Rejected. There’s Hope! Wharton Re-Applicant Success Story
We will be posting profiles of candidates who were rejected when applying to Wharton without our assistance (some without interviews!) but were admitted to Wharton the very next year after working with us to improve their candidacies. Let’s begin with this candidate who was rejected (after working with one of the priciest consulting companies) from Wharton without interview, but with our assistance not only gained an interview and admission at Wharton the very next year, but was also admitted to Stanford. He has matriculated at Stanford.
Candidate A:
Candidate: This candidate applied last year working with a different consulting company and was rejected without interview to both Harvard and Wharton. With the assistance of MBA Admit.com, he received interviews and admissions to both of his dream schools, Stanford and Wharton.
Age: 26-year old male
Industry: Investment banking at a large, well-respected bank in South Africa
GPA: Solid – though not stellar – performance at one of the top two South African universities
GMAT Score: 700
# Years WE: 4.5 years, with promotions
Extracurricular activities: Relatively weak in both the college years and the professional years
Citizenship: African country
General Assessment, Strengths/Weaknesses: We were rather shocked to see his prior outcomes because, even though his academics and extracurricular activities could have been stronger, this candidate had achieved a truly impressive record of achievement in his professional life. His personal story was amazing, but not well conveyed in his prior application. At MBA Admit.com, we believed he should have at least landed interviews at Harvard and Wharton had he presented an outstanding application the first time he applied.
We took a look at the applications he had submitted the year prior without our guidance and there was notable room for improvement in his recommendations and room for improvement in his essays.
MBA Admit.com Strategy: Our approach included making sure to highlight his remarkable personal story in the essays, drawing on that information to help explain why his academic performance was not stronger and why his extracurricular activities during college were less extensive. Very importantly, we kept his highly impressive professional achievements front-and-center in the essays and used the choice of essays to highlight his strong professional leadership experiences. The new application presented him in a very favorable light and painted a very compelling portrait of a man squarely en route to great success in the future.
Outcomes: This candidate was accepted to both Stanford and Wharton. After not even receiving an interview at Wharton the year before, you can imagine he was one very happy client!