8 tips to maximizing your online professional profile
When admissions views your LinkedIn profile – chances are good they will – make sure it will tip the balance in your favor, not undermine your application.
It’s no secret that your social media posts are fair game to any MBA Admissions Committee. More than a third of admissions officers visit candidate’s social media profiles to aid their decision-making (35% in 2017, up from 22% in 2011) and 33% admit they do it “often,” according to Kaplan Test Prep survey data.
The good news is that you can – and should – use this information to your advantage. Because LinkedIn is the most professional among the various social media channels you may be using, it’s of special interest to admissions.
As former Associate Director of Admissions at Berkeley Haas, my colleagues and I were looking for consistency across an applicant’s personal and professional identities. Do you seem like the person you represented on paper? How does your LinkedIn profile reflect your personal brand? If you’re invited to join our MBA community, will you represent our school well? In my coaching role at Fortuna Admissions, my colleagues and I integrate a thorough social media audit in the early stages of the application strategy. A robust presence on LinkedIn is a must-have.
So how can you use LinkedIn to improve your business school application strategy?
Here are eight tips for maximizing your online professional profile:
Enhance your profile to be consistent with your MBA application.
Look to amplify your LinkedIn profile as part of your business school application process. And as you do, consider your key audiences, which are now MBA admissions and alumni, as well as students and faculty of your target programs. At the minimum, make sure your profile is up to date. But most importantly, ensure that it’s consistent with the information and achievements you’ve represented across your application.
Showcase your distinction and accomplishments.
Step back and create a list of your accomplishments and unique distinctions that might not surface on other media or materials. Then, look for ways to include these key elements in your profile. Remember that schools want to get to know you, which means allowing your values and passions to come across. The summary statement, for example, is a place to convey your unique qualities and some creativity. Always keep your key audiences in mind, looking for ways to add or emphasize items of particular relevance. In your summary, have you strategically positioned the two or three most important things they ought to know about you?
Include quantifiable achievements.
Weaving quantifiable metrics into the body of your profile can really amplify your achievements. Where possible, underscore work experience with how much, specifically, you’ve boosted productivity or increased revenue, for example. Your profile is also a place to cite awards or accolades, even if academically based.
Seek appropriate recommendations.
Because LinkedIn reflects on your professional visibility, having recommendations lends additional weight to your profile. Given that you’re soliciting recommendation letters in support of your application, it’s appropriate to ask your recommenders to provide a brief testimonial quote to add to your LinkedIn profile. Note: It’s important to have more “up” recommendations than “down”– i.e. people who have supervised you in the work setting or in one of your community service endeavors. For LinkedIn, it’s okay to also have a couple of testimonies from team members or clients; it’s nice to evidence what peers think about you, too. Banking some LinkedIn recommendations is also a tactical move in the longer run as your audience shifts to potential post-MBA employers.
Engage with the school community
Follow and engage with your target schools to demonstrate your interest. It’s also a great way to do your research on a program, follow the latest news and announcements and stay connect to the school and its community.
Increase your participation
Take it a step further by following the people or groups leading conversations in arenas you’re passionate about, such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy or social innovation. If you can demonstrate you’re a subject matter expert engaged in the issues, it can help to differentiate you from others with a static profile. Any sort of relevant self-promotion you can do through your participation, even a well-placed comment on an article authored by someone else, is advantageous.
Connect to school alumni (with discretion)
It’s appropriate – and strategic – to connect with school alumni with whom you’ve met, especially if you’re looking to build the relationship. If you’ve only met virtually, I recommend asking permission and getting the green light first. I do not, however, recommend reaching out to alumni or students with whom you’ve not had a personal interaction or met face-to-face. Once you’ve crossed the acceptance threshold to become a member of that school’s community, it’s a different story. This is a murky area in terms of social media norms, but it’s also where your good judgement matters.
Show good judgement
Speaking of judgement, this is about being discerning in your posting and sharing, as well as who or what you choose to follow. The reality is that admissions is typically “scanning out” more than “scanning in,” so make sure anything you’re putting out there is professional. It’s really a judgement check. While business schools won’t screen out applicants for their political persuasion (unless extreme or discriminatory), participating in controversial groups or discussions can get tricky. Your filter should always be whether you are putting things out there that appropriately reflect who you are and what you care about.
“Admissions officers have a hefty workload, so any online audit is likely to be brief,” says my Fortuna colleague and former MBA Admissions Director at IE Business School, Lisa Bevill (see her article, Smart Social Media Tips For MBA Applicants, for advice on auditing and enhancing your online presence across all social channels). “But a quick skim can impart incoherence, or, alternatively, a compelling personal brand.”
You can view a shortvideo blogon this topic featuring Sharon with Fortuna Co-founder and Director, Caroline Diarte Edwards.
SharonJoyceis a director at MBA admissions coaching firm Fortuna Admissions and former Berkeley Haas Associate Director of Admissions. Fortuna is composed of former admissions directors and business school insiders from 12 of the top 15 business schools.
Thanks to a generous $1.25 million commitment from The Boeing Company, Olin will continue to provide scholarship support and extracurricular benefits to eligible US military veterans.
Stanford University Graduate School of Business – Ethan Baron photo
Stanford Graduate School of Business is publicly admitting that it misled thousands of applicants and donors about the way it distributes fellowship aid and financial assistance to its MBA students. The disclosure came to light as a result of a computer breach that exposed 14 terabytes of highly confidential student data detailing the most recent 5,120 financial aid applications from 2,288 students, spanning a seven-year period from 2008-2009 to 2015-2016.
The information was unearthed by a current MBA student, Adam Allcock, in February of this year from a shared network directory accessible to any student, faculty member or staffer of the business school. In the same month, on Feb. 23, the student reported the breach to Jack Edwards, director of financial aid, and the records were removed within an hour of his meeting with Edwards.
Allock, however, says he spent 1,500 hours analyzing the data and compiling an 88-page report on it. His conclusion: “The GSB secretly ranks students as to how valuable (or replaceable) they were seen, and awarded financial aid on that basis. Not only has the GSB also been systematically discriminating by gender, international status and more while lying to their faces for the last 10 to ~25 years.”
Allcock found that Stanford had routinely granted fellowship money to students without regard to their financial needs, often favoring admits who were female and those from the financial sector, even though many had more savings than students who received no scholarship help or less financial support. His analysis also found what he termed “systemic biases against international students…This is inconsisent with a need-based financial aid system,” he wrote in the report. A spokesperson for the school could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
DEAN CONCEDES SCHOOL PROVIDES NON-FINANCIAL NEED SUPPORT DESPITE CLAIMS TO CONTRARY
Stanford GSB Dean Jonathan Levin
Allcock is an international MBA student who came to Stanford in 2016 from the United Kingdom where he had been the founder of two startups, including a consulting firm for manufacturing companies, according to his LinkedIn profile. Though he is a beneficiary of financial aid at Stanford, Allcock has maxed out on student loans to finance his education, according to a letter he sent to students.
The existence of the report—leaked to Poets&Quants and apparently circulating among students on campus—was made public nearly two weeks ago by Stanford GSB Dean Jon Levin who conceded that the school had failed to come clean on how it distributes financial awards to students and acknowledged the breach of confidential student data.
In a statement to the GSB community issued at 6:39 p.m. on a Friday, Nov. 17, GSB Dean Jon Levin said the data has been “improperly stored in a shared folder that was accessible to all GSB faculty, staff and students. The records were anonymized and did not include names; however, they included income and asset information, and information on prior employment.”
DEAN PLEDGES TO BE ‘SIGNIFICANTLY MORE TRANSPARENT’ ON FINANCIAL AID AWARDS
Though the school has insisted that it does not grant fellowship awards on the basis of merit, Dean Levin wrote that the school “has offered additional fellowship awards to candidates whose biographies make them particularly compelling and competitive in trying to attract a diverse class.”
He promised that the school would be “significantly more transparent about the principles and objectives being applied in making financial aid awards, and about how different awards are made. We are committed to working on this for the current admissions cycle.”
Scholarship awards have become an important competitive weapon for business schools to win over highly desired applicants. In recent years, there has been an arm’s race of sorts for scholarships and Stanford has been among the most generous. In any given year, the school will hand out more than $16 million in fellowship awards, an amount that represented a 31% discount on its published tuition rates. Slightly more than half of Stanford MBA students receive fellowship support, with the average grant at roughly $36,000.
‘THE GSB HAS MISREPRESNETED ITS FINANCIAL AID SYSTEM’
But through the years, Stanford has insisted that it only awards scholarship money on the basis of financial need—not merit. Most of its peer schools, with the exception of Harvard Business School, make no such claim. More often than not, they dole out scholarship dollars to increase the quality and diversity of a class, with a good deal of money going to candidates with high GMAT scores.
When Allcock went through the confidential data, matching the internal records with the profiles of students on LinkedIn and Facebook, he was astonished by what he found. “GSB fellowships were only in part determined by a student’s financial need despite publicly repeated claims to the contrary,” he wrote. “The GSB has misrepresented and advertised its financial aid system to the detriment of students who make tangible financial decisions on the basis of these representations. Students with identical financial situations receive vastly different GSB fellowships awards and without any knowledge can graduate with up to an additional $80,000 of debt…”
When Allcock met with financial aid director Edwards, he says that Edwards told him that the minimum base loan at Stanford was $28,500 and the maximum fellowship award was $35,000. But Allcock had discovered in the data he reviewed that the school had given at least 53 awards to 32 students for more than $75,000 a year. Roughly 230 students had received fellowship grants that represented full rides: full tuition or full tuition plus fees. The report claims that scholarships could be three times larger for students with identical financial needs.
A ‘TROUBLING FINDING’
And preferential treatment based on gender was apparent. In the Class of 2015, for example, he estimates that female students received average fellowship awards of $37,357 versus $31,059 for men, even though women had higher cash savings, $23,640 versus $20,300. Though Allcock calls this a “troubling finding,” it’s well known that business schools have substantially increased their scholarship support for women to increase their enrollment in MBA programs.
Levin, who says he received the student’s report in October, disclosed that the school has hired a data forenscis firm to determine what other files were improperly stored and accessible over time. “Whatever we learn further,” he wrote, “there is no excuse for this compromise of privacy and security, and I intend to do everything possible to ensure that it does not happen in the future.”
Levin says the school is still in the process of investigating and addressing both the data breach and its system of financial aid. “Although it is likely to take some time to resolve them, I feel it is important from the start to communicate in an open and forthright way, and I expect to communicate again as we move forward,” he wrote.
Only half a dozen years ago, Elissa Sangster had pretty much given up hope that female enrollment in MBA programs would ever equal the much higher numbers at law and medical schools during her lifetime. The executive director of the Forté Foundation then said she would like to see MBA programs get to the 40% level.
“I’d like to see the day when a school puts together teams of MBAs and they just don’t have one woman,” she told Poets&Quants in an interview in 2011. “It’s been a decade, and we’ve seen it move a few points. But I don’t think we’ll get to 50 percent.”
Fast forward to this year’s incoming classes at leading business schools and it’s quite a different story. A newly released study out today (Nov. 30) by Forté has found that women’s enrollment at Forté member schools has steadily gained each year. This fall, 17 schools had 40% or more women enrolled, up from only two schools that reached this milestone in the fall of 2013. Another 26 schools report 35% or more women enrolled, more than double from 12 schools in 2013. Overall, women made up an average 37.4% of this fall’s incoming MBA classes at Forbe member schools, up four percentage points from 33.4% five years ago in the fall of 2013.
PREDICTION: AT LEAST ONE LEADING BUSINESS SCHOOL WILL REACH GENDER PARITY BY 2020
The progress achieved in recent years has now led Sangster to expect that at least one leading school will reach gender parity within three years by 2020. “A lot of deadlines have been set on 2020, and I am just hopeful there is a school out there that will hit that mark. We are on a positive trend, and I don’t see that turning. This progress demonstrates that gender parity is not a pipe dream,” says Sangster, who joked that her more pessimistic prediction six years ago occurred because she had done her earlier interview on two hours of sleep.
In many cases, the increased numbers of women streaming into MBA programs is changing the on-campus dynamic. “Forty percent is a place where women are no longer feeling like the minority,” adds Sangster. “It’s a welcoming environment versus 25%. Even if we are not at 50% yet, we’re getting close. There is a race to get there. Wharton and a few other schools have taken a leadership position and the others at the top have followed. Schools are taking it very seriously and they want to see this milestone of gender parity reached.”
Much of the progress in encouraging more women to enroll in MBA programs has been made at the leading business schools. In the past five years, for example, every single Top Ten MBA program can today boast that they have more women in classrooms than ever before. In many cases, the gains have been stunning. At Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, women make up 44% of this year’s entering class, up 11 percentage points or 33% higher than the 33% in the Class of 2014. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, under the leadership of a female dean, has grown its enrollment of women by ten percentage points in the same timeframe, to 42% this year from 34%. At UC-Berkeley’s Haas School, women composed 40% of this fall’s new MBA class, up nine percentage points from 31% five years ago (see table below).
NOT ALL HIGHLY PROMINENT SCHOOLS ARE AT RECORD OR NEAR-RECORD LEVELS
Many other schools also have now reached or exceeded the 40% level. They include the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business (43%), the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management (41%), the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business (40%), Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School (40%), and Oxford’s Said Business School (40%). Many more MBA programs are just below that level, including Washington University’s Olin School (39%) and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business (38%).
Schools have lured more women into their programs with generous scholarship support, more active recruitment efforts by admissions staffers, female alumni and students, and mentorship programs for women once on campus. A number of schools, including Harvard, have reached out to female undergraduates in hopes of increasing the pipeline of women to MBA programs years later. And students at many schools have formed groups of male allies to promote inclusion and create a more welcoming atmosphere. Sangster notes that there are now 24 chapters of male allies at Forté’s 51 member schools, up from none five years ago. “There are so many men who want to get this right,” she says. “The whole point is to have an awkward conversation and not be the bystander who walks away when they saw something suspicious happening.”
The progress reported by some of the big brand schools, however, has often come at the expense of many other schools as the elites have dipped deeper into the overall MBA applicant pool to increase women enrollment. Deans privately acknowledge that the percentage of women in their applicant pools can trail their enrollment numbers by five or more percentage points. Several prominent schools with highly ranked MBA programs have seen their women numbers drop, including Vanderbilt University’s Owen School (26%), Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management (27%), and Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School (27%).
‘IN THE MID-SECTION AND LOWER-SECTION OF SCHOOLS YOU ARE STILL SEEING MORE VOLATILITY’
“This is definitely a game and when the top schools reach into their waitlists and try to push their numbers higher that will affect the other schools,” says Sangster. “They have to have a lot of scholarship money to support change. Showing that there are schools committed to moving closer to gender parity is important. It’s also a critical part of getting the attention of a dean who will then put more resources behind it. But in the mid-section and lower-section of schools you are still seeing some volatility.”
Forté Foundation was launched in 2001 and grew to 25 member schools in 2005 in the U.S. Today Forté includes 51 member schools: 39 in the U.S., four in Canada and eight in Europe. Five years ago, there were about 4,000 women in its member schools. This fall, that number–counting only the member schools in the organization from 2012–has risen to 4,500.
While Forté schools based in the U.S. have a higher percentage of women enrolled on average, schools based outside the U.S. are gaining ground faster. Forté’s U.S. schools had close to 38% (37.8%) women enrolled, on average, in the fall of 2017, up less than 1% from 37.1% in the fall of 2016, and 34% in 2013. Those based outside the US had 36% women enrolled in the fall of 2017, an increase of almost 3.5% in just one year from 32.8% in 2016, and 31.1% in 2013.
MAJOR BOOST IN SCHOLARSHIP AID TO WOMEN WHO ARE NAMED FORTE FELLOWS
Scholarships awarded to Forté Fellows have played a key role in increasing the number of women MBAs, climbing from 33 scholarships in 2003 to more than 1,300 scholarships for the incoming class of 2017 and another 1,100 scholarships for second year students. Since 2003, Forté Foundation sponsor schools have awarded over $142 million in scholarships to Forté Fellows.
“Our schools have been working on this for some time,” says Sangster. “It’s not something new or unique that has happened this past year. But it is something of a tipping point after many years of effort in building the pipeline and helping the women who are considering buisness school polish their applications and stories. Our MBA Launch program will be in its fourth year this January, with 600 people going through this year. That program helps applicants present their best selves in the admissions process, and it has also given the schools the chance to have specific conversations with women earlier in the pipeline. We have a number of schools that have been very engaged in coaching sessions we offer and that has been reflective in the numbers showing up at their business schools.”
There’s some of a hidden, if not alarming, surprise in Bloomberg Businessweek’s newest MBA ranking. The survey results from employers, alumni and students are all down from the year-earlier results. From one school after another, stakeholders appear slightly less satisfied with the business schools they’ve attended or recruit from.
Among the rankings, Bloomberg Businessweek may be the best–if still flawed–measure for how well MBA programs achieve their mission. Why? Some 80% of the ranking is based on survey results from employers, alumni, and students: These are the people who are closest to the programs – who aren’t drawing a paycheck from them, that is. And the very ones who make the greatest impact inside organizations. In each group, school scores are down in the 2017 ranking.
Take recruiters. Here, 39 programs finished with a lower ranking than two years ago. In fact, 22 schools fell by 10 spots or more, with just 15 programs boosting their rankings in that same range. In the alumni ranking, 40 schools lost ground compared to 26 schools whose rank improved. The results were no different with current students, as 17 programs dropped by 10 spots or more.
Members of the Class of 2016 celebrate Commencement Day at Harvard Business School
SURVEY RESPONSES ACT AS A CHECK AGAINST GENERIC CLAIMS
Yes, the people have spoken. Collectively, their data is a reflection that ranking volatility extends far beyond individual schools. Why is this? Well, that’s the rub with Bloomberg Businessweek, which releases a rank without providing context through underlying data. As a result, this “Take our word for it” ranking just illustrates school trends without explaining them. That doesn’t mean they don’t offer value, however. Instead, they act as a place for applicants to start their research – an indication of where programs are trending and a conversation starter that keeps schools honest.
Recruiters are considered the consumers of MBA talent. Their hiring preferences can tip applicants off on which programs provide the best overall education (or recruit the most promising MBA candidates).The results of the employer survey dictates 35% of a school’s rank in the Bloomberg Businessweek MBA ranking, making it the cornerstone of the process. To evaluate programs, recruiters pick their 10 strongest schools from their experience and score them on a variety of critical skills. Unfortunately, neither the criteria nor the scoring system is ever specified by Bloomberg Businessweek.
This year, recruiter sentiment aligned closely with overall rank. Harvard topped all comers, followed by MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Wharton, and Columbia – all high enrollment, resource-rich, highly selective, urban programs. That’s just part of the story. 9 of the 10 programs ranked highest by recruiters were private institutions, with Michigan Ross being the lone exception. What’s more, MBA recruiters consistently give these programs the highest marks. Over the past two years, just two programs – Dartmouth Tuck and Carnegie Mellon Tepper – have managed to wiggle their way into the Top 10. Brand names have their privileges.
TOO VAGUE AND REPETITIVE?
Still, you’re never quite sure what rubrics that recruiters are using to measure schools, just that the 2017 surveys covers hires from the 2015 and 2016 classes. Is it quantitative mastery? Soft skills? Who really knows? Undoubtedly, Bloomberg Businessweek could give Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot a run for their money! This lack of transparency isn’t the only issue with how recruiters evaluate schools. This year, 11,801 recruiters were invited to complete the MBA survey. However, just 686 respondents from 400 companies responded to the call. That was a steep drop off from 2016, which netted 1,055 recruiters from 500 companies, and 2015, where 1,461 respondents from 672 firms were included in compiling school scores.
Rice Business Students
On the negative side, this means that far fewer employers were given a voice in this year’s ranking. That said, less responses could also indicate a more selective and targeted survey, one with far fewer redundant companies. Again, you have to give Bloomberg Businessweek the benefit of the doubt with these surveys – assuming the scoring is coming from seasoned MBA employers like McKinsey and Amazon. Such differentials may also influence how to evaluate shifts in employer sentiment.
The 2017 ranking, as noted earlier, focuses on the previous two graduating class. In 2015, the Bloomberg Businessweek survey reached graduates from the 2014 and 2013 classes, meaning there is no overlap between the two rankings. As such, it is best to evaluate recruiter preferences between these two surveys. Over the past two years, Rice Jones has been the program that gained the most from recruiters. It has risen from 40th to 14th in that time. In turn, this coincides with a pay improvement – with the school’s rank here improving from 30th to 18th according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Rice wasn’t the only Top 10 program making waves, either. Dartmouth Tuck jumped 13 spots to 8th since 2015 – a move punctuated by a $9,000 starting pay increase over the past two years and a 98% placement rate for the 2016 Class.
MBA RECRUITERS LOVE THE MIDWEST
If you’re looking for hidden gems, head to the Midwest – and public Big 10 programs, in particular. Purdue Krannert made the biggest jump in the recruiter rankings since 2015, rising 34 points from 50th to 16th. Although Krannert averages 75 students per class, its graduates land jobs with an impressive array of employers including Procter & Gamble, Amazon, Bank of America, Hershey, and Ford. The University of Illinois was no slouch either, going from 65th to 32nd – a ranking that could push even higher once the program reaps the rewards of its new $150 million dollar naming gift. Although Iowa Tippie is shuttering its full-time MBA program, it had been gaining steam with employers in recent years, jumping 20 points to 40th. Oklahoma (+21), Penn State Smeal (+18), and Michigan State Broad (+15) also posted impressive gains.
With yang comes yin. Among recruiters, Berkeley Haas has lost a certain sheen. It has tumbled 14 spots over the past two years, ranking lower than Texas-Dallas Jindal and Michigan State Broad in appeal. However, Haas was hardly alone. Yale SOM – the darling of the MBA universe since Ted Snyder took the helm in 2011 – has fallen to 21st to rank behind Penn State Smeal and Texas A&M Mays. Humbling? The ranking may be hazy and subjective, but it does tap into what some recruiters are too cautious to share publicly: the top MBA students at second tier programs are every bit as good as their counterparts in the big name programs.
In addition, William & Mary, once a Top 20 player in 2015, crashed to 51st, a much rockier landing than those experienced by highly decorated private gems like Georgetown McDonough (-23), USC Marshall (-19), Notre Dame Mendoza (-18), and Emory Goizueta (-17). Perhaps the biggest shock is Stanford GSB, which punches well below its weight with recruiters compared to its overall ranking (20th vs. 5th). Then again, Stanford MBAs follow their own drum beat, often creating jobs for themselves or targeting more boutique firms who can afford to have the best candidates come to them. Don’t shed too many tears for Stanford, with Bloomberg Businessweek reporting that the 2016 and 2015 classes still earned the highest pay.
Go to next page to see how alumni rank MBA programs.
Stanford GSB’s Knight Management Center
AFTERTHOUGHTS BY RECRUITERS…BUT BELOVED BY ALUMNI
Alumni were equally grumpy about their alma maters. That’s a big red flag, considering they are the ones who sign big checks during annual campaigns and answer calls from agonizing applicants and self-starting students. Many have reached the position where they can hire as well. This year, 10,000 graduates from the 2009, 2010, and 2011 classes opened up about their experiences – a 33% drop in alumni participation from the previous year. This survey integrates three dimensions: alumni pay increases, career satisfaction, and responses to 16 undisclosed questions related to “their MBA experiences, the specific impacts their MBA programs have had on their careers, and whether they would recommend their program to others.” Combined, this criteria represented 30% of a school’s 2017 rank.
Here, Stanford GSB earned the best scores, a position it has held for three years running. Berkeley Haas was the runner-up among alumni. Haas was followed by Harvard Business School, Rice Jones, and Emory Goizueta. Like the recruiter survey, private schools made up 9 of the 10 highest-ranked programs among alumni. More interesting, alumni heaped high marks on several programs that received tepid evaluations from recruiters, including Stanford GSB, Berkeley Haas, Emory Goizueta, Notre Dame Mendoza, and Yale SOM. Another surprise? Alumni sentiment wasn’t necessarily tied to outcomes. Just four schools in the alumni Top 10 were among the programs where 2016 graduates enjoyed the highest average pay.
The Marriott School of Management
Wondering where alumni sentiment is surging upward? Just compare this year’s results with the 2015 alumni survey, which includes the class of 2007, 2008, and 2009. In other words, just one class overlaps with the 2017 results. Here, Notre Dame Mendoza and Brigham Young Marriott made the deepest inroads, climbing double digits to rank 6th and 8th respectively. The connection? Both are religious-affiliated programs that hammer home the fundamentals, yet infuse the curriculum with an underlying deeper purpose.
Beyond that, the University of California-San Diego Rady made the biggest leap, going from 60th to 23rd in just two years. Higher satisfaction rates among Rochester Simon’s alumni enabled it to vault into the top 20, while Cincinnati Lindner’s 23 point bump helped it reach 21st. True to the Midwest theme, Iowa Tippie (+28), Minnesota Carlson (+26), and Wisconsin (+11) also gained ground – as did Texas-Dallas Jindal (+19) and Maryland Smith (+19).
TOP PROGRAMS FINISH LOWER THAN EXPECTED
Still, 18 MBA programs suffered double digit declines among alumni. The most glaring is found in Ann Arbor, where Michigan Ross plummeted 19 spots since 2015 to rank 47th among alumni – the lowest finish among Top 20 programs in Bloomberg Businessweek’s overall ranking. Cornell Johnson, a Top 10 program among its alumni just two years, also skidded to 22nd in the survey. The same is true of UCLA Anderson, which sagged 10 spots to 16th since the 2015 ranking.
Ross School of Business
By the same token, Texas McCombs dived 24 spots to 37th, a number that should be rectified in the coming years thanks to the spring opening of its state-of-the-art Rowling Hall. The real head-scratcher, however, is USC Marshall. It is the home to the vaunted “Trojan Network,” Labrador loyal alumni who watch out for their successors by readily volunteering to act as mentors or opening doors wherever they can. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the network is decidedly more ‘soft’ Swiss than ‘toughened’ Trojan as alumni ranked their school 58th in their survey. Still, the Trojans can be thankful that they aren’t in Fort Worth, where alumni cast Texas Christian Neeley out of the Top 20 – and all the way down to 69th – a volatility that borders on being outright arbitrary.
In fact, alumni satisfaction could be a mine field for many top MBA programs based on the survey. Despite ranking 4th overall, Chicago Booth finished 35th among alumni, a drag that torpedoed any hope of catching Wharton in the overall rankings. Count MIT Sloan in the same boat. Ranked 3rd overall, it finished 20th with alumni – a five spot bump that failed to negate Wharton’s advantage among alumni and students. This even extends to Northwestern Kellogg and Columbia Business School, whose solid marks in other ranking categories were dragged down by ranking 18th and 26th respectively among their alumni. The same is true for Michigan Ross, Cornell Johnson, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, and Washington Foster, whose claims to the Top 10 are undercut by alumni ranking them anywhere from 22nd to 47th.
Of course, alumni sentiment runs both ways. The Top 25 finishes of Emory Goizueta and Brigham Young Marriott, for example, can be credited to ranking among the Top 10 with alumni. At the same time, some MBA programs are far more popular with alumni than their overall rank might indicate, headlined by Baylor Hankamer (13th vs. 67th) and Oklahoma (14th vs. 53rd) – a clear sign that both schools exceeded the expectations that alumni had when they were students.
Go to next page to see how graduating students rank MBA programs.
UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Courtesy photo
UCLA, INDIANA AND MARYLAND PLAY HOT POTATO WITH TOP SPOT
Although the 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek ranking featured fewer responses from employers and alumni, students were more than happy to give their two cents. This year, 9,461 students completed the school survey, up from the 9,112 respondents credited to the 2015 survey. True to form, the 27 questions asked in the survey are left to the imagination. That said, Bloomberg Businessweek does allude to items like “campus climate, effectiveness of career services, and responsiveness of faculty and administrators.” Even more, responses from the 2016 class are lumped with the graduating class, with each school responses calibrated to balance large and small school enrollments.
Looking for a roller coaster ranking? Well, there are plenty of steep dives and barrel rolls with students at the helm. Last year, UCLA Anderson ranked 15th among alumni. How quickly things change, as it spiked up to 1st. So what happened to last year’s #1 program among students? Indiana Kelley crashed to 32nd. The same is true with the Class of 2015’s favorite program: the University of Maryland bottomed out at 39th in 2017. Call it the b-school answer to the Madden Curse. Perhaps this instability is why student opinion counts for just 15% of the ranking’s weight.
That’s not to say student opinion doesn’t matter. In reality, it can serve as a barometer for how recent investments have re-shaped a school’s MBA experience. More important, consistency can mirror a deeply-entrenched student culture whose values are passed on from class-to-class. The latter is personified by Virginia Darden, a deeply academic and interactive program, which ranked 9th in both 2015 and 2017 (and 2nd in 2016). Duke Fuqua, defined by its supportive “Team Fuqua” ethos, finished 11th in 2017 and 12th in 2015 – despite different respondents completing the student survey. The ranking results at collaborative Northwestern Kellogg, custom Chicago Booth, and purpose-driven Berkeley Haas programs have also wavered very little in recent years.
Darden produced the second-highest percentage of consulting MBAs among more than two dozen top programs in 2016, 38% of its graduating class. Courtesy photo
IOWA SKYROCKETS IN EVERY CATEGORY…ONLY TO SHUT DOWN FULL-TIME PROGRAM
After UCLA, William & Mary Mason, Cornell Johnson, Michigan Ross and Berkeley Haas round out the Top 5 programs for student satisfaction. These rankings were particularly satisfying for Mason and Johnson, which rocketed up 42 and 32 spots respectively. These weren’t the only big swings found over the past two years. In spite of its alumni’s misgivings, USC Marshall’s students love the program. The newly-graduated Trojan Network delivered higher scores, pushing the program up 16 spots to 6th overall. Likewise, Southern Methodist Cox and Carnegie Mellon Tepper marched into the Top 10. Wharton, NYU Stern, Texas McCombs, and Washington Foster climbed into the Top 20 by making similar progress with students. Sure enough, Iowa Tippie picked up steam among students here as well – making it one of the few programs to improve by double digits across recruiters, alumni, and students.
That’s not to say several programs didn’t falter, as scores were lower across the board in 2017. Dartmouth Tuck is unquestionably the surprise of the group. Renowned for its traditionally close-knit community, students still tanked the program, with its rank sinking from 17th to 35th in two years. That hardly compares to the head-first plunge taken by Michigan State Broad. Even after reeling in double-digit improvements from recruiters and alumni, Broad endured a jaw-dropping 53 spot collapse, falling from 7th to 60th since 2015. Punishing, yes – but small consolation to several programs that are in the midst of soul searching, including Minnesota Carlson (-23), Georgia Tech Scheller (-20), and Texas A&M Mays (-18).
Such numbers also highlight a big difference between how students experience MBA programs and how Bloomberg Businessweek ranks them. Notably, several MBA programs falling outside the Top 25 generated more plaudits from students than their better-known (and higher priced peers). These schools were led to Houston Bauer (24th with students vs. 65th overall), William & Mary Mason (2nd vs. 42nd), Pepperdine Graziadio (48th vs. 75th), and Texas Christian Neeley (34th vs. 55th). The opposite is true as well. Several blue chip MBA programs didn’t quite live up their hype according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s student surveys. Among these schools, you’ll find MIT Sloan (22nd with students vs. 3rd overall), Harvard Business School (18th vs. 1st), and Wharton (17th vs. 2nd).
Go to next page to see how alumni and student opinions differ about their schools.
Chicago Booth MBA students
IS CONSISTENCY THE HALLMARK OF THE RIGHT PROGRAM?
This difference is also expressed in the gap between students and alumni regarding their alma maters. In 60% of the programs, the alumni and student rank differed by 10 spots or more. How different can perceptions be? On one end, you’ll find Baylor Hankamer, which ranked 13th for alumni satisfaction – a higher rating than either Northwestern Kellogg or Columbia Business School achieved. Among students, however, Hankamer finished 85th – last place. In contrast, Michigan Ross ranked 4th among the Class of 2017 – a placement higher than any other Top 10 MBA program. Among alumni, it limped to 47th place – despite ongoing academic excellence (not to mention a 2016 class whose starting pay was only eclipsed by Harvard and Stanford).
Such discrepancies are found top-to-bottom. Among the big name programs, students gave higher marks to Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, and Cornell Johnson. In contrast, alumni held fonder memories for Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, Dartmouth Tuck, and Yale SOM based on their rankings. This gulf creates an odd dichotomy, where applicants and students may get very different responses from alumni based on when they graduated.
Several top programs, however, boasted a certain consistency in student and alumni sentiment. For example, Rice Jones ranked 4th with alumni and 2nd among students, positioning that highlights Jones’ strength in producing a transformative experience steeped in close relationships that resonate long after diplomas are conferred. Berkeley Haas, Virginia Darden and Duke Fuqua – three other programs that focus heavily on relationships and experience – also scored high with alumni and students alike. In other words, perceptions were consistent – making them more likely to produce the experience and outcomes that MBA applicants are craving.
HBS Guru Sandy Kreisberg & P&Q Editor John A. Byrne
After a three-year stint at Bain & Co., this 25-year-old Indian male professional is leading he launch of a drink at a beverage startup. With a 730 GMAT and a short-term goal to return to Bain as a manager, he now wants to return to school for an MBA.
When she applies next year to business school, this Oxford graduate will have three years of experience as an equity research analyst for a bulge bracket American bank in London. She won a promotion to associate a year early, is actively involved with a choir and a local taekwondo club. Her goal: To earn an MBA from Harvard, Stanford or Wharton.
After earning an undergraduate degree in cello performance, this young professional gained his first job in the Atlanta mailroom of a Big Four accounting firm and worked his way into a consulting gig with its healthcare practice. Now he wants some formal business training along with a deeper healthcare dive in a dual MBA and public health masters.
What these three MBA candidates and more share in common is the desire to get through the door of a highly selective MBA program at one of the world’s very best business schools. Do they have a chance?
Sanford “Sandy” Kreisberg, founder of MBA admissions consulting firm HBSGuru.com, is back to analyze these and a few other profiles of actual MBA applicants who have shared their vital statistics, work backgrounds, and career goals with Poets&Quants.
As usual, Kreisberg handicaps each potential applicant’s odds of getting into a top-ranked business school. If you include your own stats and characteristics in the comments, we’ll pick a few more and have Kreisberg assess your chances in a follow-up feature to be published shortly. (Please add your age and be clear on the sequence of your jobs in relaying work experience. Make sure you let us know your current job.)
Mr. Cello-Playing Healthcare Consultant
160Q, 163V GRE
3.5 GPA
Undergraduate degree in cello performance from Temple
Work experience includes a stint as a professional cellist; worked way up from the Atlanta mailroom of a Big Four firm and transitioned into healthcare consulting at the Big Four; consulted on the Ebola and Zika virus, the opiod epidemic, healthcare provider preparedness
Extracurricular involvement includes playing cello in college for the symphony and doing pro bono work in healthcare
Goal: To return to Big Four in the healthcare practice in a managerial role
Considering a dual degree with a master’s in healthcare or public health along with an MBA
Odds of Success:
Yale: 30% to 40%
Cornell: 40%
University of Washington: 50%
Emory: 50%
Sandy’s Analysis: From a hard headed admissions point of view, you are a real Big Four healthcare consultant. And you’re a likeable guy. You have a story with a life-changing breakthrough, moving out of the mailroom and into a consulting job. You get promoted and are one of the top performers at the firm.
Besides, business schools like musicians. It gives them the delusion that what they are doing is artistic. The cello is an instrument a lot of people like. This is all good stuff.
But your GRE score translates into a 660 GMAT. So what you are saying to these schools is, “Take me. I’ve got a 660 GMAT.
For Yale, the average GMAT is 725. So that is a reach. For Cornell, it’s 700. That is also a reach. At Washington, it’s 691, and at Emory, it’s 682.
Dude, my tough love is take the test again. Keep taking the GRE. These people probabaly want to meet you half way. The standardized tests count more and more. It sounds like torture to even take it one or two more times, but your scores kind of drifts up. So retake the test.
And you need to have the people at the Big Four back you. You are applying to bookcase schools. You are not talking about Harvard and Stanford. Your reach school is Yale, and you would be on target at Emory and Washington if you had 20 or 30 more points on your exam.
Your likeable guy and I think you’ll get into Emory, Washington and even Cornell. But Yale needs a bigger GRE score.
For the record, I’m against dual degrees. It’s a lot of money. You lost a year of income and you pay the tuition so that frequently comes out to a quarter of a million more. You don’t need a health degree to rejoin the Big Four in a job you already have. Somebody has to say, ‘Gee, do you learn anything getting a degree in public health? I don’t think you’ll learn anything. What you do is you will expand your network. But are three additional friends worth $250,000 over the network you’ll get from a business school? I don’t think so.
But an MBA would sign, seal and deliver you into your dream job.
Ms. Bulge Bracket Banker
GMAT Unknown
3.3 GPA (2.1 British scale)
Undergraduate degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University
Work experience includes three years as an equity research analyst for a bulge bracket American bank in London
“I was promoted to associate a year early and am now the number two in my team with two juniors reporting in to me. I am the analyst and associate representative for equity research – responsible for representing juniors to management and organizing training and events”
Extracurricular involvement in college as the founder of an online newspaper and president of the business society; now actively involved in a choir and local taekwondo club; volunteer tutor of underprivileged students in a level English weekly
White, female
Odds of Success:
Harvard: 30%
Stanford: 20%
Wharton: 30% to 40%
Sandy’s Analysis: You are in a category, IB/PE, where most resume/work items for white females need to be gold and while you got some, it may not be enough.Sure, you’ve got a “gold” three-year career in equity research at a bulge bracket bank and you went to Oxford, a gold and gold foil place, but the fun stops there. Your GMAT/GRE score will be important for you (unless I missed it some place) because you are competing with applicants from banking and private equity who were born with golden spoons in their mouths and proceeded to acquire the entire 24-piece Christofle mood flatware service along the way.
Huh?
The negatives for you include a silver GPA (2:1 Brit scale; ~3.3 translation into U.S. 4-point scale) and nothing compelling in terms of extras, although there is plenty for a non-adcom to like, including Chorus and Taekwondo (maybe you can scream and kick your way in?). All that is fine, but there are many white females in IB/PE land with better grades, potentially better GMATs, and extras which have an impact beyond yourself.
OK, let’s start with the pluses.
You say “promoted to associate a year early and am now the number 2 in my team with two juniors reporting in to me. I am the analyst and associate representative for equity research – responsible for representing juniors to management and organizing training and events.” That is a chunk of substance which is more impressive and weighty in reality than on Planet Adcom, which has its own gravitational field. You got promoted a year early, that is good for sure and needs to be deeply captured in your recs. You have juniors reporting to you, which is also a powerful learning experience, and beyond that, you are “responsible for representing juniors to management,” which is very serious indeed.
Gee, if HBS and Stanford cared about “leadership” (cough, cough) instead of the other things we are about to mention, you’d be a super strong candidate. You also add that you organize “training and events . . . .” I’d soft pedal that, it sounds too much like women’s work, not to grizzly ol’ male me, who recognizes how important that can be, but to the cynical and “seen-it-all” adcom regulars who by dint of long experience have worked out a tacit rule of thumb when it comes to extras: “If you ain’t helping victims, preferably victims in some remote and benighted land or zip code, it ain’t an extra we care about.”
Well, despite the quotation marks, no one ever utters those exact words in Adcom Land, but the idea is in the air and in the adcom drinking water. (By the way, providing clean drinking water for humans, or even animals in need, is an excellent extra, in case you were wondering what I meant.)
“At Oxford I founded an online newspaper and was president of the business society . . . .” Well, joining the business society is a banal and possibly negative and self-serving thing to do but being president does show an ability to show up for a meeting, sit still, and have a long fuse, which are traits HBS and Stanford DO sorta admire. That is why they like high GPAs which to them means your ability to
1. Show up,
2. Eat sh!t,
3. Spit back–the holy trinity of success in B school (and possibly life beyond, but B-school for sure).
As to founding an online newspaper, well, I love it but I am not an adcom. They might want to know how large your readership, if you sold any ads, and maybe how many stories were published about helping victims.
“I also volunteer tutoring underprivileged students in a level English weekly.”
Grrrrrrrr, too little, too late. You needed to be president of THAT at Oxford.
And let me add, for the sake of completeness, that in your league, spending three years at one job, and even doing as wonderfully as you did, is not as impressive as leaving the same job after two years for some selective PE firm or some ultra-selective and hot-seeming and growing tech/online/blah-blah start-up. After all, nothing can compare with testing your value on the actual market.
Sooooooo, what we got is a white female, with low-ish grades, a good job, great job performance, and OK but not bonus points extracurrics. For the sake of argument, let’s also give you a 720-730 GMAT. (I would keep taking the damn exam until you got that, if possible. Schools sometimes blink at lower GMATs but rarely for folks like you.)
Stanford is not going to bite, my guess, for all the reasons noted above. They got a real but not vast IB hole, and they got lots of white women without the tiny but real infirmities in your case.
HBS, ouch! It’s close. And I rarely say this, but this is a case where execution can make a difference. There is a good deal of intangible but “likable” stuff in your story, you need to have your recs go beyond the usual very strong rec blah, blah and capture that too. It would help if your essay also did that, viz., actually showed them how you are a star at work, and maybe explained your decision to stay for year three, and also somehow highlighted OTHER stuff that makes you different than other white woman IB types, may peace be upon them.
Wharton is the same analysis as HBS, although you will need to chuck some I LOVE WHARTON cow patties into the app furnace.
You should be real solid at most other schools if you can convince them you really want to come.
Mr. IIT Bainie
730 GMAT (Q50/V39)
7.9/10 GPA
Undergraduate degree in engineering from IIT Delhi
Work experience includes three years as a management consultant at Bain & Co., with two promotions; work focused on consumer products industry, including the world’s largest spirits company, India’s largest FMCG company; currently leading the launch of a new drink at a beverage start-up and will return to Bain in January of 2018
Extracurricular involvement as general secretary at IITD, leading a 200+ team to organize a college fest, implemented academic reforms; passionate about mentoring, teaching English at evening school for seven years; mentor as part of IITD alumni association and at Bain; awarded best all-rounder of graduating class among 800+ students by Director, IITD; debating (several podium finishes) & theatre (acted/directed 10+ plays, including three with a pro-theatre group)
Short-term goal: To return to Bain as a manager and gain experience in F&B industry
Long-term goal: To launch a beverage brand that makes nutritious drinks for rural Indians
Recommenders are Wharton alums from Bain
25-year-old Indian male
Odds of Success:
Harvard: 20%
Stanford: 15%
Wharton: 30% to 40%
Sandy’s Analysis: Grrrrr, I’m tempted to call you Mr. Beverage but Mr. Milk might be more accurate, given that this is a nutritious and vitamin jammed application that any mother would gladly want for her infant but similar to the White Woman we profiled today (see Ms. Bulge Bracket Banker) not clear you got the up from adversity/helping victims mojo that Stanford likes to drink.
HBS can get this down, and so can Wharton, although outcomes in all cases may depend on what the consultant cohort looks like.
Let’s start with the basics:
What we have here is a 25-year-old Indian male, with a bachelors from IIT Delhi, CGPA: 7.9/10
GMAT: 730 (Q: 50, V: 39).
Well, that seems OK-ish to me. There is tremendous and unresolved, to my mind, chatter on the Internet on how to convert an IIT score to some US equivalent, for an informed but not fully satisfying discussion see this.
Based on my own experience, an IIT CGPA of 7.9/10 is real solid but not bright gold (nor do I know the relative place of IIT Delhi in the IIT pecking order). IF ANY READERS HAVE INSIGHT ON THIS, PLEASE NOTE THAT IN COMMENTS.
I’d say the 7.9 is more competitive at H/S/W than the 730 (GMAT scores I DO know about) and I would strongly suggest you take that over. It is below the average score for all comers at H/S/W and could be below the average Desi, male score by A LOT!!!!!
Moreover, I got a hunch it is also below the average GMAT score for MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) applicants at HSW by a lot. And them guys is your competition to some serious degree.
As to your career at Bain, which you summarize as “three years . . . (joined straight after undergrad), gained two promotions including an early one . . . .” I would note here, as with White Woman from bulge IB, you have three successful years with early promotions, and while that is OK in some ways, it is not as good as two years at Bain and then some SECOND JOB at some super hot and selective place, viz, PE or heat-seeking start-up.
In your case, actually, you will enter B-school after four years at Bain, and a secondment (I think) at a beverage company, viz., “Focused work on consumer products industry (clients include world’s largest spirits company, India’s largest FMCG company), currently leading launch of a new drink at a beverage start-up (will return to Bain in Jan 2018).”
Well, that’s a great Bain career, and if you had A+ grades and GMATs it might make you on par with folks who work in consulting for two years and then hit career super jackpot at Job 2.
But your great Bain career and so-so stats will not even you up to solid gold folks, many of whom are sitting at desks to the left and right of you (well, not at the beverage company but back at Bain).
“Goals:
-Short term: Return to Bain as a Manager, gain experience in F&B industry
Hmmmmmm, let me caution you about making too much out of your food and beverage experience. Adcoms first of all do not consider food and beverages to be any special kind of industry, unlike many versions of tech, e.g. medical devices, and certainly biotech. It is old economy, and while the title FMCG may mean Fast Moving Consumer Goods, it is ironically, quite SLOW MOVING as an industry, that part of it not being gobbled up by Amazon anyway, and it also suffers from the “familiarity breeds contempt” syndrome.
We all actually know what FMCGs are, and that takes a bit of the mystery away from why you really need an MBA to be a big deal in this, ahem, space. Don’t get me wrong. There are folks from FMCG at all top B-schools, but my guess is, their passion for FMCG was not a major factor in their admission.
Ah, but clever you have seen this problem and come up with a work around.
Your long-term goal is “Launch beverage brand that makes nutritious drinks for rural Indians.”
Boy that stone kills several birds in your mind, you are founder, you are an innovator, and you are bringing nutrition in liquid and screw-top form to x number of rural Indians. I admire the instinct, and you might say that as one of several goals, but I would state my goals more broadly as someone interested in innovative and impactful leadership in India where you see the chance to create new products, create new jobs, service new markets, and examples of this are 1, 2 and 3.
As to your extras, yes, there are a lot of them, but as with White Woman, let me give you a no-mercy take on what adcom makes of them.
General Secretary at IITD (led 200+ team to organize college fest, implemented academic reforms)
That is actually impressive in some “man, this guy loves stuff like that way . . . and seems to work and play well with others.”
2. Passionate about mentoring
-have been teaching English at evening school for 7 years
-Mentor as part of IITD alumni association and at Bain
Keep up the good work, but mentoring does not light their fire. If folks in that evening school are blind or some lower caste, YES, maybe.
3. Awarded best all-rounder of graduating class among 800+ students by Director, IITD
See remarks at 1 above, at some point being the kind of person who wins these prizes begins to add up to something that even oddball and PC adcoms have to recognize as “yes, square and retrograde but impressive.”
4. Others- Debating (several podium finishes)
Debating is a near negative, full of hot heads, zealots (even if acting) and show-offs. The very idea of debating is anti-community. Even as an exercise, it’s scripted, rhetorical, and misfocused.
& theatre (acted/directed 10+ plays, including 3 with a pro theatre group)
Adcoms OK about theatre as something you used to do.
The issue is whether this long and impressive list is going to move the needle, since none of it was helping victims in distant places and a good deal of it makes you seem normal and popular, and who needs people like that?
I think in your case, quantity may, just may, transform itself into near quality, so these will help.
I’m not seeing this as Stanford, which is not bent in favor of consultants to begin with, especially since they will hold their noses and take other consultants who are more boring, odd, and have immaculate stats.
HBS might throw you in the stew. Your job there will be in recs and app execution, to appear really likable, not just ha, ha, all-rounder likable who does theatre.
Wharton may actually like this jive at face value. Enough to swallow a sub-average GMAT score for your demo.
Mr. Air Force Captain
720 GMAT
3.56 GPA
Undergraduate degree in economics and business from UC-Berkeley
Work experience includes four years of active duty in the U.S. Air Force, currently a captain working as an intelligence officer.
Extracurricular involvement as the founder of a consulting group focused on the healthcare space; Completed case studies with an AIDs clinic and healthcare start-up; Was an RA for two years and organized some somewhat significantly sized student events; AFROTC on scholarship; Had internship at the national geospatial intelligence agency and at the council for foreign relations.
Speaks three languages: English; Spanish; Farsi
Goal: To transition into consulting and then eventually become a CEO
“GRE: Haven’t taken. Will it help?”
“If it’s relevant, I’m legacy at Stanford and Michigan, just not at their business schools”
28-year-old White Latino Male, ethnically Latino
Odds of Success:
UC-Berkeley: 40%+
Harvard: 30% to 40%
Stanford: 20%+
MIT: 30%+
Michigan: 40% to 50%
Sandy’s Analysis: Dunno, Cap’n, this is real solid without the Latino angle, and with that, it becomes solid-er, but we need to know exactly what “White Male, ethnically latino” means, see below.
As we often note, Adcoms have a hard time unpacking the secret markers of a military career. The only two things they “get” are pilots and combat. You get some instant bonus points for those. Some schools have vets on the adcom, and that has been the case “off and on” at HBS and Stanford, though I am not sure if the current adcoms there are “off” or “on” at the moment. If any reader does know, please share in a comment.
To be honest, even at times where vets have been on the adcom, my sense was that military application outcomes could be predicted very well based on some college pecking order, GPA/GMAT and URM formula. If you were non-URM, your college and GPA/GMAT really predicted a good deal in some fuzzy but clear way that consultants like me developed a feel for.
What happened after you entered the military, in terms of what you did, where you were sent, whether you got gigs that to an insider were selective or not, was kind of a wash in most cases (as noted, pilots and combat experience were noted and also thrown into the mix).
In your case, we got a “White Male, ethnically latino.” To start at the beginning, you will be considered an under-represented minority at B-schools if you are in a group called “Hispanic surname.” That term itself is open to some adjustments, viz, if your mom is Latino, and your dad is Jack White, and your name is Richard White and your Latino mom raised you as a single mom in an Hispanic culture and area, and many of your friends and the surrounding culture were Hispanic, well, you just might be considered URM although it might help to use your mom’s surname as your middle name.
I am not sure what “White Male, ethnically latino” means in that context, but if both your parents are white, and you really dig Latino culture, and speak Spanish, that is not URM. If you have an Hispanic surname and look really, really white, that is URM. Maybe you can tell us more in a comment to this story.
Anyway, if you qualify as URM, this is a strong military profile, given that UC-Berkley is a tie-one school in adcom’s mind. So your 3.56 GPA overall with an honors in Econ (Econ GPA was 3.7) is OK-ish in adcom’s mind, and military GPAs are often 10 “basis points” (if that is correct term in this context, e.g. if average GPA is 3.60, military average GPA could be 3.50). You are a Captain, which is about the highest rank I know for B-school applicants (someone let me know if that is not the case).
You also add: “Extracurriculars: Founded a consulting group focused on the healthcare space. Completed case studies with an aids clinic and healthcare start-up.”
Lots of potential here but on your actual app, this will need to be unpacked more and it better remain credible. As stated, a reader is wondering how some full-time military Captain has time to “found” a consulting group, and what does that mean in this context? An AIDs clinic is always a plus, but we need more. Ditto “healthcare start-up.” These are valuable undertakings, and even if you did not “found” them, I would err on the side of credibility and be very specific about what these organizations did and what you did. If there is enough of that, it is almost as good as being a “founder.”
” Was an RA for two years and organized some somewhat significantly sized student events.”
Not sure RA has much impact in general although, sure, it could be a role that has lessons for you, but we need to hear that. As to organizing events, again, it has potential as an extracurric. But you need to be specific about working with others, what your leadership style was, and what the events were about.
“Had internship at the national geospatial intelligence agency and at the council for foreign relations.”
Not sure what geospatial outfit does but sure, these are nice stops on the future consultant highway.
“I want to get an MBA so I can transition into consulting and then eventually become a CEO.”
Ahem, consulting is real solid career choice for vets, the usual way this is stated is sorta interested in both strategic consulting and implementing guidance as a way to transition into an executive role in business like A, B, or C which interests me because blah, blah. Not a big deal but try to identify a business you would like be a leader in, and better still, role models in military guys who are now business leaders (better still, if those guys have MBA).
“I am considering going back to Haas at Berkeley, HBS, Stanford, MIT Sloan, and Michigan Ross. . . . If its relevant, I’m legacy at Stanford and Michigan just not at their business schools.”
You got a real chance at HBS, especially if you are URM, and if not, a solid chance based on stats. You may need to make goals, influences, and your military career more “integrated,” although that does not have to be in some follow-the-dots way, just a smart, reflective and honest way. There may not be enough magic here for Stanford, although it will depend a bit on your military competition. If you are not URM, Stanford is going to be real hard. I think this will be solid at Berk and Mich. Sloan may really like the 3.7 at Berk in Econ, especially if the Q part of your GMAT is high. They are always looking for Quanty URMs, and if you are not URM, you got a shot anyhow in just beating out the other military guys.
I am not sure about the value of being a legacy at Stanford. They may hold it against you unless you have a parent who is a huge donor. Their inchoate self-hatred and contorted view of privilege in all its variants knows no bounds and is hard to predict. I don’t see much upside, to be frank, and I certainly would not attempt to make much out of it.
The folks at Michigan take a more clear and Mid-Western view of this, in case of a tie, they may give you the base.
Mr. Air Force Captain