Columbia - 09-04-2020 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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September 3, 2020 5:29pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Harvard Business School, London Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: PhD in Neuroscience at MIT

Post-MBA Target Industry: Pharmaceutical, Entrepreneurship Companies: Merck , Novartis , Pfizer , Roche

GRE: 337

GPA: 4.0

Years of Work Experience: 5

Location: Boston

Post MBA Location: USA

Notes:

-PhD student in Neuroscience at MIT (GPA=5.0/5.0 and entrance GRE 340/340).
-5 years of research experience as PhD student, no other job experience
-Very successful research career with 4 influential publications in top journals and extensive mentoring and teaching experience.
-Very recently decided to pivot away from research. Interested in manager role (eventually CEO) in biotech/pharma companies.
-Limited business experience: Enrolled in a summer program at MIT to explore startup opportunities and currently taking a Sloan class on Biomedical business concepts.
-Limited extracurricular activities due to crazy research hours. Took on leadership roles in 2 student organizations over the summer and will keep being active until applying in round 2.
-Would like to be featured on the podcast!

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Show Comments (6) Last: September 14, 2020

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 Very interesting, indeed. Off the scales in certain attributes, the question will be, how will that allow you to overcome any shortcomings with regard to direct work experience. Have you explored MBB consulting, as a short term post MBA option. I’d think they’d hire folks with your type of background, which would be a strong positive. Assume successful research career requires collaboration with colleagues, and other attributes that point to leadership. Published research should also = impact. Lots to consider. Will review during podcast. (0)

clearadmitadmin Verified User. Likes Earned: 10 Certainly not your typical profile...and you may need to convince the schools that you aren't a 'degree collector' or 'lifetime student', but I do like the rationale for your pivot and I think there is a compelling story here. Hopefully you will have recommendation letters that can support your teamwork/leadership potential and not just academic chops. We'll discuss on the podcast... (1)

anon66527 Likes Earned: 5 As a PhD (in Chemical Physics) + (Columbia) MBA, schools definetly like the different perspective. Don't discount the leardership/teamwork skills you get in the lab. 4-5 yrs of working 9+ hours counts as work even if people don't quite get it. You will have to frame it for them. Plus, in the lab, leadership experience is not always framed as such, but managing undergrads, training new people who join the team, and other work you do in the department that is often framed as just what you have to do in order to graduate are strong leadership areas. I mean to take some knowledge, building upon it to generate an idea, working to discover something new and create it, all while working with your team and managing other campus relationships to get a project completed for graduation is what business leaders do. Also reach out to other Phd+MBAs (I did a quick linkedin search during my apps process). So many talked to me, gave me feedback and advice of what to highlight. It's not a common path, but there are others of us out there. (6)

Likes Earned: 0 Great advice @66527 (0)

anon27266 Likes Earned: 1 Perhaps companies aren't recruiting as heavily due to the economic climate, but have you considered joining a pharma company or consulting company immediately upon graduating your PhD? Major consulting firms (McKinsey & BCG as examples) hire PhDs into the same positions as MBAs, and I'm sure Pharma companies would have an open mind as well (at least, if they're hiring). At the very least, you may want to consider those options while you prepare your MBA applications. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/09/episode-120-wire-taps/ (0)