Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 430—337 GRE, 2.96 GPA. 327 GRE, 3.8 GPA. Booth vs Darden.

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MBA Wire Taps 430—337 GRE, 2.96 GPA. 327 GRE, 3.8 GPA. Booth vs Darden. · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:16
  Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, June 16, 2025. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things going?
• 0:28
  Speaker A: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 0:29
  Speaker B: So Alex is a former admissions officer from the Wharton, current Clear Admit community manager and podcaster. And you also teach digital marketing at some top business schools including Columbia and LBs. And I'm the co founder of Clear Admit, also worked in admissions at Wharton, where I first met you, Alex. And I have an MBA from that program as well. Let's get right into it. Has there been any action on the wires or is it really. I mean, this is. We're getting towards orientation time for people starting in the fall and some of these students start showing up in late July. So has there been any movement on wait lists or any kind of news?
• 1:04
  Speaker A: It's still the middle of June, Graham. There's going to be plenty of news, right?
• 1:08
  Speaker B: Maybe. I don't know. I'm kind of wondering if.
• 1:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I saw on Livewire last week Wharton took some folks off their wait list that tends to then create a domino effect with some schools in the next tier down or something. So I would imagine there's still going to be movement. Obviously there's still a lot of uncertainty in the international market in terms of international students. So yeah, put your seatbelts on and see what happens. The next few weeks might still be quite. Might still be some significant activity.
• 1:44
  Speaker B: Yeah. I would argue that if ever there was a year where it might be a good thing to be on the wait list as a domestic candidate, it's this year. Right. Because I think what's going to happen is with the lack of these interviews and interviews being visas being denied, et cetera, there's going to be some international volume that cannot make it to these schools in the fall in America. And so if you're on a US Programs wait list and you are American living in the States and it's really easy for you to pick up and show up, then. Yeah, I think there's going to be movement as we head into July. Yeah, for sure.
• 2:13
  Speaker A: And that's the key, to make sure that they're signaling to schools that they're really flexible.
• 2:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 2:21
  Speaker A: So now that you're on that summer waitlist, you know, for anyone that is on the summer waitlist and is, you know, a U.S. citizen showing or making sure the school recognizes that you have that degree of flexibility and you really want to attend, etc. Etc. Is a very Good approach at this point.
• 2:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, agreed. Other stuff that I wanted to tackle before we get into our candidates this week, you know, let's sort of get into the latest in the war on universities. It was kind of a quieter week. The US has some other things going on at the moment, unfortunately. But I did read that there is an update coming probably by the time this podcast airs on the visa interview slots opening up. And so apparently the government has said they will give us news in the next few days. So I'm hoping that that news is. Yes, we've revamped the process to include more extensive social media checks or whatever they're trying to add, and that interview slots are now open again because there is a backlog of individual who are unable to schedule an interview and need to in order to get their visa in time for fall classes. So stay tuned there. We did run a great summary of this entire saga from the very beginning where, you know, the Trump administration clamped down and said, oh, Harvard can't have any international students all the way through to, you know, the latest events. And so that was written by Peggy from our team. And yeah, that's up on the site. Really good read if you want to just understand the context and everything that's going on with this. But we will continue to keep everyone posted, for sure.
• 3:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. And obviously we just talked about the potential advantage of domestic candidates that are still on the wait list because of all this uncertainty. But yeah, our thoughts and feelings certainly go to international candidates that are caught in this ridiculous situation that we found ourselves. I mean, quite honestly, Graham, I'm just still shocked by it all.
• 4:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, it is crazy.
• 4:23
  Speaker A: And upset by it all. Not just surprised, but really upset by it all. It's just not the America that I know.
• 4:32
  Speaker B: Well, yeah, I could not agree more. And I also did one other tidbit I was reading just before we came on air that apparently part of this sort of Chinese tariffs deal is going to include the, quote, opening up of universities to Chinese nationals again because Trump had threatened no Chinese visas. They can't come to our schools as part of this negotiation. And so apparently now that they're kind of seem to be reaching an agreement, that's part of it. So I'm hoping that all this sort of opens up, that people can get their visa interviews and get visas and, yeah. That this will all be under the bridge, but we will see. Yeah. But I definitely thoughts go out to anyone who's in limbo, for sure.
• 5:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 5:11
  Speaker B: One thing we're doing in July is we're Coming back with our Essay Insights webinar series. It's the most popular webinar series that we run every year. And what we do is we sit down with a handful of admissions directors over the course of a month. We do one event each week over the course of a month, and we pepper them with questions about their essay topics and how to answer their essay questions. So you can sign up for these events. You just go to bit ly mbasa 0725. So that's our July series. I would list all the schools, but they're literally there's like 20 of them. So I'll just tell you that, you know, we've got Chicago, Booth and MIT, Sloan and Duke and who else? Wharton and LBs insead. I mean, the list is pretty long. Georgetown, Berkeley. I'll go into it as we get closer to the dates, but they're going to air every Wednesday in July at I think noon Eastern. So sign up for those if you haven't yet. Should be a lot of fun. I typically emcee those and I believe I'm going to do all of them this summer. So it should be fun.
• 6:09
  Speaker A: Are these the most popular webinar series that we host?
• 6:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, historically, we'll see if, if the numbers match up, but I see the early signups are going quite well. So, yeah, this should be. Yeah, really good.
• 6:22
  Speaker A: Yeah, this is for those, you know, obviously that are applying next season. We're switching into that season now. I think this is a, this is a terr series. So, yeah, enjoy hosting Graham, and I'll look forward to learning myself. Obviously we learn from these, these events ourselves and that helps inform us and so forth. So, yeah, absolutely. Fantastic.
• 6:45
  Speaker B: Yeah. Over on the website we did an interesting piece about. So Stanford GSB has this podcast called if Then where they basically the host, this guy named Kevin Kuhl, now that's a podcast name. Host. Man, I wish my name had. My last name was Kuhl. But anyway, Kevin Kuhl interviews a professor at Stanford's business for each episode. And they did this one with a professor at Stanford whose name is Amir Goldberg and he's a professor of organizational behavior. And he has been taking all kinds of qualitative data to help to basically use AI to understand innovation. And there's always this long held debate about does innovation exist at the fringes or in the center in terms of where is innovation coming from? And it's hard to measure that. But what he decided to do was upload just insane amounts of data from quarterly earnings calls, descriptions of strategy from consultancies and companies, Congressional records, judicial rulings, everything he could find that might touch on where innovations are happening. And he found millions, obviously, of useful examples. And the problem is all these examples are immensely unstructured. So he kind of uploaded all this stuff into AI. And AI, within a matter of, you know, minutes is able to kind of quickly assemble and provide some structure. And as it turns out, it does seem that innovation is mostly happening on the fringes. So smaller firms, you know, spin outs. Spin outs, smaller courts, making rulings about things where people are starting to think differently. So, anyway, you. You can listen to the podcast, but we wrote an article about this because it was so fascinating.
• 8:29
  Speaker A: Surely is a. Is a Stanford piece of research. Couldn't they just read that really good book out of Harvard called Innovators Dilemma? Would have answered the same question in the same way.
• 8:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, although I guess the key here is they're backing it up with a lot of data in terms of, you know, in ways that we couldn't before AI. So this is, you know, another innovation out of AI we did run. We always run admissions tips, and there'll be more and more of them this time of year as people start to think about applying for next season. So we ran a tip on the site about considering the campus, and it just got some really helpful tips about how to think through what are the areas that you should be looking at when you're talking about a business school's campus. You know, the facilities, the surroundings, the atmosphere. So read that tip if you're kind of trying to put together your list of schools and wondering about these things. We also. Alex, I'm really excited to report we've now started our admissions director Q and A series for the 2526 application cycle. And first out of the gate is Stephanie Kluth from ESMT Business School in Berlin. There will be. We have like dozens of these lined up and they're going to come out over the course of the summer. We're going to talk to admissions directors at every top business school on the planet. So stay tuned. Those are great, great reads. If you're applying to the school in question, I mean, kind of, I would argue you kind of have to read it if you're. I mean, it's just, yeah, really good stuff.
• 9:50
  Speaker A: And also, each year we add different, you know, a set of different questions to the ADCOM Q&As. We call them ADCOM Q and A. So I can't remember the. The new questions that we introduced off the top of My head. But yeah, the insights we gain from, from, from these Q&As is. I think it's absolutely fantastic.
• 10:09
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I love some of the questions we asked year in and year out are about like, just like how they process files, how they, like what's their structure and the operation behind the scenes. I just love getting that kind of peek behind the curtain. So, yeah, so read those. There'll be more of them coming. And then we had two real human alumni, real humans alumni candidates that we talked with. We talked with Akanksha, who graduated from the Ohio State Fisher MBA program back in 23 and now works at Uber Freight as a senior program manager. So akansha is, she's 33, originally from India, went to. Sounds like an engineering program in India before coming to business school in the US and actually her work experience prior was with, it sounds like with Samsung. So seven years of work experience and it sounded like Samsung, but in their heavy industries division. So it says here that she was involved with oil and gas. So they must do some, some kind of. I don't know what they're making for that industry because my knowledge is pretty limited of Samsung, but, you know, I think of them as smartphones, but they're obviously doing a lot of other things. So she had that work experience and we. And then went off to Ohio State and now has pivoted into Uber Freight. And we said, what's one thing that you would change or do differently as part of the job search? And she said, and I thought this was great advice. She said, I would spend less time directly applying for jobs. Instead, if a role piqued my interest, I would connect with professionals in similar roles by understanding the nuances of the position and the company culture. I would tailor my approach more effectively and determine if the role truly aligns with my goals. So I think she's touching on something that was really important because it's really easy to resume, drop and kind of just apply to lots of roles when you see them come across the career services desk in business school. Right. But her point is, you know what, figure out if you want that job first by talking to people who've, you know, worked in that role. And I think that's good advice because it's easy to apply to lots of roles and probably to do less good of a job at applying to all those roles. Whereas if you sort of do some filtering, gather some information, you can be better off.
• 12:18
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, obviously it takes time and effort to do it that way around, but you're Going to be more focused in your approach. Right. So yeah, it makes perfect sense. And I imagine Samsung is just a huge conglomerate of lots of different businesses across lots of different industries out in, I assume it's South Korea and so forth. So yeah, fantastic.
• 12:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So they're definitely, they're probably competing with Caterpillar or somebody like that and some of these things I don't know. So we also talked to, there was a second alum that we caught up with. Her name is Emerald. She graduated from Washington Olin, their MBA program also back in 23, and she is a strategic financial analyst at Google. Emerald's background, really interesting. She's 33, now is from, I'm going to say this wrong, I'm guessing, but she's from Tokoko, which is in the Volta region of Ghana and she studied at the University of Ghana, studied business as an undergraduate undergrad and before business school worked in retail banking at a trust bank in Ghana. So in that kind of banking and financial services sector, had six more than six years of work experience and then went to Washington. Owen got the MBA and we said, what's one piece of advice you wish you had been given during your mba? And she says, experiment boldly. I wish someone had told me that the MBA is the perfect playground for bold experimentation. It's one of the few times in life where you can test drive ideas, whether it's launching a startup, building an app, exploring a creative business like fashion, or pivoting into a whole new industry without the pressure of having it all figured out. For someone like me, who thrives at the intersection of strategy, creativity and innovation, I now realize I could have leaned into that freedom even earlier. The MBA is more than a launch pad, it's a lab. So what do you think about that, Alex? Because this is kind of, we've had this sort of back and forth about is it time to explore, is it time to really focus in.
• 14:20
  Speaker A: Yeah, completely agree with this sentiment, but I think it makes better sense as you come into the MBA program with a clear set of goals and understanding of why you're there. Right. Once you've sort of developed that, then yeah, go, go ahead and experiment and explore, but within the context of really recognizing what, what you're there for and, and so forth, so you don't just end up with a complete scatterbread, you know, a scatter approach and you're experimenting every week with something different. Wouldn't work in my book anyway.
• 14:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. It's, it's, you know, this isn't these things can live side by side. Like this idea of you know what you want to do, you know what you want to get out of it, but you carve out some time to do some different things as well. Right.
• 15:05
  Speaker A: And my argument is the more you know what you want to do, the more you have the freedom then to experiment within that sort of boundary, you know, within that context. I suppose.
• 15:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:17
  Speaker A: And. And not to say you shouldn't experiment with things that are completely different. Yeah. Because there's always value in what you're doing. It's just recognizing that you still have a strong rudder guiding you through the MBA journey.
• 15:31
  Speaker B: Yeah, totally. So I think those are the kind of updates from the site. We've got candidates to talk about this week. As always, I did want to remind people, you know, you can write to us. Just write to us@infoearadmit.com the other thing I would just like to say is, I mean, we could really use some help spreading the word about the podcast. I mean, this is the time of year where the folks who've been with us all season are now maybe, you know, have their offers in hand and might be heading off to business school. So please just pass it along. I mean, this is a small podcast. We don't have a giant marketing budget. So tell people that are applying to business school about this show. They'll thank you for it, we hope. And yeah, just spread the word because that's how people find out. And, you know, we have a new crop of folks tuning in, you know, each year for the most part. So we need your help in that regard. Would you agree, Alex?
• 16:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, let's see if we could double our audience from what, two to four, three to six?
• 16:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah.
• 16:26
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:26
  Speaker B: All right, let's. Let's start talking about the candidates. Unless there's anything else you add.
• 16:30
  Speaker A: No, let's kick on.
• 16:31
  Speaker B: All right, so this is WireTaps candidate number one. Our first candidate this week has 10 schools on the target list. And it's a really high end group. It's Columbia Talk, Duke, Harvard, Michigan, MIT, Kellogg, NYU, Stanford and Booth. So really kind of top 16 exclusive there. They want to start school in the fall of 26. They have been working as an engineer, but in the government. So in a municipal for a municipality, they are looking to pivot out of that into consulting. They mentioned companies like Carney, Bain, Booz Allen and BCG. They have a 337 on the GRE, one of the highest scores I've ever seen. That we've talked about on the show at least they have a 2.96 undergraduate GPA, so a bit lower there. Eight years of work experience. They're located in Canada and they would love to land either in Canada or the USA after business school. And they do ask for, you know, specific feedback. They recognize that their background's somewhat non traditional because they've been, you know, eight years experience in municipal government at the city level in kind of engineering roles. They do share that they're male, the Canadian citizen, but they are a first generation immigrant. They actually moved from South Asia at a young age. You and I were debating, Alex, what does that mean? South Asia? I'm guessing India, Pakistan, something like that. So that's where they're from. Presumably they're the first in their family to attend college. They have some certificates in their industry, you know, professional engineer, scrum master, all that kind of stuff.
• 18:06
  Speaker A: Stuff.
• 18:07
  Speaker B: And they do some things outside of school. They do some mentoring of junior engineers. They, you know, do some volunteer work in underserved villages abroad. So they help to fund and deliver infrastructure projects like building wells, homes, schools, etc. And that's kind of been inspired by their sort of personal background and roots. Alex, what do you make of this candidacy? Because I think, you know, there's a lot of to like in terms of a non traditional background with government work but they also, you know, and obviously a stellar GRE score but that GPA is below the 3.0 threshold. So. Yeah. What do you make of this candidate?
• 18:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean I think there's quite a lot to like about this candidate. And then as you say, there are a couple of hurdles that they've got to overcome in the admissions process, especially as they're targeting, as you say, you know, M7 top 16. They're going quite high with their list of target program. So yeah, 337 GRE. Absolutely fantastic. They're clearly very smart. But they're going to have to overcome this 2.96 or whatever it is GPA. They're going to need to write a short explanation in the optional essays that sort of provide context. There was an upward curve I think in the last couple of years, et cetera, et cetera and obviously being first gen and various other things might have complicated that first couple of years of undergraduate, but they're going to have to overcome that. Just because they have an outstanding GRE score doesn't mean to say that the schools will dismiss the lower than average gpa. Far from it. That's a record of four years of academic experience. So that stands for a lot of. So that's going to be a little bit of a concern and maybe some of their professional certificates will help in this regard too. But I know oftentimes you're not as completely bought in that regard as perhaps I might be. So yeah, the GPA is a concern. Eight years of experience is at longer end of the spectrum so they're going to have to really show fit and that sort of why NBA, why now sort of aspect of their articulation. I think they're going to have to target the first rounds. They qualify themselves as being non traditional but I think they need to approach admissions thinking that perhaps they're going to be a little bit overrepresented, at least demographically if they're from India and so forth. So I would certainly target the first round I think really lean into the quality of their work experience and their impact and growth etc. Etc. And really lean in to the volunteer work that they're doing in infrastructure in remote villages and so forth. Because I do think that ties a little bit to their long term goal post consulting and I like that. I think they can make a really interesting narrative around focusing on that long term goal and the steps now that they're taking to get there which will include consulting in the short, short run. But, but yeah, I think you know, round one they, they, they're going to have to overcome some, some of this GPA issue and, and just consider themselves potentially overrepresented. Don't think of themselves as non traditional grants.
• 21:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, you know, that's the thing. It's like what would keep me up at night on this candidacy would be, yeah, if they get labeled as well, this is an engineer, they're older and they're from India or Pakistan originally and so that would be overrepresented.
• 22:06
  Speaker A: Right.
• 22:06
  Speaker B: Whereas if you look at it from the other side you say oh, Canadian, not quite as represented working in municipal government. So yeah, there's sort of this, you know, two sides to it. But I do think that the problem if they are looked at it overrepresented is that gpa, you know, where they're going to be in a pool that has very high test scores, very high, you know, sort of numbers and general. So yeah, I would almost encourage them if they're willing to. They probably need to narrow this list. I mean 10 schools is too many to apply to successfully. Especially when you think about the burden you're going to put on your recommenders etc. But, but also they Might need to narrow and expand the list at the same time. So what I mean by that is narrow it down to six plus or so schools, but maybe think about whether there's a school outside of the top 16 that they might consider. Because I worry that if they wait and get bad results in round one, it might be hard in round two.
• 22:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 22:57
  Speaker B: So I don't know. I mean, just in terms of thinking about what they want to do, I'm just thinking, are there other programs out there that could help them get there? And you know, I'm thinking about Tepper. I'm thinking about are there any other schools out there that they would be happy to attend that, you know, just might give them slightly better odds too? So that's my take on this.
• 23:16
  Speaker A: But yeah, as you were, as you were articulating that, the first school that came to my mind was Tattoo Happen. So yeah, but the point is don't wait until round two getting your results from round one to then readjust and maybe go after a couple of schools in that top 20 band. It's really important to come up with that strategy for round one if you are potentially considered as being overrepresented. That's an important point. So yeah, if you think, think actually Tepper might be a good, a good fit for them or if they think that they need to do Tapper in round one, not wait.
• 24:01
  Speaker B: Yeah, agreed. So I do want to thank them for sharing their profile. Hopefully this is all good food for thought. And I agree with you, they got to be out in front on this GPA thing. And I will say they did the one thing you need to do when you have a low gpa which is absolutely ace the test. Right. So they've done that. But they'll need to just briefly explain. I want to wish them the best of luck. Hopefully they'll keep us posted of the how things go. So let's move on though and talk about Wiretaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week is applying to six schools. They want to start in the fall of 26. Their target list includes Duke, Michigan, MIT, NYU, UChicago and Yale. And this person has been working in data and analytics consulting. They actually have, have nearly, well, four and a half years of experience. And their GRE score is a 327. Their GPA is a 3.8. They're hoping to work in technology after business school. And they mentioned the likes of Apple and HP and LinkedIn, Lenovo. They gave us a long list of potential targets. They would like to Land in the south and that's where they're currently located. They also shared some demographic information. This is a 26 year old female candidate, Asian American. And also as part of the LGBT community, they went to undergrad at a top five public undergrad program and they majored in information systems and stats. And they've been doing this, as I said, data and analytics, consulting, they've had a promotion, they've had a whole different number of engagements that they've been involved in. And you know, they've even had leadership experience where they've been leading different work streams, overseeing offshore resources on a long term engagement. So they've, they've had a, you know, what I would argue is very good work experience. They also have interesting extracurriculars. They've worked as a photojournalist, as an undergrad, as one of their outside activities. They've done a lot of work in kind of digital transformation consulting. And even kind of more recently they do quite a bit of work with a local LGBT non profit. And yeah, so they're looking to pivot into a leadership role. I think that this is their, their view is that the MBA is going to really help them get to the next step in their career which is, you know, very traditional kind of way to use the degree. Alex, what do you make of this candidacy?
• 26:21
  Speaker A: I'm sorry, did they put a long term goal down in that profile? I didn't write it down.
• 26:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, so they, it's basically, they said that they want to, you know, know get into a leadership role where they're owning something and providing strategic direction instead of simply being in an advisory role. Which is what they've been doing is, you know, in this kind of consulting type work. Now they say that, you know, they don't really give us like a very long term plan, but I'm guessing that if they want to work at a big tech company in that type of role, that they'll gradually kind of rise in the ranks there. But maybe they have some other plan. But that, that's all they've said.
• 26:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So product management, owning a product, et cetera, et cetera. I get that. I mean, quite frankly, Grah, I think this is a really strong candidate for lots of different reasons. I mean, obviously, you know, as it contrasts with our first candidate, I mean that 3.8 GPA really sort of resonates. Right. Again, schools, I mean, test scores are important, don't get me wrong, and I certainly don't, I'm not a big fan of these test waiver type situations. But the GPA shows four years of commitment and evidence, etc. Etc. So 3.3.8 GPA, that's very good. She was also quite involved on campus, etc. Etc. 327 GRE is sort of at the median for top programs, maybe slightly below and so forth. So from a number standpoint, very good demographically, very good impact growth at work looks really strong. And you know, she describes her work experience as being quite ordinary, but I think I quite like that humble approach too. Right. But as you say, she's led work streams, managing folks and so forth. And you know, she's done some things in her extracurriculars that resonate really well. So I think this candidate, maybe they need to throw their hat in the ring at Harvard, Stanford or Wharton. You know, if they want product tech, product management or whatever, maybe it's more Stanford, Wharton or whatever it might be, at least identify one of those. The key is with a candidate like this, she could get admitted to all the programs she's targeting. Right. Is that ideal or would she then wonder, should I have aimed a little bit higher? Right. So my point is apply to Wharton 2. If they get denied, at least they know where they get admitted. That was their limit. Right. So my point is more how do you identify the top schools? Make sure you get access to the very best programs you could get access to. And in her case, I would throw have a look at Stanford and Wharton at least, maybe even Harvard or whatever, not, not necessarily all three, and add that to their target list. Graham.
• 29:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I think what you're saying is basically that yeah, there's this strong chance that she may be underestimating her kind of ability to get into some of these very top programs. And I think of the schools on her list, Callaghan and MIT are really great when it comes to these tech PM type jobs. But yeah, it might be interesting to look at a Stanford or a Wharton as well. I love the work experience. The thing that also jumps out at me, and I mentioned this, but like you were saying, 3.8. But it's not just a 3.8. She went to a top five public university in America, she says, and that means UCLA, Berkeley, UVA, Michigan, I mean these are all really good schools. So to have that high of a GPA at a very good school, it just further underlines this candidate's abilities and you know, studying like information systems and statistics. So not exactly basket weaving, right?
• 30:19
  Speaker A: So not exactly.
• 30:20
  Speaker B: Oh, I knew. You always get me on that. Yeah. So but, but yeah, so I think, I think she is really well positioned to.
• 30:27
  Speaker A: But that gets back to you know, in our conversation on Apply wire I said is there any scope for improvement on that GRE score? My query wasn't so much. You need to improve the GRE to get into these top programs you're targeting. It was more or you know, you got a 38 in quite a difficult major at quite a strong university. Is 327 really your best score? If they reckon that they could squeeze three more points with a bit of dedication, come back with a 3:33 8. Everything else looks really strong. That would make Harbour, Stamford, Wharton more accessible. Would also drive up scholarship opportunities at any of the schools they're targeting.
• 31:14
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's exactly where I was going to, to go as a scholarship dollars sometimes go up. I mean not at Stanford and Harvard which are needs based but certainly you know, the other schools that you know you might see full tuition as you start to get up into these big numbers. So in any event I think the short answer here is, you know, I love this candidacy, very well positioned and you know, apply in the first round, you know, which it seems like what she's hoping to do and yeah, just maybe consider some of these very, very top ranked schools to throw into the mix too.
• 31:41
  Speaker A: Yeah but unlike our first candidate, she doesn't have to apply in the first round.
• 31:46
  Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
• 31:47
  Speaker A: She is not overrepresented by any measure. So my point there is all right, I'm going to really go after this GRE so maybe apply to a few of the schools in the first round with the current GRE with a real plan to come back to the Whartons and the Stanfords or whatever in round two with a potentially higher GRE whatever that could be really impactful and then they could report back that that increased GRE to schools that they're interviewing with or whatever to bump up their profiles for schools that target in round one.
• 32:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So in any event I think no matter where the chips fall, this person will, she's gonna show up with, with something. So appreciate her sharing her profile and, and, and engaging with you on the site and stuff. So best of luck. Let's move on though and talk about wiretaps. Candidates number three. So our final candidate this week comes from a decision wire entry. So this is someone who's already applied and is kind of waiting there where to go. They applied to Wharton, Chicago and Darden in this instance and they're starting school this fall. They did get into both Booth And Darden did not get into Wharton. They are undecided, though, between Booth and Darden. They want to work in consulting. They have a GRE of 3031, and they have a $50,000 scholarship at Darden. No money at Booth. And they note in their post, they said, I'm currently trying to decide between Darden with 25k per year versus full price at Booth. My goal is to recruit for consulting, hopefully getting into one of McKinsey, Bain or BCG. And then they're looking for advice. So, Alex, how do you. Yeah, what do you think. Think of this. This is an interesting dilemma.
• 33:35
  Speaker A: It is. There's no easy answer, right? You know, you, you, you've got Booth, which is in a tier above Darden. You've got the, the scholarship differential sort of mitigates that sort of difference in tier. Darden is renowned for being a great place to, to become a consultant with its case study methodology. So. So, yeah, if you had, you know, 10 people in the same situation, you probably get five choose Booth and five choose D. Incredibly difficult to, to come up with the right choice. And a lot of it would boil down to exactly where do they want to be post NBA. If it's in Chicago, then it's Booth. If it's in D.C. then that definitely tilts more towards Darden. That would be, you know, Darden would be very strong in, in that area. But Denver seems top of their list. Graham. So I would scrutinize the alumni networks in Denver to see if, you know, how much of an advantage Booth has there. I assume Booth has the advantage in Denver, but I don't know.
• 34:39
  Speaker B: Yeah, so I saw on the site you asked them, like, well, where do you want to be? And they said, yeah, Denver, Chicago, D.C. they claim, in no particular order, but yeah, I agree with you. Like, they need to figure ideally, like, they would have an order because that would help things, right? If we knew that they wanted to be in D.C. or that they want to be in Chicago, that sort of helps things a little bit. I also just, you know, some of this comes down to what's their risk appetite in terms of debt. Some people would say, no, I'm just going to go to Booth. And, you know, as you said, it's the school in the higher tier. And at the end of the day, in 20 years, what will that 25,000 a year scholarship be to me? You know, but, but other people might say, oh, no, I actually want to work at mbb, but I'm planning on starting my own business at some point. And so the least debt that I can have on my balance sheet, the better off I am. So, yeah, there are a lot of different ways to approach it. But I will say that, you know, the case method and Darden's reputation in consulting certainly doesn't hurt alongside the $50,000 they're going to get. So, yeah, yeah, it just, it would be helpful if where they want it to be geographically.
• 35:36
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 35:36
  Speaker B: So in any event, I want to thank them for sharing their dilemma. We love these, these posts on decision, where I think they're really instructive to others too, because you get a sense for what's being offered in terms of scholarships and how people make these decisions. So, yeah, really appreciate them sharing that. Alex, we've done it again. We're through our candidates and all the news and notes for the week. It sounds like we're going to connect next week. Yeah. So are you willing to do this again? I know you're, you're going to be traveling a little bit next week, but we're going to figure out a way to record.
• 36:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, I've got the Falmouth Sea Shanty, which means I've got to travel 10 miles and then I've got the A trip to London. So, yeah, I've got loads of stuff going. But yeah, absolutely. Next week. Can't wait. So stay safe, everyone. Take care. Sam.