Columbia - 07-07-2022 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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July 7, 2022 2:58pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Harvard Business School, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, U. Chicago Booth

Intake Year: 2023

Pre-MBA Career: Non-profit Management & Professional Dancer

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting Companies: Bain , BCG , McKinsey

GMAT: 690

GPA: 3.97

Years of Work Experience: 6

Location: Colorado

Post MBA Location: NYC

Notes:

Background: 28, white male, former professional ballet dancer (“retired” over the pandemic), grew up on a small farm in Alabama.

Work Experience: Danced professionally in regional ballet companies and cruise ships for 4 years after college. Current job: Worked my way up from intern to full-time job as senior Operations manager over 7 years with an internationally-known dance festival, World Cup ski races, outdoor adventure sports competition and their parent non-profit.

Extra curriculars: Weekend host/reporter for local television station, serve as peer-elected member of shared leadership team for national org of dance presenters, teach ballet to local dancers, skiing. Work takes up the majority of my time right now.

Undergrad school/major: BA in Public Relations at top 10 national program, BFA in Ballet performance at top 3 national program

Other notable recognitions: National Merit Scholar (not sure if this is relevant?)

Stats
GMAT Score: Official MBA practice test 1 results: 690 overall, 42Q, 42V, 8IR. First official test is next weekend and I’m pushing hard to get my Q score up.

Undergrad GPA: 3.97 GPA (PR degree was 4.0, got a few Bs for missing ballet class…)

MBA Info
- Goal of MBA: pivot into consulting, corporate world to gain experience outside of the non-profit world. Long term the hope is that that experience would qualify/prepare me for Executive Director roles at large performing arts organizations.
- Target schools: HBS, Columbia, Booth, Northwestern, Wharton

Thanks for your thoughts!

Like (0)

Show Comments (5) Last: July 19, 2022

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 Be curious how you got from a small farm to ballet? Some very interesting aspects to this candidacy, re excelling at dance etc. You’ll need to show impact and growth at work, on the operations side. Goals are a good fit. Super performance in undergrad, but assume not a lot of quant focus. GMAT will matter. Also, consider MBA Math or HBS CORe to help show your readiness. (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1237 The admissions teams at leading schools will be looking for ways to admit you in light of your highly non-traditional - and very interesting - background. I love the fact that you worked in the performing arts but also have operations experience in the domain. Your undergraduate record sounds terrific....but as Alex points out, it may be lacking in the quantitative coursework admissions readers will be seeking. This brings us to the GMAT, where you will really want to push for a score that is commensurate with your GPA, or near the average of your target programs. In case that doesn't happen, I'd absolutely look to bolster your profile with MBA Math or HBS CORe. In terms of your future plans, have you looked at Yale SOM? Feels like a good fit given their proximity to NYC, strengths in non-profit management and the arts. Frankly, if you want to land in NYC you may also want to look at Wharton too. Best of luck and thanks so much for posting!
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csmstudying Likes Earned: 1 Thank you both for your comments! You’d be correct in assuming that my undergrad was very light in quant. We were told by the dance program to take our gen-ed math courses at community colleges - I CLEP’d out of mine. I’m working on my essays to show the clear path from the farm to the dance studio to the operational side of the arts. It’s been challenging to make that succinct and not get bogged down in the details, but I’m working on it! I just took the second GMAT mock and got a 710 OVR, 50Q, 36RV, 4IR - definitely inconsistent on the V & IR, but my focus was definitely on the quant section today. One week out from my first official test! I’ll take a closer look at Wharton and SOM! (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 That’s a great quant score! (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2022/07/wire-taps-242/ (0)