<p>Greetings, folks. I normally dislike asking this question to people, but I'm trying to craft my trajectory for the next year and a half and would love some insight from those who have gone through this process. I want to know what my chances are of getting into a top 5 MBA program (i.e. Harvard, Stanford, etc.). Here are my credentials:</p>
<ul>
<li>I graduated from UC Berkeley with a 3.4 GPA and majored in Political Theory.</li>
<li>I am a Teach for America alumnus and have two years of experience in teaching high school government and economics.</li>
<li>I have a Master of Art in Teaching graduate degree.</li>
<li>I am a former White House intern.</li>
<li>I'm currently an MPP student at Vanderbilt University. I'll be done with this degree in 2015.</li>
<li>I have consulting work experience and campaign management work experience.</li>
<li>My GRE quantitative score wasn't too impressive, but I'm planning to retake it this summer. I've heard Harvard accepts the GMAT and GRE.</li>
</ul>
<p>What are my chances? The MBA is central to my career aspirations. I think a top 5 program would escalate my skills.</p>
<p>There’s no way to quantify chances, as competition to the top 5 MBA programs are ridiculous even for students with excellent credentials.</p>
<p>The crux is really not about the names of the experiences you had, but what kinds of things you did there. So you did TFA - do you have any notes about your leadership abilities in TFA? Did you significantly raise test scores, innovate new ways of teaching, lead your colleagues in some kind of new method, begin a new extra-curricular for your students? How did you go above and beyond as a leader in TFA? Same question at your White House internship and consulting work experience. A vast chunk of competitors for top MBA programs have consulting experience. How did you distinguish yourself?</p>
<p>MBA programs are looking for leaders; top 5 MBA programs are looking for <em>phenomenal</em> leaders, the kind of people who will be leading Fortune 500 companies or the Senate or the Presidency 15 years down the line. What kinds of things have you done to exemplify that you might have the spark of that kind of leadership?</p>
<p>Also, of course, you must try to get your GRE score as high as possible.</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies, Catria and Juillet. </p>
<p>To start off, my quant score was in the 50th percentile. So, I do believe a drastic improvement is necessary. As for my leadership skills in TFA, the White House, campaign management, and consulting:</p>
<p>TFA- I was the social studies department chair in my second year and the faculty chair of the student government association. I did improve my students’ scores, but there really wasn’t a benchmark to measure it against since we weren’t tested a subject.</p>
<p>White House- I served as a director for the domestic policy interest group for other interns. I was also in the Gifts office for most of my day-to-day.</p>
<p>Campaign management: I’ve worked on campaigns my whole life. I’m currently serving as a campaign manager for a candidate in a local school board race. It’s a paid position (if that matters).</p>
<p>Consulting: I’ve worked as a consultant to the TN Department of Education since December and have advised them on matters pertaining to Common Core implementation and school district capacity building.</p>
<p>I hope this helps! More feedback is welcome–thanks again!</p>
<p>Business school admissions may view you as a person who is interested in collecting degrees rather than someone who wants to use your degrees for a career path. That doesn’t bode well for you.
If I were you, I would work for a few years in a career path that is relevant to the degrees that you have already collected first. An MBA degree doesn’t help those who only have spotty gaps in a full time job.</p>
<p>“I think a top 5 program would escalate my skills.” Don’t be too sure about this. Most of what you’ll need will be learned on the job. The program will escalate your opportunities for jobs in certain business-related fields, especially I-banking and consulting.</p>
<p>You might feel like a ‘top 5’ program will give you more than other schools and escalate your skills.</p>
<p>Your goal is professional. Perhaps the common denominator for people in that specific job/career path is coming out of a top MBA program.</p>
<p>If you have researched the specific schools you want to attend for the MBA, look at the chances you have to getting in to those programs and the things you can do to increase your chances.</p>
<p>Perhaps you need to get into a work experience after your current Vanderbilt degree; perhaps you can get into a job that you can then complete an executive MBA program.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all of the feedback. It seems like a consensus I’m catching here is that I need to have a few more years of work experience to better understand how the MBA will benefit me. I’ll definitely be thinking about this over the next few months. If you have anymore input you would like to offer, don’t hesitate to comment! </p>