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What are the odds that I am accepted into the Harvard MBA program?

After failing to find a job for 5 months after graduation, I decided to take the GMAT and did better than expected. The next week I was offered a job at a large corporation and obviously took it. I am one year out of college and anxiously looking forward to catapulting my career with a top-notch education from a respected university like Harvard. I know work experience is important so I plan on working for a couple years but the GMAT score is only valid for 5 years. I chose to single out Harvard in my question above but I plan on applying to several premier schools. With the details I have provided below, please let me know how likely you think it is that I will be accepted into a premier MBA program. Thanks. Undergraduate Degree: B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and Finance from Loras College (Dubuque, IA) Cumulative GPA: 3.35 Senior Paper: "Numerical Solution of Parabolic Partial Differential Equations with Applications in Finance" --I had the opportunity to present a portion of my senior paper to students/professors across the Midwest at a math conference at St. Norbert College Activities: -President of finance senior thesis project (28 other students) in which we created a financial guidebook. The project received a lot of local media coverage and was a big hit in the community. I appointed a board of directors and treated it like a real business. -I also traveled to Honduras on a service trip with a group of students from the college. We were put to work in the morning digging ditches and spent afternoons playing with the kids at an orphanage/abused mothers' shelter. -I was involved with the usual clubs like FMA (Financial Management Assoc.), AMA (American Marketing Assoc.), and math club. GMAT: 750, 98th percentile (49 Analytical, 42 Verbal) Work experience: I am currently a business analyst at a large corporation. I report financial data to executives within the company and perform outlooks for my division's operating costs. After only 3 months of employment I was promoted to a team leadership role. What do you think?

Public Comments

1. You have been busy. What are your goals in life to be wealthy, well-known or well-educated?
2. Except for the low GPA, your background is excellent. Your GMAT is good for 5 years and you will most likely apply well before then. Your chances of getting into Harvard are about 10 percent, because for every application like yours, Harvard will receive 10 others that are similar. but fear not, there are many other excellent MBA programs. Before you decide on an MBA program explore the Internet for information on available programs. There is a lot of information available. Some sites are limited to specific countries, such as Germany, UK, or Australia. There is a comprehensive free public service with more than 2,000 MBA programs listed worldwide. The nice thing is that it allows you to find the program that best fits you. It allows you to search for programs by location (US, Europe, Far East, etc.), by concentration (finance, marketing, aviation management, health management, accounting, etc.), by type of program (full-time, distance learning, part-time, executive, and accelerated), and by listing your own criteria and preferences to get a list of universities that satisfy your needs. Schools report their accreditation status (look for AACSB accreditation or at least AACSB membership), tuition cost, number of students, class sizes, program length, and a lot of other data. Schools provide data on entrance requirements, program costs, program characteristics, joint degrees, joint degrees such as MBA/JD, and much more. You can use it to contact schools of your choice, examine their data, visit their web site, and send them pre-applications. You can see lists of top 40 schools ranked by starting salaries of graduates, GMAT scores, and other criteria. some of the other sites are less comprehensive, but all are useful.