this on your transcript? How might an MBA program learn about this mark on your background? Alex and I will try to explore this on the podcast, so stay tuned! (1)

anon25720 Likes Earned: 1 My probation featured on the podcast?! Makes for a great story!! This is not on my transcript - and it’s also not with the university judiciary committee - it’s just with the housing office exclusively. An MBA program would very likely never find this even during a school background check post-acceptance - to even dig it up from so many years ago, I had to call the housing office and have them check my record, to which they responded with: ‘I’d strongly advise being transparent. Though it’s unlikely this will be noticed, the minor blip from the event is far outweighed by the serious issue that could come up if a school found this after accepting you and you hadn’t disclosed it up front.’ I’ve actually struggled a lot with whether or not to even include this on my applications. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 We do discuss this on the podcast. If you choose not to disclose it, after you get admitted, you'll really stress the background check, if nothing else? Anyway, I think the whole experience can be positioned as something you're refreshingly honest about, and something from which you learned. An event that also clearly didn't impact your overall experience and impact during undergrad. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this profile in this edition of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/02/episode-82-wire-taps/ (0)

anon25720 Likes Earned: 1 OP again: Thank you for discussing my profile on the podcast, Alex! I just gave it a listen - really good advice, as always. I think at this point I've come to the conclusion that it's best to just disclose it up front on each application, regardless of it asking explicitly for 'disciplinary probation.' As you said, at the very least, it'll be more than worth it to have the peace of mind knowing that I put all of my information into the application and am not hiding anything during a background check. I'll be back later to post on LiveWire and (fingers crossed) DecisionWire! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Best of luck! (0)