Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 450: From the Railroads to CPG, Chemical Engineering to Finance. Top candidate, fuzzy goals.

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MBA Wire Taps 450: From the Railroads to CPG, Chemical Engineering to Finance. Top candidate, fuzzy goals. · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:17
  Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, October 6, 2025. Emory University's full time MBA powers growth in your career, your leadership and your future. Built on a foundation of cross functional problem solving, leadership development and career readiness, this top 20 MBA program delivers a high return on investment with top five career outcomes. Step into a global network that's connected by design and supportive by nature. Explore the Emory MBA at Emory Biz ClearAdmit. That's Emory Biz ClearAdmit. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are you doing?
• 0:59
  Speaker A: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 1:00
  Speaker B: So it's October. What's Give us the lowdown. I know last week was a big week because Harvard issued round one interview invitations. So what did you see on LiveWire? Give us the lowdown.
• 1:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, the activity on Livewire last week was actually really strong and it's a huge litmus test, I think, for, for Clear Admit, quite honestly, like when you see the first big school that rolls out interview invites on one day, we have our fingers crossed because if they're not posting on livewire in any volume, then something's amiss with our role in this space, quite frankly. Right. So the point is, each year as we wait for those Harvard interview invites, I think there's a little bit of nervous energy in the ClearAdmit team. But the volume came in and yeah, we saw plenty of folks getting interview invites and sadly for those folks that were denied at that time. But again, I'm a big fan of Harvard's process because at least they let folks know early and they also tell folks when they're going to let them know, et cetera, et cetera. So those folks can move on and sort of start developing maybe a round two strategy or obviously realign sort of what they're doing in round one and so on and so forth. So Harvard came out last week, this upcoming week actually, London Business School and ISA are rolling out their interview invites and we've got round one deadlines for Keenan Flagler, Georgia Terry, Round two deadlines for Judge and SMU Cox. And yeah, we're really in the thick of round one activity.
• 2:48
  Speaker B: Yeah, I love this time of year.
• 2:50
  Speaker A: And obviously a little bit of round two activity. But also some of these round ones are from schools that had early action. So yeah, there's a lot going on, I guess.
• 3:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, I will say you're making a really good point, which is that as hard as it is to be rejected from, from Harvard Business school and how that's obviously not a great moment for anybody. They're telling you, let's see, they released those invites, it was before the end of September. So last week they did it on the 29th of September or something. So you've got a lot of time still to reconfigure, as you say, target applications for round two, et cetera. And I did record a little video that's out there on the Internet somewhere which talks about the fact that you shouldn't despair in if you're rejected from Harvard in the first round because A, it's a really hard school to get into, but B, they tend to reject a lot more people in that early kind of interview invite phase than most schools do. So it's a very kind of high bar. They're not interviewing nearly as many people, whereas a lot of schools have more of a let's interview about half of people who apply and then we'll make a sort of steeper cut afterwards.
• 3:54
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 3:55
  Speaker B: So it's just a different thing. So you can't let that one result dictate how everything else is going to go.
• 4:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. And there will be folks that didn't get an interview invite at Harvard that end up getting an admissions at Stanford or certainly other M7s and so on and so forth. And there are a variety of reasons for that. It's not because it's a random process by any means. But yeah, no, best of luck to everyone that heard news from Harvard last week. For sure.
• 4:26
  Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Another thing I wanted to mention is that we now have a new. We're just going to sort of simplify how we do our events going forward forward in terms of giving our listeners a URL. We used to do like a custom, you know, link for every event we would do. Now you just go to clearadmit.com events and you can find lists of all the events that we have. We have so many coming up that I think it's just going to be easier this way. I'm really looking forward to this, Alex. In later this month we're going to do this Real Human series where we gather together current students and recent grads from top schools and we do those at night on Eastern Time. So October 21st and 22nd, 8pm Eastern, we're going to connect with students and alums from Stanford, Duke, Insy at Vanderbilt, Utah, Austin, Foster, Georgia Tech, Wharton, Berkeley, unc. So a whole bunch of schools taking part in this or, you know, getting us in touch with their grads and current students to do this. And it's. They're really fun. Mike on our team moderates those. And they're really kind of just a chance for candidates to, you know, get to know students. You know, we do so many events with admissions officers that it's fun to put our audience in touch directly with, you know, current students and recent grads. I mean, they can just ask questions, and it's a pretty casual kind of setup and. Yeah, it should be fun.
• 5:43
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, Very, very good. Yeah.
• 5:45
  Speaker B: And then we're also going to do these regional webinars, which I mentioned last week. Those are three days in a row. October 21, 22, 23. And then the following week, again, three days in a row, 28, 29, 30. And the way we've organized is we have like a West coast webinar, a Great Lakes one, the Southeast, Mid Atlantic, New England and Texas, they get their own. And we've got amazing schools taking part in that, from Stanford to Harvard to Wharton. I mean, all. All the top schools are taking part in those events, and they're regional. So you're going to, you know, the west coast one has like, you know, Berkeley and Stanford, but UC Irvine, ucla, Arizona State. So we're trying to really hone in on, like, what do these regions have to offer in terms of employment and, you know, what are the advantages of studying in a given area? So these were. We did one of them last year. It was such a success that we've kind of gone big this year.
• 6:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. And it makes a lot of sense for having this model for events because we know that schools, alums and, you know, career opportunities are absolutely biased to their region.
• 6:54
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So that'll be fun. I don't get to do any of those. Those are. I think Mike is going to do all of them. I may do one, but I'm sure yet. But I think there's mostly Mike on our team. But in case you miss, Alex and I, we are going to get together on the 28th of October, it's a Tuesday, and we'll do another YouTube live stream. Come and hang out, ask your questions, noon Eastern. For that, there is a separate link. You got to go to Bit Ly Ca YouTube Live in order to follow our YouTube channel and be alerted when we come online. That should be fun. Alex.
• 7:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I always. Well, I shouldn't say I always because we've only done two of them, but I do have enjoyed both of those events thus far.
• 7:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, totally. In other news, we ran a big article on the site after, you know, we posted some, some stuff on LinkedIn. I'd made a video, but we ran a big article on the site called Unpacking the hundred thousand dollar H1B visa fee, which just kind of gives you the lay of the land and exactly what it means. And we also ran a big piece about all the in person events taking place on offer from top schools around the globe, either on their campus or in cities they're visiting for the month of October. So that's up on the site.
• 8:05
  Speaker A: Did you see China's response to that, Graham, this morning in the news? No, this morning I say, obviously we recorded this a few days ahead.
• 8:12
  Speaker B: But wait, so a response to the H1B?
• 8:15
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:16
  Speaker B: What's their response been? Let me guess, they'll take anybody that, that we reject something in America?
• 8:21
  Speaker A: Well, I'm not saying effectively that, but yeah, they basically rolling out a similar type of visa program. Hmm.
• 8:28
  Speaker B: Yeah. The world is a competitive place. You know, this is what happens. You put, I mean, you know, I was listening to a podcast with a professor from nyu, Stern, Scott Galloway, and he was talking about soybeans and the tariffs in the US and how China, who used to buy tons of soybeans from the US is just, they're getting them all from Argentina and Brazil now. And you know, this idea that, you know, you can just put these taxes and tariffs in place and that they will work wonders is not always how the markets play out. So. But we digress. That's politics and policy. We did, I did want to share that. We did some admissions tips and they're around interviewing because so many people who apply in round one are now gearing up for that phase. So we did an interview on, sorry, an admissions tip on five interview questions that you need to ace and how to do. So that's one been, I think over the years one of our most popular pieces of content on the website and there's a video that goes with it. I think it's you and I talking about it, Alex.
• 9:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. And it's really important. But what I would say is this is a really good use case for just using our AI bot.
• 9:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. You can give it your resume, just.
• 9:37
  Speaker A: Go to the AI bot, upload your resume, tell it what school you're interviewing at, and ask that absolute question, what five questions do I need to ace?
• 9:48
  Speaker B: Yeah, and it'll tell you. It's pretty crazy.
• 9:50
  Speaker A: It'll tell you and it'll give you some frameworks on how to approach those questions and so on. And so forth. So. So, yeah, no, these admissions tips are absolutely fantastic, but also, our body's trained on these admissions tips, so it's a really good way to sort of personalize the responses, I should say.
• 10:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Alex, question for you, because we did a little piece in our mythbusters series. Question for you. Should I memorize my answers to ace the interview?
• 10:18
  Speaker A: Well, I know we do differ a little bit in our response to this, because I'm a big believer. You need to prepare, and then prepare more, and then when you're done with that, really prepare hard.
• 10:31
  Speaker B: Agreed.
• 10:32
  Speaker A: But absolutely. Memorization doesn't work.
• 10:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, no scripts. Bad idea. So we have a piece that talks about why that's the case.
• 10:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But preparation will allow you to really enjoy the interview experience.
• 10:47
  Speaker B: I agree.
• 10:47
  Speaker A: That's my biggest sort of push on that.
• 10:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, agreed. One other thing that I wanted to mention, and then we can talk about the candidates that you picked out this week, and that is that we continue to connect with current students who are first years at all these top MBA programs. And this past week, we ran a post about Wharton. So we connected with, I think, six current first years there. And I wanted to read a couple of quotes from a woman named Lucia. She's actually studying for her MBA at Wharton, but also a dual degree with a master's in education. She's class of 27. She's 26, originally from Mexico City, where she studied finance as an undergrad, and she had a number of different jobs. But her most recent role was with Bain & Co. In Mexico City, which she did, I guess, a little over three years there. But she also did some work in fundraising and the nonprofit domain before that. And I'm mentioning that because we asked her, why did you make the decision to attend business school and why now? And she said, I'm pursuing an MBA to gain the skills and preparation I need to move from passion to execution in building a sustainable nonprofit for disability inclusion. Working at a nonprofit in Mexico with people with disabilities confirmed this is my true passion. But it also showed me that scaling an organization requires more than heart. It takes leadership, financial expertise, and entrepreneurial skills. So I thought that was interesting because she, you know, had some of that work exposure before Bain, and now she's putting it all together and wants to go to Wharton to sort of, you know, realize her goal, which is really impressive.
• 12:25
  Speaker A: I just think that's absolutely wonderful. Great quotes and just a really powerful reason to go to a top MBA program.
• 12:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, totally. And here's something. I had to include this as well, because I know you're, you know. Well, you and I are both big fans of Wharton because I went there, you worked there. I mean, we have this connection to the school, and I'm sure people get annoyed with us praising it so much, but we asked her, why did you choose Wharton? And she said Wharton stood out for its unique combination of entrepreneurship, education, and inclusion resources. The MBA Master's in ed in education entrepreneurship integrates Wharton, integrates business management with educational theory, giving me both the strategic and pedagogical tools to design impactful programs for people with disabilities. This interdisciplinary approach will allow me to ground my nonprofit in sound pedagogy while ensuring it operates with the efficiency and scalability of a startup. So interesting. I mean, I did not know much about the sort of joint degree in ed at Wharton, so I just kind of thought it'd be nice to talk about her. And she had some good quotes there.
• 13:29
  Speaker A: No, I think it's absolutely brilliant. And like you, I'm not as familiar with that joint degree, but it doesn't surprise me. Penn, Wharton, etc. It's such a. You know, I'm not saying just vast, but the pedagogy there. I'm sure I mispronounced that word.
• 13:48
  Speaker B: No, that was right.
• 13:49
  Speaker A: But I mean, it's absolutely deep and broad.
• 13:52
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:52
  Speaker A: Like there's a school with depth and breadth.
• 13:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, totally. So, yeah. So anyway, so we. If you're interested in Wharton, there are five other students that we connected with, all of them on the website with lots of quotes. And. And there's. I didn't even read any of it, but there's a. On the show here today. But there are a lot of good sort of admissions insights that people shared about how they went through the process. So check that out. More of those to come with all the other top schools. If you want to, Alex and I, you can always write to info Clear admit.com use the subject line Wiretaps. If you've been listening on Apple, please leave us a review. It's been months, I think, since we had a review. We get lots of ratings on. On Spotify and elsewhere, but those reviews really help. So if you could leave a review, we'd appreciate it, Alex. Anything else before we talk about this week's candidates?
• 14:37
  Speaker A: Let's kick on.
• 14:38
  Speaker B: All right, so this is WireTaps candidate number one. Our first candidate this week has nine schools on the target list. And those schools are Columbia, Duke, Emory, Indiana, Michigan, Kellogg, nyu, Stern, Chicago, Booth, and UCLA Anderson. This person's applying now. They Want to start in the fall of 26. Their pre MBA career has been in transportation, sales and logistics. And they're thinking after business school that they want to get into consumer goods. And they mentioned specifically companies like General Mills, Nestle, Nike, Procter and Gamble as well as LVMH. This person has a 665 on the GMAT. And if memory serves, on the old scale that would be like a 710, 720. Just to give you a sense in case you're not familiar with the newer scale. 3.77 GPA, 5 years of work experience. They're located in Atlanta and wanna land in Chicago. And in the notes this candidate mentions that she's female. She went to a large state university. That's not top 100, but she was part of a selective 40 person honors cohort in the business school. At the university she had leadership roles in her sorority, student government and with a campus organization that mentioned toward local school age youth. She majored in finance, which I may have mentioned before. And interestingly enough, I mean her work experience is, you know, she mentioned the kind of transportation industry. And so she's, she's actually been working, she's been working on the railroad as they say. So she works. Yeah, so she's. It's a Class 1 railroad that she works for. And I think she's respected, responsible for, I think she said a billion in annual revenue for steel, raw materials, transport. She oversees sales and negotiations for large accounts. She also is an avid sand volleyball player, serves on the board of a woman focused volunteer organization. And I can't. Oh, and she's still involved with the sorority that she was a part of as an undergrad. She's using the MBA as we mentioned earlier, to switch into the CPU CPG space. And she really wants to move back home to Chicago where she's originally from. And she wondered if the admissions team will find this switch of both industry and location hard to digest. She also asked about her school selection. She wondered like, does she have the right mix? She mentions Emry's on the list because she's local to Atlanta at the moment, but she really wants to end up back in the Midwest. And then she also had one, one other question for you, Alex, which is she's had a B minus in calc 3 on her undergraduate transcript, which I'll remind you, she had a 3.7 overall. And she's wondering if she needs to kind of explain why that was. It was due to family, a death in the family actually. She says she had A tough time that semester. So, Alex, I'll let you. What do you make of this? This. Really. There's a lot to unpack here.
• 17:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. One of the favorite songs that we sing with Odds and Sods is Working on the Railroad. I. I've not been made that connection until you. You brought it up, but I won't go into that. That's clearly not not not.
• 17:52
  Speaker B: But Alex, you have to. You have to now explain what is Odds and Sods. That's the. You sing in a group, right, that goes around to pubs?
• 17:58
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it. Yeah, it's a Cornish folk acapella group. Yeah. Pub. With pub singers, basically, and shanty singers. But yeah. Anyway, the point. The point is, what do you think about this B minus in calc? 3 grand? Because I'm only asking. I mean, the overall GPA is super strong. 377. The GMAT is going to be 10 points below 10 or 20 points below the median at the very top schools on her list. Is this something she needs to address or not?
• 18:31
  Speaker B: You know, I'm. I'm kind of. Of a mind to not worry about it because while her GMAT, I mean, her GMAT is, you know, 71072 0, so it's a little light. But her 3.77 in an honors program majoring in finance. I mean, I guess my big question would be, what's the quantitative percentile on her gmat? If it's really bad or something, then maybe we'd start to see a pattern of like, oh, struggles with the really tough math stuff. But if the quant score is like, in the ballpark, I'm not. I don't know that I would bother because a 377 is, I mean, almost a perfect GPA. Right. So. Yeah. So I'm kind of inclined to not worry about it unless there's a red flag on the quant percentile.
• 19:10
  Speaker A: What about this double switch? Geography and industry?
• 19:14
  Speaker B: I'm not worried about that either. I think, you know, I actually think she might want to rethink her school target list. And now, I mean, she has nine schools. You know, I would narrow it down. I would really focus on Midwest schools.
• 19:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:25
  Speaker B: Because that's, you know, as we talked about earlier, the region matters where you go to school. So. But no, I'm not worried about. I mean, it's not like if. If her. If her location switch was like, I want to land in Bangkok or something, that's one thing. Right. But she's just moving elsewhere in the US And I'm Not. I'm not worried about that.
• 19:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, completely agree. And as we talked about before, when, when before we came on air, the Target schools, really, they should be Booth and Kellogg, obviously, Ross, and also Kelly in terms of a nice spread and maybe even Wharton or one or two of the top M7 to sort of add to the mix. But there's a lot to like here. I think overall, the 665 GMAT is, in my mind the weakest element of the overall profile. And I say that given that it's only slightly below the median for the very top schools and it'll be at the median. Maybe Ross, and certainly for Kelly or whatever it might be. But there's lots of other stuff here I think to really like. It looks like she's done some really interesting work experience. She's a key account manager for over a billion plus dollars in annual revenue, etc. Etc. I mean, she'll have developed a load of transferable skills to move into consumer packaged goods. No doubt in my mind. Again, strong GPA overall and so forth. Looks like she's active outside of work with some volleyball stuff as well as some, you know, some impact in, you know, advisory committees and so on and so forth. So overall, Graham, I think this is a strong candidate. Yeah, if she thought. If she thought. Sorry, just I finished this thread. If she thought. If she's applying in round two and she thought, you know what, I can boost that 665 by 20 points. The value of doing that might be to gain more scholarship dollars or a little bit more access at the very, very top of the spectrum of schools she's targeting. But other than that, I think this is a really strong candidate.
• 21:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, I could not agree more. I think she should narrow the list from nine schools down to like, you know, five or six and focus on those Midwest programs. Throw in a Wharton or a Harvard as a flyer and go for it. I mean, when I read about her background and the outside activities she's pursuing, you know, she just seems like the full package. I mean, she's really involved outside of work. Like her work experience. I mean, it sounds, you know, it's, you know, operations, logistics, sales. It's interesting stuff and as you say, a lot of transferable skills into cpg. So I think she's, yeah, maybe underestimating how strong of a candidate she might be. And so. Yeah, and I agree with you. I mean, obviously it'd be great to have a slightly higher test score. It might impact scholarship dollars. But even without it, I feel like she can aim high. She's going to do well. The top schools are they love, you know, candidates like this. I think she's yeah, in very good shape overall.
• 22:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, completely agree.
• 22:38
  Speaker B: All right, so let's move on. I want to thank her for sharing her profile but let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week is applying to seven schools and those schools are a mix of European and American schools. So they have Cambridge, Columbia, INSEAD, LBs, MIT, Oxford and Yale. And this person, they say the intake year will be 27. So I'm guessing that means that they may not be applying right away. They may, you know, wait a year to apply. They're currently an investment advisor located in Thailand and they would like to stay in kind of asset management after business school and I think eventually become like a chief innovation and investment officer at a wealth management company. That's their big, big goal. They have a gmat score of 655 which you know, that's about 10 points lower than our first candidate. That equates to a 700 or maybe a 710. Their GPA 3.71. They have seven years of work experience. And you know, they mentioned that they're currently an investment advisor at a Le Leading Thai brokerage where they're covering 20 billion in assets under management. But that's the Thai currency. So I did a little math actually I'm just lying. I, I, I googled it and that's about US$700 million that they oversee. And they've had a lot of kind of different qualifications and accolades with work. So they're a CFA chart holder. They have a bunch of different sort of finance certifications. They also did graduate with the first class honors in chemical engineering from a top tier Thai university. In terms of outside of work, they're an active volunteer with the CFA Institute and the CFA Society in Thailand. They're also very passionate about finance and technology and you know, kind of tracking the sort of wealth management industry in Thailand. So that's kind of the background. What do you make here, Alex?
• 24:42
  Speaker A: Again I think this is a really strong candidate overall. The weakest point being there GMAT. So 655 is, you know, obviously 10 points lower than our first candidate. So slightly lower than the, you know, the median of the very top programs and everything else on this candidate smacks as being super smart. So why is the GMAT not as reflective of that is kind of my point. And if they have some more time before they apply, I think they need to retake the GMAT, get the sort of close to the 700s or whatever it might be, but just get a score that really, truly reflects their intellect and their preparedness and so on and so forth because it looks like they're really passionate about what they do. Looks like they do it very well. And crikey, they're a chemical engineer by training.
• 25:40
  Speaker B: Your favorite.
• 25:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's like I'm just amazed at what this is. This person is sort of how they've sort of pivoted from chemical and engineering to tech to now sort of wealth management or whatever it is. And they seem to be doing really well each time they pivot and so forth. And you know, they're doing some interesting stuff. You could argue that maybe it'd be great if there was something outside of work they were doing that wasn't aligned with their sort of work passions and stuff. But that aside, if they boost that GMAT a little bit, this is a really strong candidate.
• 26:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I mean, I guess my, my main thing was, yeah, I noted the extracurricular activities are lacking in the sense that they're all related it seems to investments and finance and, and so they seem like a bit of a one trick pony as we say. But I so may. But maybe they do other things they just didn't mention. You know, maybe they're an amazing cook or there are things that they really like to do outside of work. They do have time as you point out. I mean even if they mistyped here and they're just applying in round two, there's still time to retake that GMAT exam. And I could not agree more. It's an outlier, you know, here they are, first class honors chemical engineering at a top Thai university. But then they, they don't get a kind of GMAT score that's commensurate with the schools they're applying to in terms of the average. And the last thing I will add to this is their school selection. Just for me, it smacks a little bit of someone who is looking for the biggest brand names on a global SC because you got Cambridge, you know, MIT, Oxford, Yale, LBs INSEAD. So I kind of wonder how much thought they've put into like where's the right fit for them given that they want to work in this domain of finance. And you know, so it's because it sort of begs the question as to like, I mean they do have Columbia on here but you know, where's Wharton? Where's, I mean there are other schools out There that could potentially, you know, Chicago, Booth or even Stern. So I'm not really sure what's driving the list. And I also think their life would be a lot easier if they knew, oh, I want to be in Europe or I want to be in the US because those are, you know, just different sets of schools and different sort of admissions, to an extent. And in terms of competitiveness, I mean, I would argue that it could be that their current profile is enough to make the cut at Oxford or Cambridge for the mba. Whereas, you know, we know, it might be a little light for, say, Wharton or, you know, or Harvard or somewhere like that. So that's the only thing I'm kind of wondering about is how did they come up with this list and what is the best place to go for investment management, asset management, private wealth, all that stuff.
• 28:20
  Speaker A: I'm wondering, though, that we're going to see more of a pattern like this, that is International students hedging on their school selection.
• 28:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, you're probably right.
• 28:30
  Speaker A: So they'll include some US schools, but they will include some non US schools as the, you know, as all this H1B stuff and various other issues start to sort of play out through this season. So I can understand. My point is they've got seven schools on their target list. They've got to split it between non us and US because they're hedging. So it makes it a little bit more difficult to really go deep on the US side for programs that really could be a great fit, like Wharton, like Stern and so on and so forth.
• 29:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. And the only other thing I would say is they have seven years of work experience. And so I was a little worried about, like, why are they waiting? You know, they probably need to get on with this process. But I would say, just to summarize, get that test score up if they can flesh out the extracurricular activities, ideally focusing on some things that aren't oriented towards work, and then, yeah, just apply, get on with the process. And I do agree you're making a really good point. People may be hedging, especially international students, where they're thinking, you know what, you never know what's going to happen with the US Right now. So I'll add some non US Schools, too.
• 29:39
  Speaker A: If I was an international student, that's exactly what I'd be doing.
• 29:42
  Speaker B: Yeah, totally. So I want to thank that person for their post. Let's move on, though, and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number three. So our final candidate this week has just five Schools on the target list. This candidate is looking at Berkeley, Harvard, mit, Wharton and Stanford. They want to start school next fall. Their pre MBA career has been as an engineer. They actually studied engineering as an undergrad. This is a female candidate. They want to get into consulting or technology or investment banking or entrepreneurship. That's what they list here. And they listed some companies. So they have Bain and bcg, they have Goldman, they have Google. So there are a lot of possibilities there for them. Their GMAT score is a 725 on the focus Edition, which is, if I remember correctly, I want to say isn't that like 760 plus. So very, very strong GMAT score. And let's see what else they gave us. They're in San Fran, they want to stay in the Bay Area. And again they say female, traditional engineering undergrad with experience in med tech.
• 30:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:56
  Speaker B: So Alex, what do you make of this candidate? Because the numbers are 367 GPA, 5 years of work experience, 725, like they jump off the page. But what do you make of this candidate?
• 31:06
  Speaker A: Yeah, we don't know what this candidate does outside of work and maybe there's some interesting stuff that can add an extra layer. But everything we know about this candidate really frames them as being again a super strong candidate in terms of their numbers. They obviously hit the mark with years of work experience and so forth. As an female engineer, etc. I think there's probably, I mean I think that sets her up really super well. The one aspect that she needs to work on, I think to really fine tune her applications is get the goals sorted out a little bit more. I mean you, you can't be recruiting for consulting and investment banking and having a life and doing your MBA classes, etc. Etc. Etc. So she really wants to focus on the goals, get that developed and if there is some outside work activity to dip into, that would be great. But yeah, a really strong profile overall. Graham.
• 32:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, so when you look at that school selection, you got Berkeley, Harvard, mit, Wharton and Stanford. So none of these schools are easy to get into. So certainly an aggressive list of target schools. But I could not agree more. I mean you said you can't get, so you can't recruit for consulting and banking at the same time. Remember she said consulting, technology, banking and entrepreneurship. So imagine you're also trying to write your startup plan and looking at tech companies like it's just not possible. And the danger is that the admissions reader says oh, you don't know what you want. And so I Think, you know, she needs to come up with a plan. And that plan could be something very simple. Like in the short term, I want to take my, you know, engineering and kind of med tech experience and go work on the consulting side. Maybe there's a focus on health care there that she wants to pursue or something, because she has that experience in med tech so far with her engineering background. So, you know, it's just a question of weaving something together. And then in the long term, maybe she wants to do, you know, work at a, at a med tech company or who knows? Right. But I think I will say from the little that we know about her, you know, kind of engineering background working in medtech, I'm more inclined to suggest that she focus on consulting or tech than, say, investment banking, because I don't see where that's coming from. So that's. That's the only thing I would say. But I feel like you're right. I mean, if she has some outside activities that she can highlight and if she can get her goals sorted, she'll be a very competitive candidate. I mean, she has great numbers and, you know, it all makes sense. Everything else.
• 33:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, couldn't agree more.
• 33:51
  Speaker B: Yeah. So I do want to thank her as well for sharing her profile this week. Hopefully these tips help her as she shapes her essays and those round two application materials. But, Alex, thanks for picking these out. Always good conversations and never a dull moment around here at this time of year, that's for sure. So I'll connect with you next week and we'll do it again.
• 34:09
  Speaker A: Very good. Stay safe, everyone. Take care.
• 34:30
  Speaker B: Of.