Berkeley / Haas - 08-28-2025 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

<< Back to ApplyWire

August 28, 2025 4:57am ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Columbia, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, Michigan / Ross, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2026

Pre-MBA Career: Product Manager

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology

GRE: 330

GPA: 3.56

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: New York

Notes:

I have a 3.56 UG GPA from McCombs. I'd want to go to a school at the McCombs MBA level or better for it to be "worth it" to me. I also have a humanities BA and a minor in general business from Texas.
I started off in consulting (1 year) but have been a product manager at a start up for the past 2 years, with 1 promotion and likely another in Jan. LORs would be from my manager (Stern alum) and CEO (HBS alum). I want to get back into product management after my MBA - love this field.

The weakest part of my application is definitely my GPA, and I don't think anything else really jumps out as amazing. I know GPA isn't the whole of what the Adcom considers, but I'm not sure how much it matters that I'm below average for these programs as an ORM woman.

Like (0)

Show Comments (4) Last: September 1, 2025

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 Showing impact and growth at work will be really important, supported by strong recommendations. I am assuming that will be evident, in your case.

While 3.56 will be below the median for some of the top programs, it's not far off. The 330 GRE score is very good, and should help in any mitigation.

Outside of work, any additional activities? Any additional hobbies and interests?

Are you targeting the first rounds?

(0)

alertgoldfinches Likes Earned: 0 Thanks for the quick reply! I was very involved in UG, and served as president of my sorority ($1.2M budget, 250 members). For ECs, I have a book review blog I’ve kept active for the past 3 years, I review college admissions essays for HS students for my hometown, and I volunteer with Distributed Proofreaders. I also volunteer with kids in NYC, coaching sports programs, but this was only the past 2 years. As far as my essays, I’m completing Forte MBA Launch, so I’ve gotten good help through there. And yep, targeting the first round. My biggest concern is that I'm shooting too high with a below average GPA and ok stats for these schools as far as everything else. (edited) (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 Better to shoot high in the first round, although I’m not convinced that is the case. You can regroup for the second round, if necessary. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2025/09/mba-wire-taps-445/ (0)