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MBA Wire Taps 516: Engineer pivoting to Investment Banking. 645 GMAT, worth a retake? · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, August 31, 2026. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things going?
• 0:28
  Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graham.
• 0:30
  Speaker A: So just as a reminder for fol who are just sort of joining the Clear Admit podcast, Alex is a former admissions officer from the Wharton School and current Clear Admit community manager and podcaster. He also teaches digital marketing for several top business schools, including Columbia and London Business School. And I'm the co founder of Clear Admit. I worked in admissions at Wharton where I first met Alex and have an MBA from that program as well. Alex, I got to ask you for kind of just a little bit of an update. You know, I was out on vacation ad it's now late August and we must have some deadlines on the horizon that you can maybe give us an update on.
• 1:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, the admission season is underway, that is for sure. And the first school out the gate actually was Judge, and that was last week, at the beginning of last week with their round one deadline. And actually Judge has been the first school out the gate at least the last couple of seasons, I think. And this upcoming week, Food Court has its early action deadline. Oxford Sade has its stage one deadline. That's basically its round one deadline. And London Business School also has its round one deadline. And we will see the following week then. Lots of schools sort of rolling out their round one deadline. So we're sort of bubbling up, I would say, into this new season.
• 1:51
  Speaker A: When is. Isn't there. There's a day, is it next week? There's a day that has like a lot of the top schools all at the same time, right?
• 1:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, possibly. I'd have to review. We need to prep better. So you tell me you're going to ask me this question, but yeah, it's Probably, I mean, September 9th has Harvard and Stanford, Columbia and Kellogg. So you might be thinking that as well as Darden and probably a couple of others.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 2:19
  Speaker B: Yeah. Georgetown, Macomb. Yeah. So. So, yeah, yeah, September 9th. But September 8th has Wharton and September 10th Hass. So yeah, lots, lots the following week.
• 2:32
  Speaker A: So I would say if you're listening to this show, like, what on earth are you doing? If you're applying to round one, you better be writing and reviewing all your materials or maybe everything's all buttoned up. Or maybe you just want a break, which is what we're here for too. Alex. We have some great stuff this week. We've got some admissions tips around test waivers and video essays. We did an ADCOM Q and A with DGO malta over at UT Austin. McComb was one of my favor favorite people in our, in our industry. And then obviously we did this article about AI and admissions and you picked out some candidates. So a lot to get to the this week. I did want to mention tomorrow you and I are doing a live stream at noon Eastern. It's going to be on YouTube. You just go to the Clearbit YouTube channel, subscribe and you'll be notified when we come on air. But come and hang out with us. Ask your questions about round one applications, admissions interviews, if you're hoping to get some of those, or even round two planning. We're around and we're happy to take those questions. I'm looking forward to that. Alex.
• 3:28
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, it should be a lot of fun. What time is it? Graham? Do you, do you have that?
• 3:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's noon Eastern.
• 3:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, noon Eastern. Very good.
• 3:35
  Speaker A: Yeah. So and then in late September, just a few weeks away at this point, on September 21, 22, 23, and then again 29, 30 and October 1, we're doing our application strategy series. That's a virtual series of webinars. 28 different schools are joining us. It might be more like 30 by now. I have to check the list, but we've got Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, Kellogg, mit. The list goes on. All the top schools are joining us to discuss application strategy. So sign up for those. Just go to clearadmit.com events. You can join any of our events there.
• 4:09
  Speaker B: Very good.
• 4:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, lots of stuff. So, Alex, you may recall that the last episode of the podcast we had this conversation about AI in admissions. Like, how do you use AI? What are schools saying about it? And the reason we start talking about that is, I mean, obviously it's topical, but we just finished a July kind of webinar series with more than, I think, what, 20 some schools again. And one of the questions we had asked all them was like, what's your policy? What do you think about AI? So that just got us kind of going on the subject that led to you helping to produce with Lauren on our team, a big article, kind of a deep dive into how should you use artificial intelligence in admissions? And that article is now on the site. It was a great piece. It's kind of a deep dive, but essentially a couple of kind of key highlights. And I'd love to, you know, any color commentary you want to add. But one of the interesting things about this piece is that we learned by talking to these 20 plus admissions directors that nobody is telling you not to touch AI. So that's the good news. Of course, the one rule that every school seems to share is this sort of idea that it should be assist don't author. Right. So you're getting an assist from AI, but you're not letting it write everything for you. Anyway, this piece that we, that we ran on the site also goes into detail on why an AI written essay could sink you. You know, what the policies are at schools. Some of the schools actually scan for AI. I guess they have some kind of software that might flag things that seem like AI, you know. And then the article also gets into the parts of the application that are kind of AI proof by design. Some of the interesting essay questions, 25 random things from Duke video kind of exercises. In any event, there's a ton in this piece and I think it's a must read if you're applying to business school and curious about AI. But Alex, any thoughts from your side?
• 6:03
  Speaker B: I just think you, you've summed it up in that one phrase. I actually wrote it down because we might want to include this phrase in our new landing page for our own AI tool. But that assist do not author I think is really strong guidance. And there's a couple of reasons why you don't want it to author. I mean, on the one hand, there's some integrity issues there if you're basically asking Claude to write your essays, but certainly you can ask Claude or chat, GPT or our tool, which I'm a huge believer in, etc. Etc. You can ask for feedback on your drafts, you can ask for strategy in terms of developing the essays, etc. Etc. Yeah, but secondly, if you're getting AI to author the essay, I mean, your essay is losing all that authenticity and stuff and is really moving and, and we've seen this trend over the last two or three seasons, I think is really moving much more toward authenticity and really wanting to know and learn about the person and their voice, etc. Etc. Through the admissions process. So you're doing yourself a real disservice if you are using AI to author as well as the fact that it's really an integrity issue. But as an assist, there's an expectation you are using it for sure.
• 7:31
  Speaker A: Yeah. And you're teeing up. We had a great conversation with digo Malta at UT Austin McCombs and I'm going to share some comments from him a bit later in the episode. But yeah, this is exactly where Schools are heading the human side, the authenticity, et cetera. So important. Anyway, I strongly recommend people go read this article. It's a rather long piece. It felt like a sub stack or medium type piece, but it's got a, a ton of great information and it's built on the direct comments from admissions officers that we chatted with. So a lot of good stuff in there.
• 8:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. And again, we used AI as an assist in developing this, this, this article. Right. So let's make no bones about it. We are able to now use AI to help us sort of not just brainstorm, but to sort of develop and content, sort of infrastructure and looking at transcripts to tease out ideas and quotes, etc. Etc. Yeah, but then we write the articles. Very important.
• 8:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's great. I mean, I think the ability to take transcripts from, I think what, what do we do? Five or six different webinars with admissions directors back in July and to just have AI go through and say, okay, where were they talking about AI and its use? And you know, just. Yeah, so helpful for us. Anyway, moving right along, we also did some really important kind of admissions tips on the website. The first being about test waivers. And I really encourage people to read this. I feel like there's a lot of sort of misinformation out there. So the first thing we did is we published a chart which includes all the top business schools in the world and indicates like what tests do they accept and what their policy is on waivers. So you can look at that just to get a quick lay of the land. And you know, I mean, if I'm going to sort of call a spade a spade here. The very top schools have stayed sort of hard and fast, pretty much to the rule of no waivers. They want to test whether it's the gre, the GMAT or in some cases their own test or some other test that's out there. But then the rest of the pack are sort of up and down. Some say yes, some say no. But it's important to know, you know, before you get into this process who waives, who doesn't. So we put together this chart, very helpful. And then it's accompanied by our test waivers tip. And you know, Alex, I know you had a hand in developing the initial draft of this tip, but basically it goes through the reasons to request a waiver and you know, there's a whole bunch of them that are possible that you could have, you know, and then it goes into the reasons that even if you could, you know, claim one of those exceptions or reasons that we go over. There are a number of reasons not to request the waiver all the same. And I just wanted to run through some of those. So one of them is wrong impression. Right. So if you don't take the test, it might be sending a message about how committed you are, how interested you are in going off to get an mba. A second thing that we listed was less data. So basically, by not taking the test, you're depriving the admissions reader of yet another kind of data point that they could use in their assessment. We also pointed out that if you're overrepresented in the pool, might be a bad idea to get. To get a waiver. We also talked about the benefits of taking the test multiple times and how even taking the test multiple times without a fantastic result shows the kind of. Kind of grit and effort that schools are looking for, and that can lead to success in an MBA program. And then finally, we talked a little bit about post MBA recruiting and where sometimes companies might ask you if you've taken the test. So there are a number of reasons where even if you are eligible and the school allows it, you may not want to do it. And so we get into all kind of detail in this piece. But, Alex, you had a hand in that. Any thoughts?
• 11:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, obviously this sort of test waiver thing comes up each season, and I think there's a trend, I assume more schools now are accepting waivers than, let's say last season, over the season before, etc. Etc. Because schools are wanting to, you know, provide more access to that program so they can get more candidates, quite frankly. But I think it's definitely a trend, maybe for schools in the top 20, top 30 sort of tiers versus the M7, etc.
• 11:47
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:49
  Speaker B: You know, at the top end, you're not going to get a waiver from Harvard or whatever. Right. So that makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. But yeah, that, that tip, I think, is really important in terms of if, if you want to go down the route of the waiver, really understand what signal, what signaling you're sending.
• 12:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:09
  Speaker B: And. And so on and so forth. I think that's really, really important. But there's no doubt in my mind more and more schools are accepting waivers. Graham. Because they want more candidates.
• 12:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. And what's interesting is, you know, around Covid, several years ago, there was a big blossoming of everyone saying, okay, you can waive because people couldn't even take the test in some instances. Right. Then that was pulled back, and then now application Volume has been down a bit. And so, you know, schools are trying to maximize application volume. So they're saying, well, what barriers can we remove? But I still would argue that, you know, your best bet is to go in with a great test score and to show, you know, that. That effort. But in any event, we also did an admissions tip on video essays. These are increasingly a part of the application process. Even, you know, you could argue. We've talked about this on the show, schools are pulling back on the essays and pushing in on video essays. And the reason they like the video essays is because there's no prep that you can do, really, in some regards. Right. And it's. It's authentic, it's spontaneous. They're not allowing. Most schools are not allowing you to, like, rerecord these things 10 times or even giving you enough time to sort of prepare to answer them. Because this, you know, they have these sort of prompt engines where they're kind of throwing out a prompt to you from a bank of 100 hundred questions or something. And so you're just going to get a prompt handful of seconds to think about it and then record, and that's it. So these are prevalent. And, you know, again, I think these are in play because schools want authenticity. They want to test and see what your English language and general communication skills are like, and they like spontaneity. You know, they're probably dying for spontaneity in a world where everything is polished, you know, to. To the hilt. So in any event, we round a tip where we talk about things you can do to, you know, to ensure that you have a strong showing in this sort of challenging element in the. In the application process. And there's a video, Alex, that you and I recorded, too, that we probably should watch again and think about if we want to update a little bit. But in any event. Yeah, there's a lot of great insights in this post.
• 14:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, very good. And like you say, this is, again, a trend that schools are going more toward for a variety of reasons.
• 14:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I just want one thing in this piece, and there's a whole bunch of advice, but one thing that really jumped out at me is it sounds simple, but I feel like candidates just do not get this over and over again. And it is that. Don't let the setting or your wardrobe or tech take away from what should be an exercise that's really focused on you and the stories you have to tell. So make sure that. Think about what's behind you on the screen. What are you Wearing and whether you've got a nice high resolution video or a good Internet connection, et cetera. So don't let that stuff trip you up. And then we have a number of tips in the piece about other things you can do to ace this. But anyway, I always just kind of go to that because I feel like the number of people I see kind of not getting that part right is sort of startling.
• 15:05
  Speaker B: Yeah. And you get that part right. Just gives you more confidence.
• 15:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. One other thing I wanted to talk about before we get into the candidates that you picked out is we had a chance to catch up or Lauren on our team had a chance to catch up with Digo Malta at Texas McCombs. He's the Assistant Dean of MBA Marketing, Recruiting and admissions. And he's spent, I mean, he's been what, nearly two decades now helping prospective students find their path into, you know, graduate business education. He is a great guy, one of my favorite people to hang out with. And anyway, we caught up with him and I thought a couple of his ANSwers in our ADCOM Q&A were really worth sharing on the show. So the first one is our classic question where we say, walk us through the life of an application from an operational standpoint, like what happens when the candidate hits submit and until they get a decision. And so he says, after you hit submit, the first thing we ask is that you complete our required video assessment within seven days. It's six prompts, each with 10 seconds to prepare and 90 seconds to respond, giving us an opportunity to get to know you beyond your resume and test scores. We also strongly encourage all full time MBA applicants to complete an optional virtual interview with a member of our McCombs Ambassador Committee. While not required, the interview provides another opportunity to showcase your communication and collaborative skills, share your motivations for pursuing an MBA and connect with the Texas McCombs community. From there, our admissions committee conducts a holistic review across three academic aptitude, work experience and leadership potential and your motivations for pursuing an MBA and joining McCombs. We're not plugging numbers into a formula. We're evaluating your full story and future potential. After review, we make one of three admit, wait list, or deny. All applicants are automatically considered for merit based scholarships and admitted students receive scholarship information along with their admissions decision. So that's kind of the a peek behind the curtain as to how it all works at McCombs. But I thought it was really instructive, especially, you know, this like sort of video thing. After you apply, you have to do these video prompts and they have this sort of optional interview that sounds like they're recommending you do.
• 17:20
  Speaker B: So I'm a little bit confused. Are they not having a formal interview post reviewing the application?
• 17:26
  Speaker A: Right. Anyone can interview and it's optional and you interview with a student. And the way that they've described it to me in the past is that it's not necessarily like an evaluative thing so much as it is a chance for you to get to know someone in the program and hear about their experience. They just decided that they wanted to sort of keep everyone on the same kind of playing field and say, hey, everyone has access to an interview. You should do it. And that's how they've. Yeah, so that's how it works there. So it's a little different. Yeah. Than some other peers.
• 17:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, I was unaware of that. I need to get up to speed a little bit more. But yeah, no, that is a very interesting approach, giving everybody that option and so forth and then simultaneously reviewing the applications, etc. And obviously that three buckets of criteria make a lot of sense.
• 18:12
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 18:13
  Speaker B: And yeah, Texas is a booming area of the United States. Right. For business and so on and so forth. We talked about that on the podcast on a number of occasions now. So. Yeah, no, Very interesting.
• 18:29
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then the last thing I wanted to share from him is we said, is there anything else you want to highlight about your program or the admissions process? This is always a throw in question that we have at the end. And Dego had this to say. He said, I'll say this. The thing that keeps me Most energized about McCombs in 26 is that we're doubling down on the human side of business education at a moment when a lot of people assume technology is pushing that aside. If anything, it's made the human stuff more important. How you lead, how you listen, how you build trust, and how you bring people together are the skills organizations need most. That philosophy shows up in how we build our cohorts, how we design our curriculum, and how we run our admissions process. We're especially proud that every applicant has the opportunity to complete application components that allow us to hear their story directly, including the video assessment and the optional interview. Those experiences help us to understand who you are beyond the bullet points on a resume, your test score, or your job title. We want to know the person behind the application because the relationships you build at McCombs will last for decades. And that's not something you can capture in a ranking or a spreadsheet. Now Alex, full disclosure. The question before this was all about AI, and he talked about how they've integrated AI across their entire curriculum. And so it's not that they're anti technology. It just. It sounds like they're really focused on the human side, too, and they're really kind of, you know, again, pushing that to the fore.
• 19:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, this is the tension and the balance that lots of businesses are trying to tackle. So. Yeah, so. So it's really good to see that schools are putting all this front and center, which. Which doesn't surprise me at all.
• 20:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm hoping I can get DGO or Stacey from his team to come on the podcast because I've been doing those, you know, Admission Director podcast episodes, and, you know, he'd be great, Great guest or Stacy from his team. So in any event, we'll see if I can, can. Can convince those guys to do it. We did just air episodes with RuPaul Gadia from Harvard Business School, Sherry Hubert from Duke Fuqua, Donnis Winford from Chicago Booth, and Lindsay Lloyd from NYU Stern. There are a few others in there, too, I think. Kellogg, Columbia, so. And there are more to come. I've recorded some others. So anyway, it's been so much fun. I hope people are tuning into those episodes as well. Obviously, if you want to reach out to us to praise the show or send in your critiques, you can write to infoearadmit.com, use the subject line wiretaps. Alex, we've been rambling on a lot today because we had a lot to catch up on, but anything else that you wanted to discuss before we get into the candidates?
• 21:00
  Speaker B: Let's kick on.
• 21:01
  Speaker A: All right, so this is wiretaps candidate number one. So our first candidate, candidate this week is not applying to business school until 2028. Right. So they'll be applying, like, in a year to start in 2028. So they have a little time on their hands, and as a result, they have a very lengthy school list. I'm not going to get into all of it, but it's essentially the US top 20 because they listed 20 schools. So they have a whole bunch of schools on the list. They're currently working as a structural engineer. They're interested, though, in using the MBA when they attend to pivot it into, like, finance, specifically investment banking. Their undergraduate GPA was a 3.0. They've been working at this point for a year and change, but again, they're going to work another year and then another year before they would attend business school. So they'll have probably three years or so of experience by the time they go into an mba. They're from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, although originally from Houston, Texas. Their post MBA target location is curious to enough London. I will mention all the schools on their list. Those 20 schools I mentioned are US top 20 schools so I didn't see any non US programs on the list but they do it sounds like want to head to London after business school. They mentioned that, you know, they want to make this transition into banking. They are specifically interested in the industries of like tech, oil, energy, maybe even real estate when it comes to the type of investment banking they want to do. They are also kind of keen on things like entrepreneurship and they mentioned somewhere that they are looking at the Lauder Institute which is part of Wharton, well part of the University of Pennsylvania. It's a program that you do in parallel to the MBA that gives you exposure to language and usually obviously geopolitics and a specific region that you want to focus on on. So it's kind of a Masters in International business that parallels with the mba. So in any event they mentioned that and they were kind of talking about how they haven't taken the test yet and again they have time but they said they're going to take the GMAT this coming I guess it sounds like in the spring and then they're going to after that they said they were going to take the GRE and you had some conversation with them about all this to sort of set them straight. You also inquired about their 3.0 undergraduate GPA. So I'll let you kind of take the stage here. Alex, what do you think of this candidate and what was some of that conversation?
• 23:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean kudos for this candidate for, for reaching out, apply, wire etc with another year and so forth before they need to apply but hopefully it helps them then develop a more thoughtful application strategy because there are a few holes in their plan at this point I, I would argue but that can be as a result of you know, being very and not having spent a lot of time thinking through this stuff. So that's perfectly fine. You highlighted one of these points, right? If they want to be in London post mba then they probably should also be looking at UK based MBA programs that would more easily facilitate that move and so forth. So that's something to consider, right? London Business School and, and several others in, in the UK but maybe they just threw out London as an option and if that's the case then you know the, the schools that they need to get into Obviously this seems very trite, but if they want to do investment banking, they've got to, you know, get into the best school that they possibly can. Right. Because if again, M7. Yes. Pathway to Investment Banking top 16. Yes. Pathway to Investment banking top 20, less so. And then when you're out of the top 20, very few, much fewer students finding their way into investment banking, certainly in New York City. Right. So they need to target the very best programs that they can. Which puts. Is going to put a lot of emphasis on the GMAT test or the gre, whichever route they go. Certainly they wouldn't waive the test, Graham, and clearly they're not planning to waive the test, but we did a whole thing on the test waivers in this episode. So this is a classic example. You've got a 3. 0. You've got some things to do here. And one thing that you can do is get a really strong test score to help mitigate a little bit the 3.0 undergraduate degree. So if I was this candidate, I would prep really hard, take the test on the assumption that I'm going to have to prep hard again and retake the test. They've got plenty of time, but getting a super test score is going to be really, really important for their goals as well as getting access to the type of program that's going to provide them access to investment banking. The other thing is, obviously they're 3.0. They've got to provide some of that mitigating circumstance. And they talked a little bit about, you know, some of the compromises they had to make during their undergrad with technology and so on and so forth that affected their performance and stuff. And yeah, maybe that will help mitigate, but, but the 3.0 is going to be somewhat problematic. Getting a great test score is going to really sort of, of be the best route to, to help help there. And then just the other sort of typical sort of guidance is they've got to show at work that they, they have had real impact, they've got growth, etc, even though they want to do a pretty significant pivot. Right. They want us pivot out of engineering, going into investment banking. The schools are really going to want to know how well they performed and what they've done professionally outside of work. You know, it seems like they've got some interesting hobbies. I mean, they're currently taking Mandarin classes, Graham. They have some other language proficiency in, in two or three other languages. So. So that can be quite interesting. They're a film buff and they write film Scripts, although none have been published. And as we would appreciate, they're a runner and a marathoner, so they do other stuff. Right. Which again will help. But there are a few things that they need to sort out if they really want to execute on this plan of getting an MBA to transition into investment banking.
• 27:45
  Speaker A: Yeah, I could not agree more. And so a couple of additional thoughts here. Number one, I could not agree with you. I mean, when it comes to the idea that they're a year plus away from applying, terrific. Right. They have so much time to sort of shape things. The things that really struck me though are, yeah, that low gpa and I didn't really like the explanation they gave. I'm going to be really frank here. They talked about how they didn't have access to a great computer. You know, they had two kind of really terrible computers that they used over the course of their undergrad that really, you know, slowed them down, et cetera. And I was thinking, wow, if I'm an admissions reader, that's probably not the sort of story that is going to be compelling to me. I would want to hear about the fact that maybe they were first in family to go to college, that they. That it was a little bit of financial strain, which it sounded like maybe they were hinting at as well. I wouldn't blame it only on the laptop. It's sort of like blaming the equipment for the performance. Right. Of the. Of the person. So I. What I would want them. So I want them to work on that story because I think there are mitigating circumstances clearly to their 3o, and I'm not trying to diminish that, but I want them to work on that story. I want them to take the GRE or the gmat, like you were saying, and get a very high score. Sounds like they're working with a tutor already on that. It also occurred to me that to the extent that their investment banking goals could somehow relate to whatever industry they're in with structural engineering. And I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that if they're a structural engineer working in Baton Rouge and originally from Houston, maybe there is a kind of energy sector angle to their structural engineering. I don't know. But they mentioned oil and energy as an interest. And so perhaps that's the tie in. But I would encourage them to think about how does their current experience tie to coverage that they would want to do M and A with as an investment banker. And then the last thing I would say is maybe as a hedge, in case the Test doesn't go swimmingly, you know, whatever the case, like maybe they should do a little bit of finance coursework online or even try to go after like the CFA level 1 or like something to show that they're interested in this pivot. Other than that, I love the activities, the running, the film writing, you know, they're an interesting candidate. Lots of languages, et cetera. I think there's a lot here. They just have to work on it and get it into shape and they have time to do it, which is the best news.
• 30:00
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think your point to take a couple of sort of finance related sort of coursework or whatever it might be, professional certification is a smart addition.
• 30:12
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So I want to thank them for sharing their story. Hopefully they'll keep in touch with us as they hit some of these milestones along the way and work towards applications.
• 30:20
  Speaker B: Maybe they could tie it to data centers type stuff.
• 30:23
  Speaker A: Right, yeah, that's possible too.
• 30:25
  Speaker B: I mean, isn't Louisiana just announced it's hosting $100 billion data center for SpaceX? I mean, oh, maybe, I don't know, it might be 100 million, not 100 billion. I don't. These numbers are all like magic to me anymore. But I think SpaceX has just announced a really big move in that regard.
• 30:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's possible.
• 30:46
  Speaker B: No, a launch site. No, it's a launch site, not a data center. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:50
  Speaker A: Oh, a launch site. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, in any event, things for them to think about as they go forward here. Let's move on and talk about WireTaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week has 12 schools on the target list and they're applying now. They want to start next fall. The schools they're looking at are Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Emory, the Indian School of Business, Michigan, Notre Dame, UCLA, UNC, USC, UT, Austin McCombs, Vanderbilt and Washington Foster. And this person's been working in commercial strategy and enterprise growth. They had an interesting storyline in that they started out in like kind of like a enterprise sales role and then they worked their way backwards, or not backwards, but kind of back into the enterprise. So instead of selling stuff, they work worked into the, you know, from, from executing deals to using buyer behavior account data, competitive intelligence and consumer insights to influence growth, product positioning. So they're working into more of the strategy and away from the direct sales stuff. So any event, interesting career to date, they indicate that they have a master's in chemistry with an 8.74 GPA from a university in India. Oddly enough, they don't share what their undergraduate GPA was. So I'd be curious to know that they have been working for like seven years at this point. So they've had a lot of experience, as I said, moving from a kind of frontline sales role back into the office and strategy. Their GMAT Score is a 645 on the GMAT Focus Edition. If you're wanting the old scale to kind of compare, that's about a 690 or maybe 700 if we're being generous on the old version of the test. They're located in the US and they would love to stay in the States after business school. They're wondering if we have any advice about how they can stand out and shine. They did mention that they're, you know, kind of interested in tech strategy, but also maybe consulting and even they mentioned healthcare it. So there are a number of things that they're kind of weighing in terms of post segment MBA opportunities. But Alex, what do you make of this candidacy?
• 33:03
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think they need to sort out the goals, right? They need to come up with a really sort of well developed plan for what they want to do post MBA that makes sense for their background. So that sort of chemistry and health care sort of angle I think is probably the most sort of relevant sort of thread that they could target. I mean, obviously I don't want them to make stuff up in terms of goals and plan, but I think if they spent some really, really hard time thinking about that, that will help them develop a more robust sort of set of applications. My biggest concern with this candidate, like I'm going to take them at face value that they've got good work experience, they've done very well, they've, they've had that sort of epiphany, that sort of business and strategy is actually more interesting to them than the sort of the science side of their work and so forth. So I completely understand that. But their challenge, Graham, is I think the 645 GMAT is a little underwhelming for someone with an 874 GPA, even at the master's level, probably expecting to see a slightly higher test score. And for a candidate like this, the higher the test score, the greater access they'll have to their target programs as well as potentially some scholarship opportunities. So there's some cost involved in sort of reducing the cost. If they did come back and let's say they, they got to, you know, bump this up to a 695, 705 or something like that, if they Thought they had the scope to do that. That would be really good time spent. The challenge they then face is, can they do that and still apply in the first round? And I would imagine that some of the programs they're targeting in the first round, their round one application deadlines are probably closer to October than September, so they might be able to pull it off, but they've got that balance. Potentially retaking the test against applying early enough.
• 35:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's really, I mean, this is the thing, right? I mean, they're, you know, as you say, that this person, we don't, I mean, I don't think they came out right and said it, but they did their undergrad in India. They're in the US currently, but I'm guessing that they're Indian. And so they're overrepresented, probably applying in round one. But they have this test score that is not going to fly for me. I mean, it might at some of these schools that are maybe slightly lower ranking on their list. But I can't help but wonder, as you say, I mean, a master's in chemistry with an 8.7 out of India, that's on a scale of 10, that's a very good score. And so I'd have to think that the undergrad degree is hopefully strong, maybe not quite as strong, but certainly in that ballpark. So this is a smart person and you, you would think that with a little bit more work and what's a little unfortunate is you mentioned this to them and they kind of said, well, I'm not able to do it again, I have other commitments. And so I was just thinking, wow, I would if I were them, even in a. Worst case, if they have to get their apps in and then go out and prep for a few weeks and take the test again and submit a second score after the applications, I would still, I mean, it just, it could, as you said, it could be really game changing both in terms of where they get in as well as scholarship. So, yeah, in any event, I can't stress this enough. It sounds like they sort of are moving on from it, but I just want to really underline it because I think it's important. But yeah, otherwise I feel like there's a lot to like here. Seven years of interesting experience. They clearly understand, as you say, the kind of lure of, kind of the strategy and the business side of things. And so they, you know, they've got a good head on their shoulders in that response respect. But I just, yeah, I would love to see a better test score. And know a little more about their undergrad.
• 37:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, very good.
• 37:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. So, in any event, you know, best of luck to them. I want to thank them for sharing their profile. Hopefully they're getting all these apps in and can sit the test again. Alex, we've. We've done it again. Another week has gone by, another episode of the show. Let's connect next week and do this all again if you're around.
• 37:25
  Speaker B: Very good. Stay safe, everyone. Take care.
• 37:47
  Speaker A: Of.