Columbia - 06-08-2020 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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June 8, 2020 12:18pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Dartmouth / Tuck, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Northwestern / Kellogg, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: Consulting

Post-MBA Target Industry: Private Equity

GMAT: 770

GPA: 3.6

Years of Work Experience: 5

Notes:

Admitted this year to one non-H/S/W M7 and two top-15 programs. Had a disappointing result this year and want to reapply next year rather than matriculating where I gave, but know nothing has changed in my profile (and I don't know where I went wrong in my apps), I'll have to retake GMAT, and next cycle will be more competitive given Covid.

Background is top 10 UG (Columbia/Penn/UChicago/MIT), with low GPA due to triple major, one of which really dragged down grades. Work experience in consulting then F100 company doing growth strategy and product.

Like (1)

Show Comments (4) Last: June 15, 2020

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1684 Is your GMAT getting out of date? GPA looks decent? Did you interview at the other programs? Have you gotten any feedback on your applications? Be good if you could get someone to read your essays, at least. Admissions may well be more challenging next season, so this does appear to be a rather risky strategy. Are you only seeking a place at H/S/W? (1)

anon20155 Likes Earned: 145 Thanks for your response! Yes , GMAT just expired a month or two ago. I used an admission consultant and he and some of my colleagues told me the only possible knock would be my GPA, which is average/slightly below average for HSW and may be less competitive in my demographic. Only got interviews at Booth and Kellogg out of the M7 (plus Tuck and Yale). I thought my essays were solid--my consultant thought they were pretty good and I iterated a lot with colleagues, current students, and family. It could be my career goals (PE unrealistic to adcom) or just being lumped together with MBB consultants and looking less competitive. I wasn't planning on reapplying, but in assessing odds of achieving my career goals, it seems like HSW is meaningfully better and may be worth it. (2)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1684 Cool, so you got a lot of feedback on your essays, those shouldn't be the issue. GPA, combined with GMAT, shouldn't be the issue. Goals, possibly. Vanilla and unrealistic perhaps (wouldn't know without more detail). While shooting for HSW may up your options, you're going to lose a year, and risk losing what you have. You'll also need to retake the GMAT. Not sure I'd want to go down that path... (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1684 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/06/episode-107-wire-taps/ (0)