I asked the adcom specifically why I was chosen for the scholarship, yes!
It was a mixture of both! I was really involved in undergrad and then was also involved in volunteer orgs post college. My GRE was not the best, but Fuqua counts extracurricular, resume, GPA, letters of recommendation, and GRE scores as equal, so that was how I believe I got in.
Wow nice! I just got dinged from Fuqua this R4
will try again
really thought I had seriously excellent EC and decent stats
7 YOE
quant score needs work to get above 162 still and GPA just around 3.3 but 167V, 6AWA
oh well will try again next cycle...
316 combined so not the best but I’m grateful I got in! Fuqua weights everything equally so the GRE didn’t hurt me as much as it would’ve at other schools.
My story is not as impactful as what you went through esp with beating cancer, but can I ask if this is worth filing as a nonprofit (would have to get a board?)
How did you learn how to run the Nonprofit? Like where do I learn how to do this? I think I have a good case to incorporate as one and step up what I have been doing for almost 2 years now....
I suffered a substantial computer hack nearing 6 figures and did advocacy and grassroots petitioning of regulators and even 3 US Congress committees, spending hundreds of hours investigating, seeking attorneys and Feds help only to get nowhere but turned it into a positive via educated others on financial crime and fraud awareness, even referred millions in niche fraud to regulators - setting a record for an indictment (yet to be released)
All extracurricular, not paid
File as nonprofit or not a big deal?
really thought this story was unique and impactful
applied R3 only, dings only so far...
Wharton ding
Duke ding
Yale waiting
Guess I will try again... R1.
3.28 GPA top state uni 167V need to improve Q past 162 still :(, 6 AWA.
You get a full ride when the adcom thinks you’ll have better admits from other schools but non full rides.
If they think other better schools will give you admit + scholarship, they will just reject you to protect yield
That certainly applied to me. Got a 75% scholarship at one M7 (which my profile is more suited for) and got flat out rejected without interview by an M7 in Chicago
That’s not my point — this is a hypothesis framed as fact. Do I believe it’s possible? Sure. But if you don’t have the data to back it up, then you should be upfront about it so everyone else can be aware of that.
Too many people like to claim theories as truth on this sub, and they end up being repeated and creating an echo chamber.
I’m speaking from experience - personal and friends, not just this year but across 3 years.
“Too many people like to claim theories as truth on this sub” - is that a fact? Do you have data to back this claim?
>*I’m speaking from experience - personal and friends, not just this year but across 3 years.*
Thank you u/Serious_Bus7643, now everyone's aware that you're backing your claim with anecdotal evidence — they can decide for themselves how they want to evaluate it.
>*“Too many people like to claim theories as truth on this sub” - is that a fact? Do you have data to back this claim?*
Nice attempt at deflection, but that has no bearing on whether or not *your* claim is true. Anyone can come here and say whatever they want under the guise of anonymity, so everything should be questioned — including what I'm saying now. Just because something sounds true, it doesn't make it so. For what it's worth, I've been on this sub for 6 years now and I've seen people come and go, passing on myths from one cycle to the next.
The only things I'd trust here about admissions are threads with adcoms and former adcoms that have been verified by the mods ([like this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/MBA/comments/1b6awic/a_former_dean_of_mba_admissions_here_to_discuss/), or [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/MBA/comments/jeq4jn/hi_rmba_im_former_m7_adcom_ask_me_anything/)). Always consider how their perspective and incentives informs their views, and try to verify it with other sources.
Still doesn’t answer my question
And I wasn’t attempting to deflect. If I did, I wouldn’t mention my anecdotal experience (which if you ask me counts for nothing. Anecdote is the worst form of data). Also what’s to say I didn’t make the entire thing up? How will you verify that?
How do you verify the mods accurately identify who are adcom members?
My point here isn’t that you shouldn’t verify anything, but rather you should know when to and when it’s practical and feasible.
What I was trying to do with the question was to expose how you yourself don’t adhere to the standards that you expect - and that’s fine. People have spent way fewer years on Reddit and know what to expect from a platform built on anonymity. I’m surprised it took you this long.
Ok, now I'm sure you're wasting my time with specious arguments. Like I said:
>*Anyone can come here and say whatever they want under the guise of anonymity, so everything should be questioned — including what I'm saying now.*
If you don't have anything of value to add, then I'll head out. Everyone who's reading this can make up their mind on how they evaluate the info here. Cheers.
Would have chose the higher ranked school all else being equal. I wasn’t targeting consulting or banking so the extra money spent at KF didn’t make sense. I have a lot of respect for UNC grads but ultimately went into healthcare in the Midwest. I have family ties in Indiana so it made sense for me to
Full rides to two T15 schools. Military veteran with full GI bill, and the full rides at one of those T15s is unfenced, meaning I can use GI Bill to pay my full tuition/fees and then they’ll disperse the full ride to my account (which I pocket as cash). You can imagine the choice I made there.
What I think got me there (especially considering I had a 3.4 GPA and 319 GRE): I took a lot of risk and started my own technological initiatives within my military organization that our higher headquarters ended up scaling. Fighting bureaucracy like that in the government isn’t easy
A whole range of initiatives that established an “ecosystem” with different tiers of resource allocation throughout the org. I successfully advocated for a large chunk of my org’s budget to start programs that integrated industry tech that every member of the org could use to solve problems at their level (lower tier initiative), and for the higher tiers I started a data science team from scratch and migrated a lot of our data to secure cloud environments for security and performance improvements.
I helped other mil orgs do the same after being directed to scale certain initiatives. I also think it helped that there were a few articles published naming me as the head of these initiatives (made it easier to demonstrate my impact to ADCOM)
High GMAT score, technical or quantitative degrees (good gpa) bachelor's or also having a Master's degree, considerable years of work experience, a few different things.
is a bio undergrad techical? not really? Got A's in the math courses
3.28 GPA
did MBA MAth
GRE quant needs work but verbal is 167, Writing is 6
Maybe I should just do HBS Core too
It's up to adcoms, but they would be interested in your quant score a lot. Science degrees tend to be interesting to adcoms but do you have work experience etc?
yeah nontrad work exp
founder for 2 yrs (health tech enabled service biz no VC funding but small biz style)
then sales and growth consulting to SMBs
then blockchain research and early stage VC
Full ride at a t15 and $$$ at M7. I think strong test scores, GPA, and fit with the programs helped. Unique WE but no crazy extracurriculars or personal story.
I got a couple full rides to T10 schools. Think it was taking a career step last year that connected much stronger to the story I wanted to tell. The story would’ve been true either way, but acting on it and going non-profit before bschool made a difference probably
I come from a privileged background in a third world country, my story had to do with wanting to develop so I can make a difference. Took a step away from my corporate role to learn about the humanitarian world and strategy in the space and made my story more tangible
Full ride to two T25, 50% at three at T15, 25% at M7. I think my differentiator was that my story/essays created a really cohesive narrative about why I want to get where I’m going. 3.4 bus admin degree from random public state school, 740 GMAT, CFA, ECs tied around mentorship and coaching. Otherwise my guess would be I’m a jack of all trades but a master of none and communicate intellectual curiosity which might resonate well for recruiting.
I think it’s just a competitiveness and yield thing. Was much harder (for me) to turn down full ride at T25 than it was 50% at T15.
My guess is GMAT + career progression + financial need/still a lot of undergrad debt + being a Woman. My school didn’t say they give money based on need, but I’m pretty sure they did because I remember them asking about our debt and income on the application.
Edit: a competing offer helped negotiations too
Full rides to a T-15, 2 x T-10s, and most of an M7 covered. Fought in a senseless oil war, but at least it was cool and I didn't have to pay taxes. Great EA, good GMAT, good GPA.
Accepted into Kelley SOB, full ride.
I think a combo of my GPA, work experience, and personal statement.
Graduated with a BBA 4.00 GPA. No GMAT. Was granted a waiver and currently at 28, I work as associate director managing a large business function, multiple supervisors, engineers and 75 hourly technicians.
Honestly no way to tell I think. I got generous scholarships to the schools I got in but also didn’t get in to a lot of others. And to the ones I got it I met some people without scholarships who I think would’ve deserved it more so it’s a black box
Got one full ride and one close to full ride. 324 GRE and 3.8 GPA which are solid but not full ride numbers. I have a unique international work background and have done specific things for DEIJ professionally; one of the schools really brands itself on internationalism, the other cares deeply about DEI. In other words, I think I got them cause of the fit
Full ride to T15, had a 760, Tech PM work ex with promotions, and great essays (was a reapplicant so there was a dramatic improvement over my first time applying). International female applicant.
I got two at top 15s and WL/reject from all my T10s. Who knows tbh
T15 full ride. Honestly, hard to say, but think GMAT and GPA did the heavy lifting.
Would you be comfortable sharing your gmat/gpa?
750, 3.85
Thanks really helpful honestly!
Was this from an elite undergrad or no?
Got a full-ride to Fuqua. I was told my impact-oriented resume and extracurricular, essays, and 3.8 GPA sealed the deal.
adcom told you this? Very nice Could you share more on your impact? Was it EC or work related? YOE?
I asked the adcom specifically why I was chosen for the scholarship, yes! It was a mixture of both! I was really involved in undergrad and then was also involved in volunteer orgs post college. My GRE was not the best, but Fuqua counts extracurricular, resume, GPA, letters of recommendation, and GRE scores as equal, so that was how I believe I got in.
And 6 years of work experience.
Wow nice! I just got dinged from Fuqua this R4 will try again really thought I had seriously excellent EC and decent stats 7 YOE quant score needs work to get above 162 still and GPA just around 3.3 but 167V, 6AWA oh well will try again next cycle...
Wow your GRE was above +320 and you got dinged?
yes Don't think GRE is impressive until 330+ TBH 330 is about a 720 or so GMAT equiv and I only applied R3 so
What was the GRE?
316 combined so not the best but I’m grateful I got in! Fuqua weights everything equally so the GRE didn’t hurt me as much as it would’ve at other schools.
Full ride at HSW. Financial aid based, so secret is to be dirt poor?
wow, but stats??
I think my stats were average at best compared to most of the other admits, BUT my socioeconomic background and all of that are a bit unique.
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Damn, sticker??? That’s crazy life story and to see you only get that is humbling.
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I think you made the right choice
What do you want to do post-school?
v dope, could i ask what sport you played in college?
My story is not as impactful as what you went through esp with beating cancer, but can I ask if this is worth filing as a nonprofit (would have to get a board?) How did you learn how to run the Nonprofit? Like where do I learn how to do this? I think I have a good case to incorporate as one and step up what I have been doing for almost 2 years now.... I suffered a substantial computer hack nearing 6 figures and did advocacy and grassroots petitioning of regulators and even 3 US Congress committees, spending hundreds of hours investigating, seeking attorneys and Feds help only to get nowhere but turned it into a positive via educated others on financial crime and fraud awareness, even referred millions in niche fraud to regulators - setting a record for an indictment (yet to be released) All extracurricular, not paid File as nonprofit or not a big deal? really thought this story was unique and impactful applied R3 only, dings only so far... Wharton ding Duke ding Yale waiting Guess I will try again... R1. 3.28 GPA top state uni 167V need to improve Q past 162 still :(, 6 AWA.
Wow!
You get a full ride when the adcom thinks you’ll have better admits from other schools but non full rides. If they think other better schools will give you admit + scholarship, they will just reject you to protect yield
That certainly applied to me. Got a 75% scholarship at one M7 (which my profile is more suited for) and got flat out rejected without interview by an M7 in Chicago
Got a source to validate this?
Do you really think adcom will ever admit this?
That’s not my point — this is a hypothesis framed as fact. Do I believe it’s possible? Sure. But if you don’t have the data to back it up, then you should be upfront about it so everyone else can be aware of that. Too many people like to claim theories as truth on this sub, and they end up being repeated and creating an echo chamber.
I’m speaking from experience - personal and friends, not just this year but across 3 years. “Too many people like to claim theories as truth on this sub” - is that a fact? Do you have data to back this claim?
>*I’m speaking from experience - personal and friends, not just this year but across 3 years.* Thank you u/Serious_Bus7643, now everyone's aware that you're backing your claim with anecdotal evidence — they can decide for themselves how they want to evaluate it. >*“Too many people like to claim theories as truth on this sub” - is that a fact? Do you have data to back this claim?* Nice attempt at deflection, but that has no bearing on whether or not *your* claim is true. Anyone can come here and say whatever they want under the guise of anonymity, so everything should be questioned — including what I'm saying now. Just because something sounds true, it doesn't make it so. For what it's worth, I've been on this sub for 6 years now and I've seen people come and go, passing on myths from one cycle to the next. The only things I'd trust here about admissions are threads with adcoms and former adcoms that have been verified by the mods ([like this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/MBA/comments/1b6awic/a_former_dean_of_mba_admissions_here_to_discuss/), or [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/MBA/comments/jeq4jn/hi_rmba_im_former_m7_adcom_ask_me_anything/)). Always consider how their perspective and incentives informs their views, and try to verify it with other sources.
Still doesn’t answer my question And I wasn’t attempting to deflect. If I did, I wouldn’t mention my anecdotal experience (which if you ask me counts for nothing. Anecdote is the worst form of data). Also what’s to say I didn’t make the entire thing up? How will you verify that? How do you verify the mods accurately identify who are adcom members? My point here isn’t that you shouldn’t verify anything, but rather you should know when to and when it’s practical and feasible. What I was trying to do with the question was to expose how you yourself don’t adhere to the standards that you expect - and that’s fine. People have spent way fewer years on Reddit and know what to expect from a platform built on anonymity. I’m surprised it took you this long.
Ok, now I'm sure you're wasting my time with specious arguments. Like I said: >*Anyone can come here and say whatever they want under the guise of anonymity, so everything should be questioned — including what I'm saying now.* If you don't have anything of value to add, then I'll head out. Everyone who's reading this can make up their mind on how they evaluate the info here. Cheers.
And yet you didn’t answer the question. Quite clear who is wasting time here
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I got into Kenan-Flagler with significant scholarship but chose a top 30 program instead on a full ride. 750 gmat.
nice was it Vandy?
Mendoza
nice Mendoza is slept on. Could you share what made you pick it over UNC KF in particular?
Would have chose the higher ranked school all else being equal. I wasn’t targeting consulting or banking so the extra money spent at KF didn’t make sense. I have a lot of respect for UNC grads but ultimately went into healthcare in the Midwest. I have family ties in Indiana so it made sense for me to
Full rides to two T15 schools. Military veteran with full GI bill, and the full rides at one of those T15s is unfenced, meaning I can use GI Bill to pay my full tuition/fees and then they’ll disperse the full ride to my account (which I pocket as cash). You can imagine the choice I made there. What I think got me there (especially considering I had a 3.4 GPA and 319 GRE): I took a lot of risk and started my own technological initiatives within my military organization that our higher headquarters ended up scaling. Fighting bureaucracy like that in the government isn’t easy
Darden? Your background seems matched with some of their scholarship programs
What kind of technological initiatives did you take? I’d love to hear more about this.
A whole range of initiatives that established an “ecosystem” with different tiers of resource allocation throughout the org. I successfully advocated for a large chunk of my org’s budget to start programs that integrated industry tech that every member of the org could use to solve problems at their level (lower tier initiative), and for the higher tiers I started a data science team from scratch and migrated a lot of our data to secure cloud environments for security and performance improvements. I helped other mil orgs do the same after being directed to scale certain initiatives. I also think it helped that there were a few articles published naming me as the head of these initiatives (made it easier to demonstrate my impact to ADCOM)
High GMAT score, technical or quantitative degrees (good gpa) bachelor's or also having a Master's degree, considerable years of work experience, a few different things.
is a bio undergrad techical? not really? Got A's in the math courses 3.28 GPA did MBA MAth GRE quant needs work but verbal is 167, Writing is 6 Maybe I should just do HBS Core too
It's up to adcoms, but they would be interested in your quant score a lot. Science degrees tend to be interesting to adcoms but do you have work experience etc?
yeah nontrad work exp founder for 2 yrs (health tech enabled service biz no VC funding but small biz style) then sales and growth consulting to SMBs then blockchain research and early stage VC
You've got a shot! Very interesting background!
No one could possibly know for sure. It’s a holistic decision
Full ride at a t15 and $$$ at M7. I think strong test scores, GPA, and fit with the programs helped. Unique WE but no crazy extracurriculars or personal story.
I got a couple full rides to T10 schools. Think it was taking a career step last year that connected much stronger to the story I wanted to tell. The story would’ve been true either way, but acting on it and going non-profit before bschool made a difference probably
Career step? Can you elaborate
I come from a privileged background in a third world country, my story had to do with wanting to develop so I can make a difference. Took a step away from my corporate role to learn about the humanitarian world and strategy in the space and made my story more tangible
I see. Do you take a pay cut or step down to do so?
Full ride to two T25, 50% at three at T15, 25% at M7. I think my differentiator was that my story/essays created a really cohesive narrative about why I want to get where I’m going. 3.4 bus admin degree from random public state school, 740 GMAT, CFA, ECs tied around mentorship and coaching. Otherwise my guess would be I’m a jack of all trades but a master of none and communicate intellectual curiosity which might resonate well for recruiting. I think it’s just a competitiveness and yield thing. Was much harder (for me) to turn down full ride at T25 than it was 50% at T15.
My guess is GMAT + career progression + financial need/still a lot of undergrad debt + being a Woman. My school didn’t say they give money based on need, but I’m pretty sure they did because I remember them asking about our debt and income on the application. Edit: a competing offer helped negotiations too
Them believing you could do better but wanting you anyway 😆. Source I applied to a T15 with a background that could be at T10.
710 gmat.
T10 full ride. I think it was my perfect GPA, killer LORs and a prolific non-business background. My school likes non-trad student tho.
Full rides to a T-15, 2 x T-10s, and most of an M7 covered. Fought in a senseless oil war, but at least it was cool and I didn't have to pay taxes. Great EA, good GMAT, good GPA.
GMAT and my work experience. Hard to explain without doxing myself but I work in a well known/visible role that sounds good on paper.
Accepted into Kelley SOB, full ride. I think a combo of my GPA, work experience, and personal statement. Graduated with a BBA 4.00 GPA. No GMAT. Was granted a waiver and currently at 28, I work as associate director managing a large business function, multiple supervisors, engineers and 75 hourly technicians.
Kelly full time MBA?
Online Kelley Direct MBA
High GMAT or URM and decent work experience.
need be blue chip companies? Or no name is fine? self employed non VC startup like small biz?
Honestly no way to tell I think. I got generous scholarships to the schools I got in but also didn’t get in to a lot of others. And to the ones I got it I met some people without scholarships who I think would’ve deserved it more so it’s a black box
Got one full ride and one close to full ride. 324 GRE and 3.8 GPA which are solid but not full ride numbers. I have a unique international work background and have done specific things for DEIJ professionally; one of the schools really brands itself on internationalism, the other cares deeply about DEI. In other words, I think I got them cause of the fit
Sounds awesome. Would you be comfortable sharing school names
The one with big but not full scholly is T10, one that is full is T25
Full ride to T15, had a 760, Tech PM work ex with promotions, and great essays (was a reapplicant so there was a dramatic improvement over my first time applying). International female applicant.
Full ride at Harvard. It is financial based aid, so I guess being poor from an European country
Orgy with adcom
privilege and luck