Berkeley / Haas - 08-30-2021 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

August 30, 2021 3:39pm ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Cambridge / Judge, Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Georgetown / McDonough, Harvard Business School, Imperial, INSEAD, London Business School, Michigan / Ross, Stanford GSB, Toronto / Rotman, U. Washington / Foster

Intake Year: 2022

Pre-MBA Career: Corp Dev and VC

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Business

GRE: 328

GPA: 2.9

Years of Work Experience: 5

Location: Canada

Notes:

Work exp

1.5 years corp Dev at tech firm in Dubai
0.5 years compliance officer at government of Canada
2 years University backed VC and incubator - led a 2m seed and 24M M&A for biotech portfolio firm
1.5 years as associate director of tech for a mid level intl consultancy. Managed a team of 10

Unemployed (quit, not fired). Managing business, a nature resort that is somewhat famous in the area and a Horticulture facility. Both are post revenue.

ECs
Go karting (5th intl tournament)
Model UN
Volunteer with amnesty international
Wikipedia contributor for 10 years
Pro-bono innovation consultant with world bank
Historical fort rehabilitation project lead with a Pulitzer prize winning NYT writer

X factor's
Lived in 12 countries, travelled to 40, worked in 3, speak 4 languages fluent and learning 2 more

Related to a current head of state. Good business connections through this and useful for post MBA goals

Climbed a top 100 mountain peak (6km+)

Post MBA
Want to gain some formal management training and some work exp in VC. Plan on coming back to expand my businesses and work with my relative (head of state) to develop a strong business and innovation ecosystem to generate FDI. Also will look into raising a VC fund to invest in aspiring entrepreneurs in that country.

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Show Comments (5) Last: September 8, 2021

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1572 You clearly have strong connections, and have been very engaged in your communities/ECs. Why did you “quit”? This will need explaining. Do you have any geographic preference, post MBA? Curious, is Canada your home country? You GPA is on the lower end, which may be a concern. Have you considered MBA Math or HBS CORe? (0)

anon80044 Likes Earned: 1 Hi Alex. I quit because I wanted to focus on my businesses full-time as they are gaining traction. Also, I'm definately more of an entrepreneur than an employee. Post MBA I'd like to give US a shot to gain some exp, but most likely heading back to Canada (home country). Wrt to my GPA, I have a double degree, BSc biology and BA economics. The sciences GPA brought it down heavily, but my Econ GPA is 3.5. Haven't considered extra courses, I thought s good GMAT would make up for the GPA. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1572 A good GRE helps, but the additional prep work will add a lot of benefit in terms of showing adcom you recognize the issue and are fully committed to being prepared for the academic rigor of the program, etc (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1145 Thanks for your post! There is a quite a bit going on here, so you will need to do a good job weaving it all together into a coherent and compelling story. You will also need to avoid being labeled as a 'job surfer' or someone who has trouble committing to long-term projects. I share the same concerns as Alex regarding your GPA....as I fear the sub-3.0 could be combined with the numerous job changes to lead an admissions officer to worry about your staying power. GRE is solid, so combined with HBS CORe Online or MBAMath could help a lot. I'd narrow your list of target schools by about half, since I don't see it possible to prepare 13 high caliber apps. (Also, I presume from your comments and the exchange with Alex that you are Canadian and that the 'head of state' relative is a head of state in Canada?). Best of luck with your applications.
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alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1572 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2021/09/episode-184-wire-taps/ (0)