GMAT Forum
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- cdn
profile & blue chips
I was interested to read your thoughts on blue chips when it comes to getting in to HBS and Stanford. I have a friend who is princeton undergrad, IB at GS, top tier PE and even before reading your comments, I felt that he could get in to HBS a lot easier than I could, but thought I'd check how "blue-chip" I come across. I'm 25yo female, canadian, McGill undergrad B.Sc. in math, 3.80/4, award for being in top 5% of faculty of science, IB at ML 2 yrs in Toronto, now at small hedge fund in NY (likely will be 2 yrs), 770 on GMAT. Good extracurr in undergrad, like a lot of bankers, not so much since, although I'm in a number of women in business/hedge funds etc groups. Does being female in a mostly male industry help my chances?
- MBAApply
If you're asking about your chances, I think you know what they are -- given the peers you interact with at work, I'm sure you have enough folks you can benchmark against based on where they ended up going.
If you read my blog (http://mbaapply.blogspot.com) about the whole "blue chip" thing, then you know that if you don't have any bona fide extracurricular achievements (nationally ranked athlete, or performed/competed at a very high level in some sport, arts (dance, theater, music, etc.) or got mucho awards for your community service), then it does come down to pedigree on your resume. There isn't a hard and fast rule with this -- but it's more based on an adcom's sense taking in your candidacy (and written application) in totality.
Being female in and of itself really doesn't do much - there really isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the bar for women is any lower than for men. Where being a woman *can* help is if your gender isn't just your chromosomes, but is something that ties into your extracurriculars (i.e. you held a lot of leadership positions in women's groups in school, you volunteered at the rape shelter, you established a mentorship program for young women in college to encourage them to go into business/technical careers, you were involved in a lot of women's sports, you teach at a local girl's school, you have volunteered or taken leadership roles in organizations that help women in 3rd world countries, etc.). It's the same thing with ethnicity -- it's got to be more than skin deep to matter.
From a professional and extracurricular standpoint, if there's nothing to differentiate you from a male colleague, then being female really doesn't have much of an impact on your admissions.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
If you read my blog (http://mbaapply.blogspot.com) about the whole "blue chip" thing, then you know that if you don't have any bona fide extracurricular achievements (nationally ranked athlete, or performed/competed at a very high level in some sport, arts (dance, theater, music, etc.) or got mucho awards for your community service), then it does come down to pedigree on your resume. There isn't a hard and fast rule with this -- but it's more based on an adcom's sense taking in your candidacy (and written application) in totality.
Being female in and of itself really doesn't do much - there really isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the bar for women is any lower than for men. Where being a woman *can* help is if your gender isn't just your chromosomes, but is something that ties into your extracurriculars (i.e. you held a lot of leadership positions in women's groups in school, you volunteered at the rape shelter, you established a mentorship program for young women in college to encourage them to go into business/technical careers, you were involved in a lot of women's sports, you teach at a local girl's school, you have volunteered or taken leadership roles in organizations that help women in 3rd world countries, etc.). It's the same thing with ethnicity -- it's got to be more than skin deep to matter.
From a professional and extracurricular standpoint, if there's nothing to differentiate you from a male colleague, then being female really doesn't have much of an impact on your admissions.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
2 posts Page 1 of 1