HBS MBA Chances – 2 Years Experience/GMAT 740/GPA 3.8//Top IT Company

First, take pride in your academic achievements: you are above the HBS Class median in GMAT by 10 points, in GPA by .12 points, and you are a top MBA Applicant if I assume that you are part of the big G or the big F when you say “Top IT Company.”

What seem a little troubling are the years of experience. If you would gain 3 years of experience when you join HBS MBA program, then you are among the 25% of the class with similar experience but if you gain 2-year of experience on the day of joining the program, your chances go down drastically. Only 7% of the class will have 2-years of experience on the joining date.

The only option for lesser-experienced MBA Applicant is through the deferral program, which is reserved for applicants fresh out of college, and in many cases, applicants following through the deferred admission are few as by the time they would have carved their own path, mostly in an Entrepreneurial start-up environment as a Founder or as a key team member.

Unfortunately, you fall within the gray area: 1-2 year experienced applicant. But don’t worry - you have already crossed the first two hurdles – GMAT and GPA. Use this year to gain diverse leadership experience – in a different function or industry, and prove your versatility. Next Year, when you apply, you will have 3-years of experience, and 4-years while joining, and would be among the 45% of the class. Fitting the right demographic in terms of work experience improves your MBA Admissions chances considerably. If you are looking for calculating your MBA Admission Chances by evaluating other application traits, use the bookending technique.

To give you an overview of how the HBS MBA Admissions team accepts applicants based on work experience, here is a comparison for the class of 2014, 2015 and 2016.