<p>Hey guys, newbie here. I graduated from a Top 15 school with an English major, coming up on two years working as an analyst at a bulge bracket investment bank, and I am looking to go into a top business school. I also have a lot of non-profit experience and worked with a technology incubator for start-ups throughout my college years. I have a 3.7 GPA and a 720+ GMAT. My question is: what can I do to differentiate myself from the other bankers who graduated from top Ivies? I hear that Stanford has a reputation of only admitting successful entrepreneurs, geniuses, et al. I am no such person -- I'm just a person who keeps his head down, works hard, and tries to have a good time with everything I do.</p>
<p>I am thinking about delaying applying for B-school and traveling the world for one year to work with various non-profits that deal in a plethora of issues (i.e. renewable energy in the Netherlands, health services work in Haiti, microfinance in India, poverty relief/ economic development in Brazil, etc.). Not just because it'd be good for B-school, but because I've always wanted to travel and do good.</p>
<p>Recommended or not? Thanks guys.</p>
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I hear that Stanford has a reputation of only admitting successful entrepreneurs, geniuses, et al.
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<p>Definitely not true.</p>
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I hear that Stanford has a reputation of only admitting successful entrepreneurs, geniuses, et al. I am no such person -- I'm just a person who keeps his head down, works hard,
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<p>I hope you expect to achieve more than just being the "work horse." A top MBA should open a lot of opportunities for you and hopefully you will take advantage of them.</p>
<p>As for your resume, hopefully I'm not misunderstanding, but it sounds like post-grad you have just worked in ibanking for a couple of years (worked with tech and non-profit during undergrad). I have looked at a few Stanford resumes...I know that this is antecdotal and not necessarily representative of the class as a whole, but it's all I got: their resumes are similar to yours except that they generally had more experience and more diversified experience. ex: rather than working just working for an I-bank for 2 years, their profiles were more like: 2 yrs in i-banking and 2 yrs in mgt consulting.</p>
<p>Perhaps you can get into Stanford now. I don't know. However, if you don't feel confident about your chances I recommend making a drastic change to diversify/strengthen your resume. The idea about travelling around the world sounds good to me. Just make sure that you accomplish tangible objectives which can be displayed on your resume. This would also be something interesting to talk about in an essay.</p>
<p>Not to bump an old thread, but: "International" experience seems to count for a lot at the very top business schools, particularly HBS, Wharton and Stanford. Not whether you are an international citizen yourself but whether you have worked or spent substantial time abroad, and thus show yourself willing to have an open mind on other cultures, business practices, etc. It shows that you can succeed in an arbitrary and/or unfamiliar environment.</p>
<p>So in that light, it may be that working for international nonprofits is a very good career option for you. After 1 or 2 years there, an MBA would "make sense", and you would have a much easier time explaining a compelling reason why an MBA makes sense for you right then than you do now. Perhaps you want to get back into finance or change into consulting. Perhaps you want to learn the general business principles that can help you run a nonprofit better. Whatever it is, though, if you're as passionate about working at those nonprofits as you sound, it would probably be a good thing for you, both personally and for MBA admissions.</p>