Hey man, I'm looking to apply to H/S/W for next year too. What field is your work experience in? I want to end up working in an MBB firm but I don't have consulting experience, so I don't know if I'm out of luck...

My background is mainly at a big technology company. I don't think your pre MBA industry matters too much when you apply, they take people from all industries. But maybe to get into MBB afterwards, that's a different story. I am not sure though. Good luck!

bread crumple is right: the schools will probably not recruit you based on what your pre-MBA employment agency. However, the top consulting firms might look at you more fondly if you have experience in the field, or at least some kind of exposure to their work cultures.

However, that's not going to be a dealbreaker - people switch into MBB all the time. Try to do an internship with the firm you are most interested, and prove your worth that way.

Anybody applying to NYU?

[quote]Anybody applying to NYU?[/quote]
I am!

Here's me:

Work ex: 3 years, project management in financial services (will be 4.5 years at intake)
Undergrad: top 20 US school, 3.7 GPA
GMAT: 690 (going to re-take hopefully to get 720+)

Also probably applying to Wharton and maybe LBS.

Hi,
I believe harvard has closed for 2017 last year itself. Anyone else out there applying for fall 2017??

I will also apply to H/S/W plus Columbia. But I think my GMAT has topped out at 720. I was getting 760 on the practice tests but came back with 720. Do you guys think this is good enough?

[quote]I will also apply to H/S/W plus Columbia. But I think my GMAT has topped out at 720. I was getting 760 on the practice tests but came back with 720. Do you guys think this is good enough?[/quote]
It's really hard to say without knowing more about your background. It really depends on a lot of variables - your work experience, undergraduate performance, extra curriculars and volunteer work... Compare your stats to the class profiles on the school webpages and see where you stack up.

Your 720 is definitely within range of these schools, but if you come from a background that's overrepresented in the application pool the schools, maybe it's just average.

If you're concerned, you might want to work with an admission consultant to identify your weak points and see what you can do about them. Last year, an admissions consulting firm helped an applicant with a 570 GMAT score get into Stanford...

Thanks Logan. Sorry I neglected to put my other information. I have 4 years of work experience in financial services, it would be over 5 years at intake in 2017.

As for my undergraduate, unfortunately I did rather poorly (2.9 GPA). This is mainly because of my first two years at school where I was not focused. I received almost straight A's in my last three semesters though.

I don't have much volunteer experience. Sometimes I help a local non profit organization with their accounting and bookkeeping work. I have been doing that for the past 1.5 years. At school I volunteered with an LGBT outreach organization.

I would say that you might want to bump your GMAT up a bit, to make up for the lower GPA. Of course that you know these are highly competitive schools - for the current Harvard class the median GMAT is 730 and the average GPA is 3.66.

Getting a higher than average GMAT score will help offset the lower GPA and let the school know that you're ready to excel under the high pressure.