Berkeley / Haas - 06-30-2021 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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June 29, 2021 8:39pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Harvard Business School, Lauder Institute, MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2022

Pre-MBA Career: Management Consulting

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Other

GMAT: 730

GPA: 3.0

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: Chile

Post MBA Location: USA

Notes:

I’m a 28-year-old male from Chile. I studied Business Administration at PUC, Chile’s top business school. I have over 4 years of experience in management and strategy consulting at Integration Consulting. I’ve delivered over 15 projects all over Latin America, in countries like Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Guatemala.
I believe that my application will overall be excellent (cv, experience, leadership, recommendations, essays, GMAT, etc.). However, I’m aware that my GPA (4.9 out of 7.0, with failed classes at my lowest) will be the main concern, although I do have extenuating circumstances, an upwards trend and teaching assistant & research record. I think that everything else might at least partially offset this aspect. Do you think that I can do anything else to strengthen my case? Should I adjust my universities?

Extracurriculars: I've been volunteering regularly since college mainly in education (as a volunteer teacher of mathematics, English and entrepreneurship) and in social causes (housing construction and community services) and most recently advising foundations on sales and planning strategy (mainly human rights and transgender rights organizations in Chile), In college I was very active as a teaching assistant of over 6 courses and participated in 2 investigations as a research assistant and did tutoring classes for underperforming students for 2 courses, I'm very interested in art and art history. I've been doing a professional certificate in art history for about a year with great grades and I've taken several art courses before.

Big Life Wins:

I have been promoted 4 times, faster than my peers. Also, I’ve been exceptionally assigned the role of Co-manager for my office (southern cone – Chile and Argentina), which means that I’m co-responsible for team allocation, team development & promotions discussions, P&L, sales supervision, and general office administration.
Post MBA Goal:

– In the medium term, my main goal is to return to my firm and lead its growth in Chile. My vision is to turn Integration into one of the Top 5 local consulting firms.
– In the long term, I see myself as a managing partner, leading my company’s growth into other markets in the region, mainly Colombia and Peru.

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Show Comments (10) Last: August 11, 2021

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 It does sound like your GPA will be your weakest aspect. You could consider doing some additional coursework, to show you are now prepared and motivated to do well, academically. HBS CORe for example, might make sense. Terrific GMAT will help. Kellogg, Darden, and Tuck might also make sense as targets (1)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1245 Is your employer sponsoring your MBA? If so, that’s a feather in your cap too, since it sort of eliminates one of the questions admissions officers often have (will this person graduate with a job/realize their career goals?). I agree with Alex with respect to addressing your undergraduate GPA; HBS Online CORe could be smart. I would also like to know more about the GPA - for instance, any sense of your class rank? What’s the final year GPA vs. first year? And finally, the GMAT sounds solid, but will be roughly average at some of your target schools, so I’d be curious to know the splits (Q/V). Wharton Lauder could be a terrific option for you; it’s a small program that not everyone has the language skills for, which actually makes it a nice way to differentiate yourself and your overall Wharton candidacy. Best of luck! (2)

anon28413 Likes Earned: 3 @alexbr4 @GRichmond Alex, Graham, thank you so much for your comments! Let me answer some of your questions: [1] My GMAT split is Q49; V41; IR8 [2] I haven't done HBS Core, but I completed MBA Math instead (achieving 100%'s on all topics). [3] My GPA is 4.9 out of 7.0 (Chilean scale), and my GPA went from 5.1 in first year to 5.7 in my last year (I had a very rough third year, in which I had a 3.7 due mainly to an illness in my family). [4] My class rank is 154 out of 335. [5] I am applying with my wife. She graduated from the same university and undergraduate degree, but ranked in the top 1%. She has about 3 years of experience in IB at JP Morgan and 3 more in Consulting at a boutique firm. She has a 650 GMAT, but achieved 165 in the executive assessment (EA). Because of this, we'll be applying to Columbia (which accepts the EA) in early admission. Given all of the additional information above, any additional recommendations that you might have? Additionally to CBS, we'll be applying to MIT, Berkeley and Wharton Lauder in first round. Appreciate it. Love your podcast by the way!!!! (0)

anon28413 Likes Earned: 3 Oh, and forgot to add. My company will probably sponsor between 40-70% of my MBA :) (0)

anon28413 Likes Earned: 3 And my wife hasn't decided yet, but she could request sponsorship, which would almost certainly be granted and be in the 70-100% range. (0)

anon28413 Likes Earned: 3 Lastly (I promise), I would love to be featured in the show. In any case, again, thank you so much! Love what you are doing. Best, (1)

ieosorio Likes Earned: 3 Alex, Graham, my wife just got her updated GMAT score. She got a 690 :) (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Nice one! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy on this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2021/08/episode-179-wire-taps/ (1)

anon28413 Likes Earned: 3 Thanks for the feature! Really helpful (1)