MBA Wire Taps 299—770 GMAT and 2.9, does that work? Targeting 680 – 700, is that enough? History major, strong work experience.

This week's show begins with Alex quizzing Graham about his recent trip to San Diego for this year’s GMAC conference, followed by a mention of some limited waitlist movement seen on MBA LiveWire.  Graham and Alex then pivoted to a discussion on the recent supreme court decision that has a large impact on how admissions can consider race in their admissions decisions. Your hosts believe that while this will necessitate some changes to the admissions process, there will be still processes that can be adopted to ensure diverse business school classes that represent all.

Graham then highlighted the July event series, Essay Insights, which begins this Wednesday with Berkeley / Haas, Duke / Fuqua and Georgetown / McDonough. This is a very popular series that runs throughout July and early August; signups are here: https://bit.ly/cambaessay Graham then mentioned an Adcom Q&A from Cambridge / Judge; these new Q&As include a new question for each of our adcom that asks about waitlists. Graham then discussed two new Real Humans alumni pieces, an alumni from Emory / Goizueta at BCG, and an alumni from INSEAD at Meta. He then highlighted a new admissions tip which focuses on the importance of addressing gaps in employment.

As usual, this episode includes assessments of three real candidates, taken from recent ApplyWire entries on the site.

The first candidate has a 770 GMAT, and appears to have very interesting work experience and goals in the environmental area. Their one glaring weakness is their 2.9 GPA. Graham and Alex discussed ways to mitigate this weakness, and also suggested they may want to broaden their list of target programs beyond the big three of Harvard, Stanford and UPenn / Wharton. This week's second candidate hasn’t taken the GMAT yet, but is concerned they will land a score in the 680-700 range, with a weakish quant result. All other aspects of their profile look very interesting. Graham and Alex discussed ways to mitigate a lower GMAT, if that is in fact the case. Candidate #3 appears to have very interesting work experience and a strong academic profile, from India. She also has one weakness, and that looks like the quant aspect of the GRE. She is also a history major, so it would really behove her to try to improve her quant profile, as she is targeting the very best programs.

This episode was recorded in Philadelphia, USA and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!