Profile Evaluation - Fall 2014 Entry

[dpaulmeyer]

Hello all,
I would appreciate some insight as to whether or not I would be strong applicant for the following target schools: Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Dartmouth, MIT, Booth and Haas. Below is an overview of my background:

Age / Work Experience - Would be 27 with just over 5 years of experience by the time I apply in Fall 2014.

GMAT - I recently took the GMAT for the first time and scored a 730 (Q48, V42).

GPA - 4.0 from a Big 10 state school. Was one of only 23 students in a class of over 2,000 to earn a 4.0. Graduated with Honors with a degree in Accounting.

Work Experience - Have been with a private equity and mezzanine capital firm since 2007. I was recruited as a summer intern and then joined as a full-time Analyst upon graduating from undergrad in 2009. I was promoted to Associate in November 2010 and have been in that role ever since.

One unique aspect of my work experience is that I am the second most tenured employee of our five man team. I was also heavily involved in raising our second fund. As the youngest member of our team, I have had a great opportunity to become more heavily involved in certain elements of the private equity business than I feel I would have at other larger firms.

Other Activities - While working for the private equity fund, I pursued an entrepreneurial venture on nights and weekends which involved creating a new ready-to-drink smoothie beverage. I partnered with a university for research and development and took on a business partner who formerly was a VP with a Fortune 500 food company. Ultimately, I abandoned the project after a year, but it was a very valuable experience and opened my eyes to consumer products.

Extracurricular - Am involved as a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, a national organization dedicated to middle-market businesses and the deal community. I also was responsible for authoring the business plan to help establish our local chapter of the organization, which needed to be approved the national group.

Miscellaneous - I am located in a rural state, so there are likely few applicants from my region, although I am a white male.

Career Goals - I am pursuing an MBA because I have found that I have a passion for consumer products and strategy. My background is in finance and accounting, and I want to pursue the MBA to build a more well-rounded skill-set, as well as to use as a stepping stone into a career in either consumer products or management consulting with an emphasis on the consumer products sector.

Thank you all for your feedback!

[dpaulmeyer]

Can anyone please provide feedback? It would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[mili]

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the delayed response - I could have sworn I responded to your post already! My apologies.

I think your profile overall is quite strong. Great academic scores, strong work experience and great entrepreneurial experience. Your career narrative makes a lot of sense, too. The only gap I would say you have is in the extracurricular/community space... it would be great to show leadership in those areas. However, with your entrepreneurial activities and what I imagine are long work hours, these gaps will probably be overlooked.

Harvard and Stanford are always going to be long shots - if you had to pick one, I'd think you'd have a better shot at Harvard than Stanford, but it's tough to say. The others on your list seem like reasonable targets. However, you might want to add a safety or two to your list (maybe Duke, UCLA or something like that).

Good luck!
Mili
Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
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[dpaulmeyer]

Thank you for your response! I have a few questions:

1) You mentioned that the career narrative is strong. I had hoped that would be the case, but my concern (based on some input from others) is that brand management / consumer products is large step away from my finance / analytical background. I think it is logical given the entrepreneurial venture I had, but could you please touch on this?

2) Regarding community and extracurricular activities, does it make sense for me to try and join some community organizations in the next year, or does that make it look like I was only doing it to pad my resume?

3) You said that Harvard and Stanford are always going to be long shots...maybe I am reading too much into "long shots" but that makes it sounds like my chances of gaining acceptance would be remote for either. If you had to put odds on acceptance based on my profile (and I do believe I am a strong interviewer), what do you think they would be? Just curious.

Thanks again!

[mili]

Hey Paul -

Great questions. Here goes:

1. Yes, I think that if you didn't have the entrepreneurial experience in CPG, it would be a somewhat disconnected story. But the fact that you have that experience and know why you want a career in that field adds a lot of credibility.

2. It could help - it's more about quality than quantity. My advice is that if you join something, make sure you are willing to put 100% into it (therefore it should be something that you are personally passionate about). That way you actually have a chance of impacting the organization in a short period of time. Again, leadership will be key.

3. Pretty much impossible to answer :) I won't throw out numbers because they will be meaningless. The only thing I will say here is that while you have a strong profile, I don't see anything in your profile that is particularly extraordinary in the way Stanford looks for. More likely chance at HBS, but again, very difficult to say. If I didn't think it was worth your time to apply, I wouldn't encourage you to do so... but I think you should apply and see what happens. Just don't set your hopes on these programs. Sorry not to have a more concrete response on this one!

Best,
Mili