Harvard Business School - 07-13-2019

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July 12, 2019 6:50pm ET

Applying: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton

Intake Year: 2020

Pre-MBA Career: Finance / Entrepreneurship

Post-MBA Target Industry: Entrepreneurship

GMAT: 710

GPA: 3.8

Years of Work Experience: 8

Location: Philadelphia

Notes:

Extracurriculars: Start-up Founder & CEO; Family with young kids

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Show Comments (8) Last: July 23, 2019

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 The success of your applications will be determined, to a large extent, on your entrepreneurial experiences, and then how they tie to your future entrepreneurial goals. Are you working FT on your own business, or in conjunction with a position in Finance? Be interesting to know a little more. Also be good to understand the "why mba" aspect. Make sure you come across as someone who will be fully engaged with the mba program. What will you be doing with your business, while you are in business school? (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1235 I'll add that your work experience (while likely impressive) is well beyond the average (in terms of duration) for your target schools. Being an 'older' applicant comes with some additional challenges; particularly on the academic side - where schools need to be absolutely convinced that you can handle the return to school. For better or for worse, the GMAT is often their best measure of that (as it's far more recent than your GPA). Your GMAT, while fine, falls below average at the very top programs you are targeting; which concerns me. In short, the very top schools are already hard to get into, but those odds jump up when you are in the 30+ category. It can be done, you'll just need to really execute on your applications. Best of luck!
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anon67424 Likes Earned: 2 @GRichmond: Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the perspective you shared about returning to school as an older candidate. I hadn't thought about that element, so I'll see if I can play up some of my academic accomplishments a bit more (even if they seem a bit dated). GMAT quant was 50+, so hopefully that helps as well. @alexbr4: There are a few elements at play here for my entrepreneurial experiences, so I'll try to be brief. I completed my undergrad at a school in Boston renown for entrepreneurship, but I primarily pursued a finance and strategy path with my coursework and post-grad career at a big Tech company. Several years and promotions later, I had a realization that I wasn't learning much any more, and I needed a change. I decided to co-found and boot-strap a company to explore a passion of mine, and I've operated it part-time ever since. Meanwhile, I leveraged my network to pursue a more dynamic opportunity at the big Tech company, and a few years ago, I landed a unique role that's best probably summarized as an entrepreneur-in-residence, primarily due to my success with this side company. My recent experience has exposed me to incredible entrepreneurs, who feel like kindred spirits, and through my interactions, I've realized that a more thorough MBA education will help me take the step from dabbling with side companies to creating meaningful solutions to big problems. I'm ready to exit from my role at the tech company and wind down my existing business in order to achieve this goal, and I'm excited to open up my entrepreneurial perspective and leverage my experience to seek new opportunities with other talented, like-minded individuals. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 This sounds very interesting, you also appear to be someone who has sought out opportunities and shaped your own path. (0)

anon92307 Likes Earned: 0 Agreed with GRichmond--HBS and Stanford accept something like 1.3% of those above the age of 29--and those are likely military. If you're coming from a FAANG company though, there's still a decent shot at Columbia/Kellogg even with the 710. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 More detailed feedback on this entry in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2019/07/episode-41-wire-taps-advice-for-a-first-generation-college-grad-engineer-entrepreneur-and-more/ (0)

anon67424 Likes Earned: 2 Thanks for featuring my entry on Wire Taps. In particular, I really appreciate your advice on showcasing my intention to engage with the business school community and highlight how my family and I are excited to be involved. I went back and reviewed some of my application materials and played up a few aspects of my academics where space allowed, including merit-based scholarships, faculty awards, and successful completion of the honors program to demonstrate intellectual vitality. I also input my undergraduate leadership experience in various clubs, which has plenty of community-building stories behind it, albeit a bit dated by now. Finally, I've decided to put an application into Haas in Round 1 to perhaps de-risk the worst outcome a little bit. Originally, I thought Haas, Columbia and Ross would be good Round 2 schools, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to move it up to R1 if time allows. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 Glad you enjoyed the podcast. If you're moving Gaas up to round 1, make sure you do have the bandwidth to put together your best applications in Round 1. That said, it does sound like you've already done a lot of work with your applications. Best of luck! (0)