Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 441—Super GMAT, poor GPA. Indian candidate, non-US programs. Super profile, small firm.

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MBA Wire Taps 441—Super GMAT, poor GPA. Indian candidate, non-US programs. Super profile, small firm. · 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 4, 2025. 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 is it, like, excessively hot in Cornwall right now? Because it's been just really terribly hot in America. I'm over on this side of the Atlantic at the moment, and in the Philadelphia area, it has just been muggy and like 95 degrees Fahrenheit every day.
• 0:44
  Speaker B: No, it's beautiful here.
• 0:47
  Speaker A: Oh, well, I'll have to get back to the other side of the Atlantic to find some good, good weather. As you know, I'm like, on this sort of road trip, family stuff, work stuff. So it' to be a fun couple of weeks over here in the States. But what's going on in the MBA admissions world? Have you seen much activity on the site, or is there anything you want to comment on that's happening?
• 1:08
  Speaker B: I mean, quite frankly, it's pretty quiet. Right. So I imagine with, you know, with the end of July recording, by the time it's broadcast, beginning of August, schools are starting to get ready for their preterm. So, so, so, yeah, I assume things are pretty much finalized in terms of the class coming in. And we're, we' one month away from round one deadline, so good luck.
• 1:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. It's going to be a sprint to those round one deadlines. I have. You know, you're correct. I've been seeing posts on LinkedIn from many of the admissions directors that I'm connected with, where they're, you know, they take a picture of some event and they're like, hey, our students have arrived. And this is, you know, from working in admissions, this is one of those great moments in the year where the class that you've assembled actually shows up on campus and you get to see how they, how they get along and, you know, just welcome them into your community. So it's definitely that time of year.
• 2:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, as long as they do show up, right?
• 2:05
  Speaker A: Exactly. So you're going to be busy this coming week. On Thursday, I hear you're doing this webinar called how to get into the M7 MBA programs. And we've teamed up with our friends over at Leland to do this. And so you're going to emcee a webinar where you pepper three admissions consultants with questions about the M7. And I believe one of the panelists is a Stanford GSB grad and another worked in admissions at Booth. So it seems like a good group. Group. And this is at 10:00am Eastern, 7:00am Pacific on Thursday, August 7th. You can register at bit ly m7 clear admit. So it's the letter M, the number 7 clear admit. All one word, all lowercase. Alex, anything? Do you care to dangle any kind of tidbits of what you're hoping to accomplish with this webinar?
• 2:55
  Speaker B: Well, I'm actually just quite excited. I haven't hosted a webinar like this for quite some time. And yeah, to just get other industry experts point of views on questions that are really important for our candidates. And I'll try to keep it as transparent and as real as possible so make sure their answers pass the sniff test. Anyway, so, yeah, no, I'm really excited for it and it sort of gave me the idea that we should get back into hosting these monthly webinars ourselves. Graham, we don't need to talk about that right now, but certainly as the season gets closer to kicking off, I think monthly webinars where we just invite folks to ask us questions and that kind of stuff, I think that would be really cool.
• 3:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, we've got something in the works on that front. So, yeah, stay tuned. That should be fun. The other thing I just wanted to mention, as we get closer to deadlines, Lauren on our team does this every week and has been doing so, I think for at least a month, maybe more. But I just wanted to mention we have this column that we run on the website called the Weekly Refresh. And what Lauren does with this column is she basically reviews each of the schools. Like, there's a list of like, oh, here are the schools that updated their essay topics. Here are the schools that announced their deadlines or their apps went live, etc. So it's kind of a week by week update on what's out and what's been released. And usually with links to our analysis if a school has new essays, etc. So you can read that on the site. But I just see her doing that every week and I wanted to throw some props her way and I think you helped. Do you help with that too, Alex, or is that I'm getting mixed up? You do something else with deadlines when we get into the season, right?
• 4:28
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I'm absolutely nothing. No help at all.
• 4:33
  Speaker A: All right, well, anyway, hats off to Lauren and you can read that post. It's just something good to sort of keep an eye on. The other thing we did is we ran an admissions tip. Peggy on our team wrote this great piece about English language tests. So not relevant if you're a native English speaker, but if you're not, most of the schools will require proof of English proficiency. And so we did this complete sort of breakdown of the toefl, the ielts, the Pearson Test of English and the Duolingo English Test. So we. Lots of tidbits in there about how these tests work, how they're structured, how to prep for them, and it's just a really good primer if you're someone who falls into that bucket of having to take one of these tests. So you can check that out on the site.
• 5:14
  Speaker B: I'll take credit for that one then.
• 5:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, I know you had said. Right. I was just about to say that you, you had been like beating the drum of, hey, why don't we have anything about these tests? So that's great to see.
• 5:24
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Speaker A: And that.
• 5:25
  Speaker B: And that came from one of your icon Q and A. I think it was Stern, maybe. But they talk about the importance of these tests for international students. And I'm like, we have no admissions tip that covers this subject.
• 5:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, I would argue they're increasingly important. If you think about the fact that now international students who are non native English speakers have their friend ChatGPT or Gemini or whatever they're using to polish up that English in the essays. And so you're left with what the, you know, an English language exam and maybe an interview as your means of sort of figuring these people's English skills out or their level out. So anyway, so you can read that on the site. We also continue with our admissions director Q and A's. We caught up with Rupal Ghadia from Harvard Business School. As you may know, Rupal graduated from HBS back in 2004. So she's an HBS grad. And, you know, we asked her a whole bunch of questions, as we always do. And the one that I wanted to highlight in this episode of the show here is we asked her about the interview process and she said, I'll just quote her. She said, one thing that is different in our interview process is that we do not use students, faculty or alumni volunteers for our interviews. We have about two dozen individuals on our interview board who receive regular training and each conduct many interviews. This helps us stay calibrated and consistent. An HBS interview lasts 30 minutes because the interview is a conversation about you. There are no brain teasers, mental math problems, case questions, or anything like that. Although we may reference your resume in the interview, we try to go much deeper. We may dive into something you wrote in an essay, a short answer field, or something a recommender might have mentioned. Through this conversation, we hope to learn more about your experiences, leadership abilities, and the impact you hope to make through business. So, Alex, I just wanted to call attention to that because HBS's interview is quite different.
• 7:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I will say that the preparation ahead of conducting an HBS interview is much more complicated and takes a lot more time and effort and energy than the preparation for blind interviews and resume based interviews. So cuedosfit to HBS for taking that additional step. And there are a couple of other schools that kind of go down this path. Right. So they're additive interviews. They don't, you know, just want you to repeat necessarily your goals, etc. Etc. That's part of your other application materials. But they want to dive deeper. They want to really uncover, you know, aspects that maybe you surfaced in other elements of the application. So. So, yeah, I think it's a really great process, but I will say that it requires a lot of work on HBS's part to prepare for those interviews. And how do you prepare as a candidate? Just know your application, if you wrote it in your essay, you better be prepared to back it up.
• 8:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I would argue you need to. It's like a peeling of the onion, you know, where the outside layers are, the app. But you've got to be able to get into the core and share additional details. That's one of the real challenges is that you can't just sit back and be like sort of, you know, regurgitate the same stuff you said in the application. They're looking to go deeper. So you got to be ready for. For that if you're fortunate enough to get an invite. Yeah. So I really appreciate RuPaul taking time to do that.
• 8:56
  Speaker B: And quite honestly, Graham, I never thought about this, but that might be a reason why HBS does take a deeper cut. Right?
• 9:02
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 9:03
  Speaker B: Versus its peers in terms of who it's going to interview. Because frankly, the resource applied to the actual interview is quite burdensome for HBS. So they do. Some schools generally, maybe they interview 50% of folks that apply. HBS may be 20, 30%.
• 9:20
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
• 9:21
  Speaker B: So that might be one of the reasons.
• 9:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's just so time consuming in any event. Yeah. So really appreciate rupal making time to check in with us on that. We also caught up with Maria Pineda, who is the admissions director at University of Maryland Smith School of Business. And we asked Maria about essays and she gave some good advice there. She said first of all that at least three admissions committee members will read your essay, so make sure that it conveys your truths. She then says, help us understand your thought process, your future plans and your expectations. Communicate your understanding of how the Maryland MBA can help you grow as a strong individual. Hearing your perspective helps us learn more about you. Great essays are authentic. We want to know who you are and where you want to go. If we know these facts, we can determine how the Maryland MBA can bridge the gap between where you are now and your post MBA goals. We want your essay to be concise. However, we want you to ensure that you include relevant details not found anywhere else in your application. When you sit down to write your essay, remember that this is the only forward thinking aspect of your application. All other components that you will submit are historical information. Use this real estate to shed light on who you are and where you want to be. So I thought that was an interesting take too, this notion of forward looking versus historical stuff.
• 10:46
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, I love that. But like you say, the last aspect of that advice, really, really interesting. But again, I think it applies to all schools. But the essay is obviously your opportunity in the first cut to tell your story, but also to look at where you're planning to go, why it all makes sense, etc. Etc. So yeah, very good.
• 11:12
  Speaker A: Yeah, totally. So the only other news I have before we talk about this week's candidates is that we ran a special, again a bonus episode of the podcast last week. It's in this feed. Wherever you're listening to this show, you should be able to find it. And it's a really interesting episode that we recorded in Boston with Susan Caraviello who is over at Bain. She runs their HR kind of hiring practice for MBA grads. And she herself actually went to talk and did an MBA there. So she's been at Bain for a really long time. I know she says it in the interview, I want to say 20 plus years. And knows a ton about their recruiting process and what it takes to get into a place like Bain as a strategy consultant. So we recorded an interview that I did with her at the NBA Fair in Boston. It's now available to listen to here. And yeah, a lot of really good advice in there. So if you are someone who's thinking about, I would argue working in strategy consulting anywhere, whether it's Bain or any, you know, even their competitors, probably a good listen.
• 12:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, brilliant.
• 12:10
  Speaker A: Other than that, Alex, people can continue to write to us at info clear admit.com we will write back. Just use the subject line wiretaps. And we love to hear from you. We also love to see your reviews and ratings. So please remember to do that if you can. Otherwise, Alex, anything else before we talk about our candidates for this week, let's kick on. All right, so this is WireTaps candidate number one. Our first candidate this week has 15 schools on the target list. And it's a, it's a long list, but it's a sort of who's who of the top schools. They've got, you know, Carnegie Mellon, they've got Cornell, Dartmouth, duke, Emory, Insead, LBs, MI, Kellogg, Stern, Booth, UCLA, UNC, UVA, and Yale. And this person, once again to start in the fall of 26. They have been working in corporate strategy and they mentioned in the kind of consumer durables space they want to get into consulting after business school. They have a 795 on the GMAT. That's a incredibly high score as you know. It's out of 805, so it's, it's almost a perfect score. Their GPA on the other hand is a 2.9, so well below the average at top schools. And they have four years of work experience. They're located in Turkey. And they mentioned in the comments that they left on their post on ApplyWire, they said, I think my biggest challenge is my GPA and lack of strong extracurriculars during and after college. Now I know the content of the application matters the most, but I'd be happy if you could give me your opinion on what my ceiling is in terms of high ranked programs based on these issues. So yeah, I'll. What do you make? I know you had some back and forth with this candidate and got a little more information, but what's your take here?
• 13:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean this is sort of almost your classic huge test score, poor GPA overall. And the question, there's certainly no question that this person isn't super smart. Right? I mean you can't get a 795 on the GMAT without being super, super smart. But their commitment, right. So are they committed to the academics, etc. Etc. You would imagine now several years later, coming to the MBA and investing in the MBA and so on and so forth that they would be much more committed to the academic process. But you know, ADCOM were going to be worried that, you know, the candidate would come, would skate through classes they're interested in, not pay much attention to other classes and maybe not get as involved and engaged, etc. Etc. As they should. And it's simply there Just to get the degree and move into consulting. So they would probably prioritize consulting, recruiting and Ace that, etc. So they've got to overcome that sort of commitment, maturity aspect and so forth. I mean again that 795 on the GMAT is extraordinary. I assume they can show some of that developing maturity through their work experience and they would want to get their recommenders to really talk to that and that they've performed super well, etc. Etc. The other thing I'd like to see from this candidate is more resin more understanding of what that long term goal might look like because it's easy to say I want to do consulting post MBA because that's what 30 or 40% of people say they're going to do. It's a natural fit right after the mba no matter who you are. But I'd kind of like for this candidate to learn more about where they see themselves in sort of 5 or 10 years time how they're going to maximize their impact through their long term goals and so forth and show demonstrate that sort of foresight maturity almost kind of like our Smith ADCOM was talking about and so forth. So I'd really like to see that. And yet the extracurriculars, maybe they're a little bit weak, you know, maybe that's a cultural thing, etc. Etc. But I'm more concerned about what the low GPA and the super test score says and how they can mitigate for that and coming up with more better developed goals to further demonstrate that maturity. I think that would be really good. And, and, and, and yeah, they asked a pretty blunt question, what's my ceiling? And I think someone with a super test score, Graham with a modest GPA maybe top 16, top 20. Before you really start to scrutinize other elements of the application, I don't know, what do you think? I mean I know once you get out of that M7 you get into the next tier. In the following tiers that test score ironically in my book anyway becomes more important.
• 17:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, this is tricky. I mean I think there are people with a 2.9 who get into an M7 program. It does happen, but you're right, I mean it's a big hurdle. And so as a result you'll notice their list has only a couple, I guess of the seven programs and the rest is sort of more top 20 type schools. And then they have a couple of international programs in INSEAD and lds. But my concern here is I wonder if there's a pattern here of they're good in a short burst. They can go in, take the test, have an amazing score. But over the long haul when they have to focus, the GPA is low, 2.9. It seems like they don't have any long term committed outside interests or activities or they mention that they just don't have strong extracurriculars. And so I really worry that they need to add something there or at least flesh out something that already exists. Hopefully. Maybe they do some things that they're not considering here. Maybe they're, I don't know, even simple things like maybe they regularly work out or run or what is it that they do with their spare time or are they just all work and no play? I mean, they risk sounding kind of one dimensional. I do think the good news is it's easy to fix the goals issue. Right. They could look carefully at their work experience to date, talk about consulting in a specific niche after business school and then maybe, you know, doing something in that domain in the longer term. I also think culturally, if they are Turkish and it sounds like they might be because they live in Turkey, that could be interesting as well. You know, maybe there's something, I don't know if there's anything in their background, I would certainly play that up because it's a unique thing and we don't see a ton of Turkish candidates in the applicant pool the way we do from other markets. So. But yeah, it's tricky. I mean, I really think that they could benefit from doing what we would call some transcript repair if they had time. I don't know if they could, you know, have time to do business fundamentals by GMAC or MBA math or one of these programs online to just show that they're taking that effort because I worry, you know, otherwise. But look, I think they could get into some of these schools and you.
• 19:19
  Speaker B: Make a really good point. I don't think they need to take business fundamentals, MBA math or whatever to demonstrate that they're smart enough to get in.
• 19:28
  Speaker A: Right.
• 19:29
  Speaker B: They need to do it to show that commitment and that maturity and a degree of self awareness to recognize as they have done in their apply wire post, that this is a problem. Right?
• 19:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, totally. So that's really what it's about.
• 19:42
  Speaker B: So. So show the commitment to the process.
• 19:45
  Speaker A: Yeah. So any event, I think, I mean, look, if they'd come in and said, oh, I'm applying to Harvard, Stanford and Wharton, I'd say wait a second, you know, but they have a broad range of schools here. I don't think they'll be able to apply to all of them. But I would recommend you know, take, take a flyer on one or two M7, have some of those S7 schools in your list or whatever we call that next group, you know, top 16 and then you know, look at the, you know, a couple in that last batch in the sort of top 20, 25. But in any event I think they have some work to do, flesh out those goals, do some online coursework to show that you're aware of the low GPA and working to address it and yeah, go from there. I mean hopefully they have some outside activities too that they can highlight even if they're not formal, you know, volunteer work or something. Hopefully they have some interests.
• 20:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:28
  Speaker A: All right, I want to thank that person for sharing their profile on the site. And I should mention Alex, you know, I think our listeners know this but you, you need only fill out an apply wire entry on our site to be eligible to be talked about on this show. So if you're wanting feedback, just fill out an apply wire entry and we may cover you on the show. Let's move on though and talk about WireTaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week has eight schools on the target list and none of them are in the United States. They have Cambridge, esade, esa, both of those being in Barcelona. They have the Indian school, Business Insead, London Business School, Oxford and Bocconi in Milan. So some of the very best non US schools in the world on their list there. They want to start in the fall or of 26. They have an undergraduate degree in journalism where they had a 9.2 out of 10 which I guess they translate to like a 3, 8. They were at the top of their class in all three years of that undergrad. It was a three year degree. They also have a Master's in International studies where they had a 9.05 out of 10 and they were at the top of their class for two years in that program. They have been thinking about working in consulting or non profit after business school they mentioned Bain, BCG and McKinsey as targets. They have four years of work experience and it's a bit, I'll get into it in a second here but it basically they did a year at a think tank publishing articles and things and doing some reports. Then they worked at a top business school as a research assistant associate for not quite a year and most recently they've spent almost, what was it, two and a half years at an American policy advisory company and they've Been promoted three times and are expecting a fourth promotion in short order. It's a multicultural kind of setting. They deliver analyses for over 20 different jurisdictions. They're specializing in European and Middle East, North African markets in the research work that they're doing and you know, other than that they started a Ph.D. they mentioned at one of the schools it sounds like in India, but they had to discontinue that due to injury they say. So I don't know much more than that. They're 28 years old, male, Indian and current role is. The title is Senior Public Policy Analyst. So Alex, there's. They give us a lot more. I mean they have a lot of decades extracurriculars etc. This is one of the longer applyware entries that we've gotten and I should point out they haven't taken a test yet but they're planning to and they say, you know, on the practices they're getting 315 to 322 on the GRE so they haven't yet taken it. But what do you make of this candidacy?
• 23:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think we need to see a test score in the late 320s. Yeah. So and I responded to that on Apply wire when they. After I read through their entry and it's fantastic entry so lots of detail which, which I actually really appreciate. I was expecting when they talked about the GRE that they're practicing at around 3:30 because they've got a fantastic academic record, etc. Etc. So I think it's really. And quite frankly it looks to me like they've only just started studying for the gre so I'm just concerned that they've only just started looking at doing an MBA and they're sort of throwing the hat in the ring quite late. And you know, ironically they've got to apply in the first round to the extent that they can, if they can. Right. So. So they're sort of up against the wall. They got. They want to get the GRE taken in August so that they can apply in the first round but they really do need to sort of knuckle down, maybe take a bit of time off work to really ace this test to complement their academic profile. A concern that I have, Graham, is a lot of their work experience. It demonstrates they're probably super smart and so forth, but it's very much sort of research oriented, writing papers, etc. Analyst and so forth and less actually doing so advising, creating guidance and stuff. And yeah, you could argue that's what, you know, junior consultants do or whatever. It might be, but I'm just a little concerned they might come across as someone that hasn't actually done stuff. So I think towards the more recent work experience, they've also talked about implementing some really interesting sort of technical solutions, automation and so on and so forth. So that, that might help balance that potential red flag, as it were. Because again, like you said, the outside activities actually show tell me that they're probably pretty good, you know, leader, captain of their sports teams, teamwork, etc. So outside of work they're showing some of that quality. It's just in work maybe they've had more of a singular role doing the research and so forth. So, so, you know, I, I again, I think this is a very capable candidate and I think there are certain things that they absolutely need to get done in a very short order. I. E. Really perform well on the GRE and, and yeah, with, with a strong story. I, I think, you know, they, you know, they're targeting the best European schools. That's quite interesting in of itself, but I think they're going to be a pretty strong candidate.
• 26:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, they say they want to work in the Middle East, Singapore or India. So, you know, they have reasonable targets because of that. I mean, obviously, you know, if you go to Harvard or Stanford, you could work in those markets too. But for some reason they have, you know, this sort of focus on non US schools, which is fine. I'm really of two minds on this candidate. So on the one hand I look at the profile and I'm like, wow, you know, really interesting to see an Indian male who majored in journalism and then did a master's in International studies and is working as like a public policy analyst. I mean, it's just not a common profile because normally from India we see engineers or computer programmers and you know, that's the stereotype at least. Right. So on the one hand I'm like, wow, this is kind of an interesting candidate. The numbers are fantastic when you look at how they did academically. And so you say, wow, you know, and you know, they've got four years of work experience. It's interesting work experience. But then there's another part of me that looks at this candidate and says like you're saying, I think the technical term is policy wonk, right? Someone who's like kind of nerdy and isn't like out there doing so much as writing papers. So there's that element that they might have to combat a bit. But as you correctly point out, they have all these extracurriculars where they've had leadership roles and captain of their cricket team, et cetera, so they could potentially stand out that way. But I think where you and I absolutely agree is that they need to hit this test out of the park because number one, they still are an Indian male, so overrepresented in the pool. Number two, these grades would suggest that they need to have a very high GRE score or that they should be able to get a high GRE score. And so if they come in low on the test, you suddenly say, wait a second, maybe that journalism degree or international studies degree wasn't so challenging after all. If they just sort of breeze through it and then can't do well on the gre. So as you said, I would encourage them to buckle down and get this test taken care of. I also think it'd be nice to better, you know, a little bit more about the goals. I think they could have some very interesting goals, you know, in the sort of consulting, but also maybe that sort of public private intersection domain so they can think about that. But you know, again, they could go work for, you know, the OECD or the World bank or I mean the people do those types of jobs sometimes out of business school too. So there's a lot of options here and I do like this candidacy. I just want to encourage them to take the test seriously and not rest on the high GPAs and stuff.
• 28:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, couldn't agree more.
• 28:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, so anyway, I want to thank them for, you know, sharing their profile. Best of luck as they buckle down for that test which is coming up soon I think. And yeah, we'll see how it goes. And yeah, hopefully they can get everything together and some apps in for round one. Let's move on though and talk about WireTaps. Candidate number three. So our third candidate this week has six schools on the target list. They want to start school in the fall of 26 and they're looking at, at Tuck, Michigan, MIT, Kellogg, Chicago, Booth and Darden. They have been working in chemical engineering and engineering sales. They are looking to get into consulting after business school. They have a 745 on the GMAT again, another great score and they have a 3.95 GPA in undergrad. They've been working for three years. They're based in Chicago so they're pretty active in their industry in terms of professional development groups and networking. They're also on an associate board for a non profit in Chicago. They have somewhat less conventional work experience they say because they've been working in engineering and now for a Small sales engineering firm and they say that they did not go to a very prestigious undergraduate university and I know you had some dialogue with them and one of their concerns seems to be it's like a consistent concern around oh, I didn't go to a fancy university and I work in this sort of tiny engineering firm doing engineering sales things now. And so they're a little worried about that stuff. But Alex, you set them straight, right? You had a conversation or some exchange with them on the site. But tell me what you think of this candidacy.
• 30:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, I was just listening to their target schools that you read out and it does occur to me that maybe you, they got to be looking at, you know, a Harvard, Stanford or Wharton to be a bit of a reach school. But why not? Right? I mean their concern is I work for a no name company, I've not had a promotion and I went to a no name university and I'm exaggerating that. No name. But you get my point. My, my counter to that point is well, it doesn't matter what university you went to, you've got a chemical engineering degree and you've got a 3.95 GPA. So I mean that's, that's pretty remarkable I think. Yeah, so, so that shows a lot of dedication to, to the craft, etc. Etc. Chemical engineering is not easy. I don't care where you go and so on and so forth and you know, yeah, sure, because they went to a school with no national reputation and the Baines and the Goldman Sachs didn't come bashing down their door to recruit them. Right. If you went to an Ivy League school, you'd have much more access to more mainstream whatever opportunities, etc. But you know, you go take up your role, whatever it might be and you can only do as well as you do. And it seems to me that whilst they've not had a promotion and that's just the nature of the firm, they've been able to tackle progressively, you know, larger projects, etc. Etc. And I think again, just having promotions is not the way to show growth. Growth is illustrated through the complexity of your work, your role, etc, as well as your impact and so forth. So talking about the substance of the work and having the recommenders talk about the substance of the work is going to be far more important than just saying I've had three promotions and that kind of stuff. So. And as you point out, they're active outside of work and so on and so forth. So quite frankly, Graham, this is an outstanding candidate, I think Yeah, I agree.
• 32:31
  Speaker A: I think sometimes people get a little caught up in the, oh, my firm's not well known or my school's not well known. And I think that could matter if you're not doing well in either of those environments. But as you say, because they kind of hit the ball out of the park in a very challenging, challenging major 3.95, there's not much to argue with. And the GMAT bears that out. So imagine a scenario where you'd say, oh, this school's a no name school. Everyone graduates with a 3.9 in chemical engineering or something. But then look at the gmat. I mean, they hit that out of the park too. So clearly super smart. I like also that they've transitioned, it seems, from doing sort of engineering work to getting into more of the business side. It seems like now they're doing marketing strategy, internal operations, et cetera. So I feel like they've already begun that, that key transition from technical to business. And that bodes well too. So I know there's a ton to like here. And I think you're right. When we look at this list of Target schools now, they may want to stay in Chicago. And so they have the two Chicago schools on the list. But you're right. I mean, maybe, maybe they should be throwing a flyer on, taking a flyer on, you know, Harvard or Wharton or something. I don't know. I mean, they may have certain preferences. I do see that the schools that they're targeting for the most part are small, close knit. You look at Tuck, Ross, even Sloan, much smaller than many of the other M7. And then they have Darden right on the list. So the two Chicago schools on the list, they're much larger, but this person's in Chicago. There may be reasons they want to stay. So, yeah, I don't know what drove this selection, but obviously you could get into consulting out of Harvard or Wharton too. And I think they could be competitive at those programs. But again, can't argue with this list. I mean, they have some really great schools here and they seem like they have a good head on their shoulders. So I like this candidacy a lot.
• 34:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, the list is very good. But why wouldn't you apply to one of the top three? I mean, if they get admitted to all these programs. Yeah. Maybe amongst these programs is their top choice. So I'm not debating that.
• 34:34
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 34:35
  Speaker B: But you know, they may always want to know, could I have gone to Harvard? Could I have gone to Wharton? Right. So put in a flyer.
• 34:42
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 34:43
  Speaker B: Would be my, my suggestion.
• 34:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 34:46
  Speaker B: Get rejected somewhere, then you know, you applied to the right schools, right?
• 34:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, good point. Yeah. So in any event, I want to thank them for sharing their profile and, yeah, wish them luck as they head into the admissions process here this season. Alex, thanks for picking these out. I know a lot of the folks have been joining us with our weekly webinars that we do in those essay webinars have submitted to apply wire. And hopefully those will keep coming in and you can keep finding really interesting cases to discuss on the show. But let's do it all next week if you're around.
• 35:17
  Speaker B: Very good. Stay safe, everyone. Take care.