Harvard Business School - 05-29-2024

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May 28, 2024 8:36pm ET

Applying: Columbia, Harvard Business School, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2025

Pre-MBA Career: Ex-Strategy Consultant, Current Corporate Strategist

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consumer Goods, Entrepreneurship, Other Companies: PepsiCo , Other

GRE: 320

GPA: 3.47

Years of Work Experience: 6

Location: East Coast

Post MBA Location: East / West Coast

Notes:

Thanks so much for featuring me on ApplyWire a couple years ago! It was unreal to hear my profile get featured by THE Graham and Alex!

I have now have an updated profile now for the Clear Admit team. I've also been listening pretty regularly to the podcast -- you guys keep me MOTIVATED! Congrats on the BIG events the Clear Admit team has launched recently btw!

More about me and my app:

I'm looking to apply Round 1 this year (enrolling Class of 2025)

My top schools include GSB, HBS, Wharton followed by Kellogg, Booth, CBS, SOM (order reflects priority). Not sure if I should go HSW only for round 1 then round 2 expand to all schools? Would love input here from the experts!

Overall, I'm not sure how "strong" I would be vs. applicants for H/S/W and would love input on how to really increase my odds for these top schools. Thank you again for all you guys do for us MBA hopefuls!

Demographics: American born Asian female, from a first generation low income background (for more context on FGLI: I am first to be born in the US after my parents were displaced by the Vietnam war...we were on foodstamps in my childhood; mom was disabled after I was born, dad worked blue collar jobs all his life; I ran a small arts and crafts business in middle school to high school to have money for food, supplies, and some "for fun" things)

Education: top 50 private university

Work experience: previously management consulting (Strategy and Operations), most recently corporate strategist for a top firm most MBBs exit to

Leadership: extensive leadership experience via DEI extracurriculars from college to all the companies I've worked for. I've have 6 leadership positions largely in the DEI space (and sports), including being a council member / founder / leader / co leader of established DEI work & non work organizations (all are career & women centric / minority centric / first gen low income centric)

Community involvement: in a women centric volunteering organization since graduation + first gen low income volunteer work to help college / high school students

Test scores: currently scoring ~320 with about 1-3 months to go for my 1st GRE test (am almost certain that I can score 330+ by my third test in August if I really push myself)

GPA: ~3.50; 2 business majors; worked part time (work study) during my time as a student. Went through family difficulties as FGLI student throughout highschool into college (and now), family & undiagnosed health complications resulted in much lower GPA in certain classes than intended (though I still graduated with honors --- is this something I write about in my optional essay given some low grades are from my business classes?)

Why an MBA: career progression in corporate strategy in the short - medium term (I'll likely stay in my company / current industry without sponsorship) // validate that this is the "right" career path for me"; in the long long term, I may start a company in the consumer goods space but that is very TBD and something I won't mention in the app.

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Show Comments (3) Last: May 30, 2024

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1618 It would be good to have a long term goal to tie everything to, which is, in part, aspirational. Gaining a GRE in the 330s would be great. Put a lot of effort in that GRE prep, since this is the one aspect of your overall profile that you still have some control.

Yes, it might be worth touching on your GPA concerns, briefly, in the optional essay. Hopefully the essays will help show how far you’ve come, your lived experience, as FGLI. Also showing impact and growth will be important.

Let’s see if we feature you again!

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anon14120 Likes Earned: 0 Thanks for the advice Alex. Unfortunately I received notification just today that I will be laid off due to an ongoing reorg which has impacted hundreds of employees. I'd still like to pursue a similar career to that which I've outlined but this means I won't come back to the same company. I've also been reassured that my performance has been very good (and my layoff is purely restructure related -- i.e., those at my level are being let go) and they have offered to help out with recommendation letters for future employers or business school. Given I am applying round 1, will having a 2-3 month gap in employeement before September hurt my chances if I cannot find a job by then & by interviews? I'm sure getting experience during the months in the line of work I'd like to pursue is the way to go but any advice to strengthen my candidacy would be extremely appreciated. I'm thinking of giving back to my home town via volunteering but I'm not so sure if adcom will take that as a negative / positive. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1618 Very sorry to hear this. Because you only have a relatively short window, it might make sense to use this time to do something about which you’re truly passionate, something impactful outside of work. If you step into another role in your career, you’d need to leave again, pretty soon, which would not be ideal, unless it was for a company/role that you aspire to in terms of your post MBA plans. Hope that makes sense? (0)