Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 453: PM, 327 GRE, 320 GRE, retake? 685 GMAT, from Mexico

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MBA Wire Taps 453: PM, 327 GRE, 320 GRE, retake? 685 GMAT, from Mexico · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:16
  Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, October 27, 2025. Emory University's full time MBA powers growth in your career, your leadership and your future. Your 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 things going on?
• 0:58
  Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 0:59
  Speaker A: So I want you to give me two updates as we start the show here. The first is like what's going on? You know, in terms of, you know, the wires and are people getting interview invitations? But also I know you wanted to talk about and I think we need to Talk about the H1B kind of update with visas for international folks and working in the United States. So let's, let's get updates on those two fronts as we kick off here.
• 1:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean obviously last week Wharton released its team based interview invites, or at least I assume they did. They were supposed to do it exactly today as we're recording this. Let's just assume that happened. And the only other big school that we're waiting for that releases them generally at one big go would be Sloan. So I'm assuming unless that happened at the back end of last week, it'll be this upcoming week. And then on top of Sloan, we have McDonough's releasing its early action decisions and Johnson has its round one interview invites actually. So, yeah, they're still pending to come out sometime next week. So still plenty of interview activity on the wires. So hopefully folks are doing lots of good interview prep.
• 2:21
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:21
  Speaker B: And so forth. And using, you know, go use our chatbot, I think it's a massively good tool for interview prep. But you bring up this H1B visa issue, you know, our understanding to date. So I wanted to sort of clarify.
• 2:38
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker B: What our understanding was to date. And then the big point that we learned over the last several days and Wall Street Journal article on Monday actually sort of confirming this. So the Trump administration has put a price tag on the H1B visa, 100,000. That sort of sent shock waves through the industry that this would be very cost prohibitive and therefore less companies would be looking for students or when they're in optional practical training, transitioning onto the H1B because of this additional financial burden. Obviously there's a lot of nuance to this, but I'm sort of trying to deal with it in a very sort of broad way. But it turns out from various sources, as confirmed by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, and I think actually the Trump administration on Monday provided this level of clarity, the 100,000 is applied to visa applicants from outside the country.
• 3:47
  Speaker A: Right.
• 3:48
  Speaker B: And what this essentially means is if you are a potential student, you're applying to MBA programs and you gain admissions, you're international student, gain admissions, and so forth, you would not be liable for this 100,000 price tag as you go through the process of being the student, then optional practical training and then applying for the H1B because you'd be applying in the US right. Coming from a visa already provided in the US that's a massive difference. So it's good to get clarity there. Let's see how this plays out. But effectively what it means is that you would actually be at an advantage over, over your peers that are applying directly from your home country. Now, I did a little bit of further digging, and it looks like the majority of folks that ultimately gain these H1B visas are folks that are already in the United States. Maybe it's about 60, 40 or 70, 30%. But nevertheless, it is effectively giving students an advantage.
• 5:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. And I know this is a big game changer because we had thought, even though we were saying, look, this is years off, you come to the U.S. get your MBA, work for three years on OPT, and then you'd have to get an H1B. And that's so many years in the future and Trump won't be president by then, et cetera. But it was still concerning this idea that suddenly this visa that typically was a clear transition path for folks after opt was $100,000. And so I think, yeah, this is really good news for MBA applicants. And, and almost, it almost makes it more important to come to the States and get an MBA first because then you're in the US as you say, and you're not having to compete.
• 5:45
  Speaker B: You have that advantage.
• 5:46
  Speaker A: Yeah, you've got that huge advantage. So that's really good news.
• 5:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, and it's good news for international candidates, but it's good news for any candidate applying to top tier business schools because it, it sort of potentially sustains the integrity of the global mix of the class. And that's such an important aspect of a top MBA experience.
• 6:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, I could not agree more. So that's great news. You know, I think we'll continue to monitor this and I'll make a little video actually to put up on LinkedIn because I'd done one before when we first got the news that was, you know, I was trying to be optimistic and giving the kind of, as I just described this idea that this is a ways off. But now I can be even more optimistic. So I'll make an updated video, we'll get that up on LinkedIn. Otherwise we've got another busy week, Alex. I mean, you and I are getting together today on Monday the 27th to do a live stream. And so you just go to our YouTube channel and you can watch the two of us. We're going to do it sort of office hours, just come and hang out, we'll answer your questions, whether it's questions about all those Wharton interview invitations or round two applications, whatever it might be. Come and hang out with us and you can actually, you know, just subscribe to our LinkedIn, sorry, to our YouTube channel to follow us and then you'll get notified when we go live. So that's at bit ly cautubelive. And if that were not enough, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week we have more of our regional webinars. And you know, we've got a Texas one on Tuesday with Rice Jones, SMU Cox, UT Austin. I think on Wednesday we go to the west coast and we'll have Arizona State, Berkeley, Stanford, UC Irvine and UCLA Anderson. And then on Thursday we have a massive one. I don't know how Mike's going to emcee this one. We have way too many schools, I feel like, but we have the Great Lakes region. So we have Chicago Booth, Indiana Kelly, Michigan Kellogg, Toronto Rotman, and Carnegie Mellon Tepper. So that'll be a lot of fun. Those are all at noon Eastern and you can just sign up by going to clearadmit.com events and all of our events are listed there. So yeah, busy, busy week, Alex.
• 7:48
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, very good. It's a great time of year to be in our industry.
• 7:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's for sure. Over on the website we did some more admissions tips, one of which, very perfectly timed, is an interview primer for the Wharton team based discussion. There's a lot of stuff on our website about this, starting with this tip. But even, you know, every year you and I typically, Alex, record like a podcast where we talk about the tbd. And I would argue, even though the prompt hasn't yet been made public yet, you know, listening to those older podcasts that you and I have done where we talk about the team based discussion is super useful because we talk a lot about just how you approach it, not necessarily even the given sort of prompt for the interview. So that's all up on the website. And we also did another admissions tip that's sort of more angling towards people applying in round two. And that's just about how you make your list of business schools. Like, how do you narrow that list down? So lots of good stuff on the site. We also, Alex, continue to do the Real Human series. So we caught up with Duke students from the class of 27. I think we talked to six of them and you know, all from different parts of the world with different, you know, kind of goals and just so fascinating. I love reading these interviews that we do. And I pulled a couple of interesting comments from Natalie, who's a first year student. She's 27 and hails from Sherborne, Massachusetts. She did her undergrad at Brown where she majored in history. And before business school she actually worked in nonprofit at the Leona and Harry Helmsley Charitable Trust. But then she also was a history teacher at a middle school. And so she's got a kind of teaching and nonprofit background. And so we asked her, well, why did you make the decision to go to business school? Right. And she said, in education and nonprofit work, business is always a factor. But very few people in those fields have formal business training. With an mba, I'll be able to bring a new perspective into mission driven workspaces. Additionally, I felt very settled in my life and knew that if I didn't go to grad school now, I never would. Business school allows me to be ambitious and to challenge myself in new ways. So I thought that was really interesting. And I do, you know, it's actually, it really spoke to me personally because I had had a background, you know, in software, but also in the arts world and stuff before business school. And I do remember thinking that, wow, all these people like you know, running museums and theaters, etc. Like they're, they're business, you know, they have to have the business skills. Right. But they don't. None of them have training. It's usually like you're, you know, everyone wants to be a curator and somebody ends up kind of running the membership department of a museum instead of hanging the paintings. Right. So it's, you know, you kind of fall into these business roles. So an MBA is such a great tool even in that space.
• 10:30
  Speaker B: Yeah. I wonder what preparation they underwent to get ready for business school because I assume that their Undergraduate work and nonprofit work didn't give them a whole boatload of quant in their background. Yeah.
• 10:45
  Speaker A: So here's something interesting. We did ask her, like, what's something you would have skipped? Or, you know, tell us a little bit about the process. And she says actually that she spent. She says I spent too much time worrying about my lack of a quantitative background and my limited post grad extracurriculars, counting myself out before I even applied. Talking to alumni finally convinced me that I could be a competitive candidate if I could go back. I'd definitely spend less time doubting myself and more time investing in myself. So I believe the interview has more details, but I believe she, you know, she was just worried that she couldn't even compete and that, you know, probably didn't know she could go and do an MBA math or, you know, get a good test score and demonstrate these abilities. So she was sort of counting herself out. But luckily she ran into an alum who was like, no, no, you could a great candidate. So it's really interesting.
• 11:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, very good.
• 11:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. So two other things before we talk candidates. One is Berkeley Haas has released their class of 27 admissions sort of profile. So the, you know what the students look like. And we also did, we also did the same with Stern. So I'll just give you some of the facts and figures and be curious to hear your take. So we'll start by taking a quick look at Berkeley Haas. The new class is a little smaller. They have 273 students this year. That's down from 295 last year. But it is also a bit more Global. They have 42% international students, which is up from 38%. Gender balance continues to move in the right direction. They have 43% women. That's up, I think, a point. Yeah, one point from the previous class. On the testing side, median GMAT is staying around 7:30. GMAT focus, which now they're sharing a GMAT focus. Median is much higher at 675 and I, I guess it was. That's 15 points higher than last year. And I'm guessing that some of these swings, I, I'd be curious to hear your take, but I think some of these swings are due to the fact that they had probably a small number. And so once you start to get more people taking the new test, you might see more. Things will settle in. But we could see these more wild swings in the averages at the outset here. GRE medians are unchanged. They end up at 323 overall. That's the same as last year. The GPA is at 3.67. That's up a tick from 3.65. In terms of diversity, US minority represent nudged up slightly, although. So they have 52% US minority representation, but underrepresented minorities slipped a little bit to 26%. So overall, this is a slightly smaller but more international and academically consistent class at Haas this year. Any thoughts, Alex?
• 13:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I hate to say it, with their domestic pool obviously shrank.
• 13:19
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 13:20
  Speaker B: So, you know, their overall class size shrank and their proportion within that class of domestics shrank. So that might be a trend that we're going to see a little bit more, I don't know, across all the schools. Yeah, but that'll be interesting. And the 323 GRE, I hate to be Debbie Downer on this because obviously their stats are all really super strong, but a 323 GRE does not equate to a 730 GMAT.
• 13:47
  Speaker A: No.
• 13:47
  Speaker B: So we've talked about this on a number of podcasts in the past, and actually we've had some internal conversation about this, looking at our own data dashboard tool on Clear Admit lately. Yes. And likely is we're going to write some articles based off some of this data.
• 14:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. And yeah, yeah, it's really interesting because someone looking at our data on Livewire, you know, people get in, what are their scores, they might wrongfully conclude that, oh, look, people getting into Berkeley, they have a, you know, 323. And people getting in with the GMAT, it's 730. So those are the same score in the eyes of the committee. But that's not actually what's. What's happening. If you ask me, they're not the same score. So. So anyway, that would take a whole podcast to unpack. But let's look at the Stern data, if you're willing. We've got the class of 27. The incoming class is a little smaller this year, just like their peers over at Berkeley. So they have 336 students, which is down from 352 in the class of 26. Although this is fascinating, the program saw more applications. Overall, they had 4,933 apps, which is up from 4,400, 550 last year. The average GMAT score rose to 737, which is a new high for Stern. And it was 733 a year ago. So they added there. GPA was steady. 3.64. Gender balance. Women are 45% of the new class that's actually down. It was 47% last year. International students increased 43%, up from 40 within the US students. Again, minority representation stayed consistent at 45%, though underrepresented minorities dipped a bit to 18%. It was 22 last year. So overall, again, with Stern, slightly smaller, but pretty competitive class, if you look at the number. Test scores are up, and they do have a little bit more of an international representation. Pretty good diversity across the board. But what do you make of this? That seems to fit with what you were saying, Alex.
• 15:48
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's the same with Hass. Right. So slightly lower class size in total and a lower proportion of domestic candidates. So in the class. So it's interesting that you noted that their app pool went up. So what changed? Did their yield go down or was the quality of the app pool not quite as strong? So their admit rate went down. So if something went down. Right. Admit rate or yield rate. Yeah, to get the lower number from a higher number in that case. But again, the overall stats are outstanding. The trend lines are showing that there might be something going on. I seem to think we've done a couple of class profiles before over the last couple of wiretaps episodes. And one of the class profiles had an increase in class size was at Yale.
• 16:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, that was Yale, if memory serves.
• 16:47
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So. So. So we're not seeing these couple of things from all schools, so it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next several weeks when. When we talk about other class profiles.
• 16:58
  Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah, I agree.
• 16:59
  Speaker B: Yale's class size went up. These guys went down. Very interesting. But I don't think anything alarming at this point.
• 17:07
  Speaker A: No, it's all pretty consistent. But it is interesting because I do feel like some of those earlier profiles we talked about on previous episodes, I had thought we were seeing maybe fewer international students. And that fits with the dialogue of, oh, people, you know, visas, people are. You know. But then we see these two schools adding international. So it is, you know, it's. Yeah, we're gonna have to see how this unfolds as more of them come in. But in any event. Yeah, so I appreciate you weighing in on those. Other than that, I think we should talk candidates. Obviously, if you want to write to Alex and I just write to infoearadmit.com use the subject line wiretaps. We will try to have answers to any questions you pose. Or you can just write to us and tell us what you think of the show. Anything else, though, Alex, before we talk candidates this week, let's kick on. All right, so this is WireTaps candidate number one. Our first candidate has a whopping 16 schools on the target list. And it's basically, you know, a smattering of programs across the top 25, I would argue. I mean, you have the likes of Dartmouth and Duke. You also have Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt and Foster and Marshall. So I won't list the full list because it's a very long list. But they even have some M7 schools in Kellogg. So in any event, a lot of schools on the list they want to start in the fall of 26. So they are applying right now. They are working as a product manager in Fintech. They have a GRE score of 327. Undergraduate GPA was 3.2. Four years of work experience to date. And they did tell us in the notes that they already applied to UVA in the early action round. They applied to Ross, Kellogg, Tuck and UNC in round one. And they're kind of waiting, waiting word. They did not tell us so far as I saw any, any kind of details on what's happened so far. They did work the first couple years of their career as a product analyst, but then were promoted into this product management role that they serve in. Now. They did mention that their GRE split was a 170 quant, 157 verbal, and their AWA score was a 4. They kind of mentioned that because they're worried about their verbal. They, you know, that 157 verbal is I think about a 75th percentile. So they're worried about that. They said they took the TOEFL and that they got a 109 on the TOEFL, which is a very strong score. So they're wondering, does that make a difference, etc. But Alex. Yeah. What do you, what do you make of this candidate?
• 19:32
  Speaker B: Well, as the, as the day we're recording this podcast, which is the 22nd, Darden's scheduled to release its early action decision.
• 19:40
  Speaker A: Okay. So they won't know.
• 19:42
  Speaker B: So they should at least have learned their fate at Darden. That's assuming they got an interview invite. And I can't remember the Darden's process whether they allow everyone to invite if they apply early action or not. But anyway, the point is they should have some signals already back from schools, whether it's final decisions or interview invites to really understand where they sit and whether they need to or how to adjust their strategy for round two. Because obviously they've only applied to a few of the schools in the 16 that they list. So maybe they've already got it in their mind that they're going to dip into round two. And if they do well in round one, they can go up target higher profile schools in round two. And if they flounder in round one, they can ratchet it down a little bit for round two. We don't know what country they're from, so that would be important. But it does seem like, I mean, I would just assume that they were promoted into a product management position, that that's a signal that their work experience might actually be quite interesting. Their overall GRE score is decent at 327. And again, we've already talked about GREs relative to GMAPs, but 327 itself I think augurs quite well the 3.2 GPA. Again, if they're an international student, it, you know, if they've got other metrics that sort of show how good that GPA is, whether they got a class rank or something, that can sort of show how well they did it universally. Because obviously a 32 just coming out of the US would be relatively on the lower end of the spectrum. But if they're just translating it from a, let's say an Indian GPA actually would be very strong. Right. So it would be an 8 out of 10 or something like that. So that would be important to understand and sort of, you know, that extracurricular profile on top of. So if we assume that they have strong work experience, what else are they doing outside of work to sort of round out their profile? It would be good to get some insight in that direction. But I guess my overall point is, Graham, they should be getting some signals from schools at this point as to where they stand and can sort of react and act accordingly.
• 22:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. This is, I mean, I, you know, it's funny, I looked at this post on Apply Wire and I made notes. Right. It was, we always do for the show. Right. And I was like, where are you from? What are your goals? Yeah, you know, what are your outside like, I just. A lot of questions. Right. And I agree with you though that, you know, 327 on the GRE is terrific, that there's, there's a really. This needed context though around that three, two Undergrad.
• 22:45
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:45
  Speaker A: Like you're saying, if they're translating that from some international undergrad degree, then maybe it's really good. I'm actually not worried about the, one of the things they're worried about, which is that 157 on the verbal, you know, 75th percentile, it's not a home run, but the overall score,327. Plus the fact that they took the TOEFL and did really well. So I'm not worried about that, but, you know, just kind of wondering, like, yeah, what do they want to do next? And, yeah, like you were saying, oh, maybe they're from India. Well, that gives me a different point of view than if they were from Poland. Right. Because there'd be overrepresented if they're from India and underrepresented if they're from Poland. Right. So just knowing that and understanding, like, what's their background? So. But I think, yeah, they have the building blocks here for, you know, you know, like you said, interesting work experience, pretty good numbers, so they should be competitive. I am a little worried. They have like, 16 schools on the target list, and I don't know how anyone effectively applies to that many schools. And I mean, only. I can only imagine what the recommenders think. But anyway, yeah, so we'll see. But as you say, the key thing is they might have, you know, already know what happened with Darden, and that'll be a great early kind of leading indicator. And then they can maybe pivot. Maybe they have some other apps that they're going to work on here in round two. And the nature of which schools they target is probably going to depend on how things went in round one. So, yeah, a lot. A lot of things in play.
• 24:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. What you're saying overall is. Graham, Alex, why did you select this from Apply Wire?
• 24:08
  Speaker A: No, no, no, no.
• 24:10
  Speaker B: Because we just do not know enough about this candidate, which is a fair point.
• 24:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I mean, I get. But I think it's interesting to sort of speculate and the fact that they've applied to all these schools in the first round, it's a good example of, like, how you can strategize, because they applied to a select group, as I read out earlier in the first round, and now they're obviously going to come back in round two. And whether they go, you know, in one direction or the other in round two is going to depend on, you know, the results so far. So. Yeah. But anyway, we. We'll see. I do appreciate them sharing their profile. Hopefully they'll respond on Apply Wire and give us a little bit more information. But let's move on and talk about WireTaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week has just seven schools on the target list, and those schools are Chicago, Booth, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Kellogg M& Wharton. They're applying now to start in 26, they have been working in power and energy investment banking and they have a GRE score of 320, a GPA of 3.45, have been working for three years, located in New York, wants to stay in New York. And this candidate shares that they attended Duke for undergrad and that they are working at a top tier investment banking firm right now as an analyst. And you know, you kind of asked some questions about that 320 on the GRE. And so they weighed in with some additional kind of information which they said, yeah, I think I can improve the 320 to 325. And then in terms of extracurriculars, they share that they're involved in Toastmasters in New York City, which is a public speaking nonprofit. They're also involved with a local running group in the area. And this is what's so fascinating, Alex, for the career goals which you asked them about, this candidate says they're looking to do data center strategy and operations post mba and that they're currently doing investment banking within the digital infrastructure space. Right. So very interesting that they, you know, they want to pivot from that one to the other. But I think it, it makes a lot of sense and it's a growing area. The other thing that, that they mentioned is I'll just read this directly. They said I am also the only female in my group and have helped create female initiatives at the firm. Was at the top of my analyst class. We'll have, and we'll have strong letters of recommendations and mentioned undergrad was at Duke, GPA of 3.45. She characterizes as just okay. And I think that's because there's quite a bit of grade inflation at Duke. So if we were to see like a classroom rank, it might be more towards the middle. But in any event. Yeah. What do you make of this, Al? Because there's a lot here.
• 26:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, I really love the professional profile here. And obviously infrastructure data centers, whatever the right term is these days, this is a huge area into the future. Right. As all these big AI firms plan their data center strategies and et cetera, et cetera. I mean, that's a whole other discussion on AI stuff, but it's certainly a hot topic area that she's currently working in in terms of investment banking and for her goals. So I think that's a huge plus. I think the fact that she's a top analyst is a huge plus and so on and so forth. So that part of the profile, I would check the box right at the top of the list. And say, that's outstanding, you know, and it seems like outside of work she's, she's still able to do a few things and obviously within work she's, she's contributing also outside of her direct responsibilities. So that should help sort of round out her profile a little bit. The numbers are a little bit of a concern. As you pointed out, 345 is no standout data point. And the 320 GRE potentially is going to raise some eyebrows and maybe the real outlier in this overall profile. If I was this candidate and she has the wherewithal to spend time to push that GRE up to 325, I would absolutely do that. That's a difference maker. She's targeting M7. I believe she belongs in M7 and I'd hate it for the GRE to exclude her.
• 28:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think that 345 will be great. You know, it's a little below the 320 jumps off the page as being low too. So I, I think, you know, if she thinks she can go to 325, she should do it. But I do, I, I will say I really like you. I love the profile because I think it's fascinating to do, you know, investment banking analyst and then, you know, heading into this sort of infrastructure space, you know, you don't see, I mean, let's be frank, you don't see a ton of female candidates from investment banking, nor do you see female candidates expressing a desire to go into operations. Right. I mean, just less common. So I think, I mean, this is like a home run in terms of the goals and exactly like what she wants to do. Not to mention it's like a huge, like you were saying, like, this is a growing area that people are going to be needing to, you know, put management skills in. So I think you're right. Like M7. Absolutely. But get that.
• 29:30
  Speaker B: Especially after. Yeah, especially after the AI bubble bursts, which inevitably it will.
• 29:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's a whole other. Yeah, we've got a whole bunch of other topics. We could record entire episodes.
• 29:40
  Speaker B: On the finance side. Yeah, but this is interesting. On the finance side, the AI bubble will burst. Not on the tech side. The AI is the next revolution. There's no doubt about that.
• 29:50
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 29:50
  Speaker B: But the financing has gotten us all in a bit of a twist at this point, I think. And obviously she's very close to how all this is mapping out in her current role. And this is her golden futures. I think, as you said and I said before, that really allows her to stand out.
• 30:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I really love the storyline. So I feel like, yeah, this is someone who could get, she could get into a top 10 MBA program, but just needs to probably put in a little bit more time on that test. That would be helpful. It'll also, as we always say, it might improve scholarship awards. So would be smart.
• 30:25
  Speaker B: And she might get in with the 320. I'm not saying that's not going to happen because other stuff is really super strong, but why risk it? And like you say, it can certainly elevate scholarship dollars.
• 30:40
  Speaker A: Yeah. She should just, yeah. Do her best to put that foot, you know, what do we say? Put your best foot forward.
• 30:45
  Speaker B: Forward.
• 30:45
  Speaker A: So if she thinks she can do better on the test, then go do it. All right. I want to thank her for sharing her profile. Let's move on and talk about WireTaps. Candidate number three. So our third candidate this week has 10 schools on the target list. They've got Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, mit, nyu, Wharton, uva and Yale. And they're also applying now to start the fall of 26. Been working pre MBA career in financial services consulting and they're thinking about heading into either investment banking or maybe private equity or VC after business school. As a result, they list a whole bunch of companies, you know, JP Morgan Chase, Blackstone, Carlisle, etc. I could go on Vanguards here. I mean there's a long list of firms they want to work for. They have a 685 on the GMAT. That's the GMAT Focus Edition. So if you're keeping score at home, that's like a 740 on the old test. So very good score, 3.7 GPA, 8 years of work experience and they're located in Mexico City. They do say that while they'd like to land on the east coast of the US they're also willing to potentially, you know, go back to somewhere in Latin America to do like private equity, etc. Now you ask them for, for outside activities and they responded to you when you commented. They said, I'm involved in undergraduate teaching in data science and finance and I also volunteer with friends and colleagues to provide financial planning advice to small enterprises and individuals. And then again they say in the short term the goal is to pivot into investment banking to get deal and execution experience and then later transition to private equity with a focus on infrastructure. There we go, infrastructure again. Although in maybe I don't know if it's AI infrastructure or roads and stuff, but in any event that's kind of this candidate. Pretty interesting. But what do you make of their chances at these schools?
• 32:37
  Speaker B: Roads or AI? I think it's probably AI gray, but yeah, again infrastructure is super important because we're laying out a new set of infrastructure for the AI revolution. Right, so I get that. And again I think this is your prototypical really good profile. So what do you have here? You have someone with really good numbers, 3.7 GPA or that's what they report. I assume it's from Mexico or somewhere in Latin America. A really good GMAT685 which as you suggest equivalent of 740. So numbers profile looks good. Let's assume that their work profile is strong financial services and consulting and they can show that impact and growth through work. I actually like their outside of work activity. They're doing teaching at a university, data science and finance. They're also helping out planning SMEs and stuff. I mean you might argue, well it'd be nice to know if they play guitar or go running or something completely different. But I like the outside of work stuff and I like their goals. I think their goals make sense. They want to get that investment banking experience that prior candidate already has, I suppose. But they want to get that deal execution experience to move on later to transition to private equity and focus on infrastructure which again I think is going to be a really interesting space into the future. So they're targeting top business schools, but they have a little bit of a spread in their target schools. So unlike our previous candidate, they've got a few M7 but they've also got sort of top 10, top 16 in the mix. So some realism there too.
• 34:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I like this candidate. I think that the, the one thing that. So you like their outside activities? I'm less. I mean I think they're good, but I'm a little worried that they're, they're sort of all related to sort of work in the sense that it's all about finance and data science. So I, which is fine but I mean I just, maybe they do some other things too. I was just trying to think about is there anything that kind of helps them stand out or makes them a bit different? Like maybe they're, you know, maybe they paint watercolors or you know, something completely that you would never expect for someone working in finance or whatever. So. But in any event, I agree with you. The numbers are kind of jumping off the page. This person, I don't know if they're from Mexico or somewhere else in Latin America, but you know, they clearly seem to have interesting work experience, very logical goals with this sort of banking, then private equity afterwards, like everything seems to make sense. And I agree. I like the fact that they have this nice, you know, spread across top 16. It's not like, I think our previous candidate, she only had sort of the M7 type school. So. No, this is good. Yeah. You know, is there. Are they. I don't know if they've applied yet or they're applying in the second round, but I don't think it matters in terms of them being, you know, they're kind of underrepresented, if you ask me. Right in the pool. And they. One thing we didn't really talk too much about is they have eight years of experience. So they're, you know, a seasoned professional. Probably have a lot of good stories to share in the classroom too. So. No, I like this candidate overall and I hope that they find success as they apply.
• 35:51
  Speaker B: You don't think they're boring?
• 35:53
  Speaker A: Well, I don't know. I mean, I think that's why I was asking, do you have any other hobbies or outside activities? But I think, you know, I mean.
• 35:59
  Speaker B: That'S what they've got to make sure when they present themselves right. To the admissions committees through the essay, they don't want to come across as being a one trick pony. I think that's the point.
• 36:09
  Speaker A: That was right. Yeah, exactly.
• 36:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 36:11
  Speaker A: So. And I think that hopefully they're listening to this and they will take that, you know, to, to take that advice under consideration. But yeah, no, overall, very solid candidate. Yeah. Alex, appreciate you picking these out as always. Let's connect next week. Now, I know Wharton, with those interview invitations coming out, we'll probably get word on what the prompt is this year, what this sort of assignment is for the team based discussion. So hopefully we can expect.
• 36:35
  Speaker B: We might be discussing it. Yeah, we might be discussing it in our next.
• 36:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
• 36:39
  Speaker B: Might be discussing it. Yeah, yeah, maybe on our live stream too.
• 36:43
  Speaker A: Right. So stay tuned on that front, everybody. But yeah, Alex, thanks for doing this and let's get together next week and do it all again.
• 36:50
  Speaker B: Very good. Stay safe everyone. Take care.