Chances of HBS 2+2?

[nitesh.chawda]

I am a 21 year old Australian (half Fijian - Minority) looking at HBS 2+2.

My credentials:

I am studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) at Australia's highest ranked private university.

ACADEMICS:
- Studying on a Dean's Academic Scholarship
- GPA (converted to US) Commerce (Finance) = 4.0 , Laws (Hons) 3.53 (eg: 85% and 78% respectively).
- I have made the Vice-Chancellors list of excellence ( top 1% in the Uni) 2 times, and Dean's list (top 2%) 3 times.
- Awarded by the CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the student Excellence award (in my second year of studies). This was awarded to 10 students in Australia and I was the first for my Uni to receive it.
- I achieved second position in the Global Management Competition.

LEADERSHIP:
- In January I was nominated and selected to represent Australia at the 25th International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague, Czech Republic. I will be meeting/touring the Czech Senate, Parliament, partaking in pre-trial mock proceedings in the International Criminal Court and will be representing Australia and its youth in today / future economy.

- I am the current president of the Business Faculty at my university. I was elected by over 1000 students. I manage a 13 person team, a budget of $30,000 , sit on the student liaison committee, academic tribunal and am 1 of 4 presidents in the University. I was also on the board that assisted the in becoming AACSB accredited (awarded to top business schools in the world - e.g.: Harvard, etc).

- I have created a Finance Mentoring Program - creating the curriculum myself and teaching/mentoring (up to 8 times a semester) 15 (first year) students through their education.
- I have a bunch of smaller leadership roles, such as Sponsorship Director of the University Student Council etc.

CHARITY
I have a very strong interest in promoting equality and preventing discrimination against those who are disabled. As such:

- I created the first disability students' association (that took months of planning as I had to make it a body that provided a sense of community but remain anonymous).
- I am currently a research assistant to a Professor in Law who has been a guest scholar to Harvard Law and Columbia Law. I am currently assisting in a publication that looks to compare disability legislation in Australia v USA v Japan v China.
- I served a term as councillor for my University's Philanthropy Council.
- For over a period of 3 Months, I mentored on weekly basis a young underprivileged indigenous aboriginal at a local high school. This was through a nation wide program.

WORK EXPERIENCE
- I have completed an : Internship in Deloitte's Corporate Finance division (the only student in my state), a law clerkship at Herbert - Smith Freehilll (UK's number 1 litigation firm, and Australia's number 1 law firm) (1 of four students taken), and throughout my education have been (1 of 10) students mentored by Macquarie Bank (Australia's leading Investment Bank).

INTERNATIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE:
- Further, I completed a 2 month clerkship in the Malaysian Supreme Court (this was through Albar & Partners - Malaysia's 1st or 2nd (changes) leading Commercial Law firm). This was particularly hard, as the whole trip was completely foreign to me!

PS: I am studying part time at Uni and have spent the last 3-4 months preparing for the GMAT. I am confident I can get 730+ (mainly because I have been preparing, but I have a GPA of 4 in Finance (good quant skills) and a GPA of 3.53 in Law meaning I will get honors (strong verbal skills).

thanks :)

[mili]

Hello!

Thanks for submitting your profile here. I think you have a very strong leadership background for someone your age. I do worry a little bit about your law background -- I think you'll have to be very clear and convincing as to why you want an MBA. But as it stands, you have stellar academics, very strong extracurricular/community leadership and good work experience. Ideally your internships would have been a bit stronger, but since most of them are in the legal field it's tough to demonstrate strong leadership there. Still, I think you could compensate with your non-professional leadership experience. I obviously can't make any guarantees -it's a very competitive program... but I'd say if you can reach your target GMAT score, give it a go. It's definitely worth trying!

Best,
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com

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