Our client, Jackie, had a lot to offer business school, and in fact, any community that she joined.  She had a true track record of success and made a positive impact on others and on organizations. 

As an undergraduate, Jackie attended a top 20 school and majored in American Civilization.  She earned a 3.5 GPA, and really enjoyed the academic experience.  When she graduated, she joined a small arts non-profit in San Francisco, CA.  Because it was a very small organization, Jackie wore many hats.   She helped develop art guides of major cities, organized lectures, led grass roots marketing efforts, developed and managed strategic relationships and much more.  In her personal time, she was very involved with improving arts programs in local public elementary schools, and volunteered many hours per week.

After three years, Jackie felt that it was time to move on, and decided that business school would be a good catalyst for whatever was next (and she was admittedly a bit unclear).

She studied for and took the GMAT and after two attempts, proceeded with a 640.  Despite a score that was below average for her target schools, she decided to apply to four top tier business schools:  UC Berkeley Haas, UCLA Anderson, Stanford and Wharton.

In developing Jackie’s application, we brainstormed short and long term career goals and she was able to clearly articulate an interesting career path that made a lot of sense for business school.  She also highlighted her involvements effectively and overall, submitted a very strong application. 

 However, she knew that a major hole in her candidacy was proof of quantitative abilities.  She had almost no quant courses on her academic transcript, minimal quant exposure in her job, and her GMAT score was below average in both quant and verbal.  Jackie knew that schools might question her ability to navigate a rigorous quantitative courseload, and did highlight plans to take a quantitative class in the near future.

When the results came in, our concerns proved to be well founded.  Jackie was denied at Anderson and Haas.  She was placed on the waitlist at Stanford and was eventually denied admission there as well.  Wharton gave her a “conditional” acceptance.  She could attend as long as she took a Calculus course and received a B+ or higher.

This was good news that unfortuantely held a bit of uncertainty and anxiety.  Ultimately, however, Jackie earned an A in the class, fulfilled her requirement and went off to Wharton.  Whew!

*Please note that no client details are ever shared in SBC Scoop or otherwise without complete sign off from client.

Earlier this month, as part of our Facebook 1,000 Final Stretch Contest, I asked you for suggestions on how to improve our blog, our Facebook page and my Tuesday Tip videos.  Over and over you suggested that we discuss: 
“diverse experiences of people…”
“specific backgrounds and their weaknesses…”
“backgrounds of people we have helped…”

Sounds like you want some case studies!!  So I thought about the best way to do this, dug into my client database, contacted clients, asked for permission to anonymously feature them and…

WA-LAH!  Introducing the newest weekly feature on the Stacy Blackman Consulting blog:  SBC Scoop. 

SBC Scoop will provide an inside look at our client experiences.  I hope that reading about our clients, understanding the advice they were given, and viewing the results, will help you on your quest for an MBA.  

Our first SBC Scoop case study is about a client who decided to ask for a deferral.

Our client, “Jason’s” father was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks after he started working with us.  This was a difficult situation, but he decided to forge ahead with his applications, as this had been his plan for a long time, and his father’s prognosis was unclear.  Jason applied to four schools: Wharton, Kellogg, Michigan and Tuck.  He put together a very strong package and was ultimately admitted to three of his target schools: Wharton, Kellogg and Michigan.  Unfortunately, over the next few months, his father’s health greatly declined and Jason felt that he needed to be near his family in southern California, to help support them.  Jason moved from his home in San Francisco, down to Los Angeles, and put his business school plans on hold indefinitely.  Of the three schools that he received admits from, he was torn between Wharton and Kellogg as his first choice.  He decided to contact those two schools and ask for deferrals.  We discussed the situation with him, and although deferrals are rarely guaranteed, this felt like as good a reason as any to request one.  We were optimistic that if he honestly relayed his story to the admissions comittee, and conveyed his enthusiasm for the programs, they would be sympathetic. 

What ultimately happened taught us a lot about deferrals.  Wharton granted a deferral and he ended up attending one year later.  I am sorry to report that my other alma mater, Kellogg, declined his request.  Obviously, this made Jason’s decision very easy and he still went on to have a great experience at one of the top business schools in the world.  This was Kellogg’s loss, but for us certainly highlighted the uncertainty around deferral requests.  It’s never a good idea to plan for a deferral to be part of your strategy.  Obviously, life can be unexpected, and in case something comes up, it’s nice to know that a deferral might be an option.  Yes, a possible option, but never something to count on.

So, what do you think?  Does this outcome surprise you?  Let me know in the comments below, and let me know what you think of SBC Scoop as well.  If you have ideas for profiles to feature, you can also suggest them below.

B-school alums have really been coming through for their alma maters lately. Last week, I wrote about Columbia Business School alum Richard Paul Richman’s $10m gift to Columbia University for the establishment of the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy. This week, the trend continues with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School alum Barry R. Lipman, who recently gave Wharton $6.5m to establish the Lipman Family Prize, which will honor one organization committed to social change annually.

According to a press release, Wharton will award one organization each year a $100,000 cash award, choosing a winner who is “devoted to positive social impact and the creation of sustainable solutions to significant social and economic challenges.”  The winning organization, as well as top finalists, will have the opportunity to form ongoing partnerships with Wharton, from working with faculty researchers to recruiting students for internships.

Said Wharton dean Thomas S. Robertson:

We are deeply grateful for Barry Lipman’s gift. Dedication to social impact is one of the pillars of the Wharton School, and it is an honor to administer such an important award that recognizes organizations with an effective, innovative approach to creating social and economic value worldwide.

Wharton hopes to begin the application process for the Lipman Family Prize this spring, and plans to hold the first award ceremony in the spring of 2012. While Wharton will administer the prize, the winner will be selected by an interdisciplinary committee comprised of faculty and staff from several departments across the University of Pennsylvania.

Lipman stated that his goal for establishing the prize is to “expand the benefit of social impact organizations around the world by helping to improve their delivery of services through competition, to inspire Penn students to enter the field, and to encourage the transfer of successful methods of operation to similar local and regional organizations.”

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is expanding its interactive media initiative to become the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative (WCAI), the school announced earlier this week. Through this initiative, researchers will collaborate with leading-edge businesses to ask and answer critical data-driven questions.

Many businesses now realize that customer analytics offers a meaningful competitive edge; WCAI will help them understand how to leverage the individual-level data that they collect about their customers’ online and offline behaviors.

There are numerous organic connections in the area of analytics between faculty across schools and departments at the University of Pennsylvania, which will facilitate the creation of cross-discipline concentrations for students at both the MBA and undergraduate levels.

“Many leading firms are starting to hire top talent in this area,” says Eric Bradlow, the K.P. Chao Professor of Marketing, Statistics and Education, Vice-Dean of Wharton Doctoral Programs and Co-Director of WCAI.

“We will not only be poised to meet this growing demand, but to shape it. We will create interest among prospective applicants to Wharton and Penn, and will work with firms to encourage the hiring of top Wharton and Penn talent for these emerging positions,” Bradlow says.

If you live in the Bay Area, don’t miss this event!

Wharton|San Francisco has graciously offered to host Stacy Blackman Consulting for an informative evening on the topic of the MBA Admissions process. Register.

This interactive workshop is for anyone who has wondered what goes on in that mysterious black box otherwise known as The Admissions Committee! We will go behind the scenes and evaluate real application files from the perspective af an admissions committtee at a top MBA program. Plus, a bonus – you will get to check out Wharton’s amazing West Coast facility. Register

Here are the official details:

Join us as we go “into committee” and review real MBA applicant files through the lens of the admissions committee. You will leave this interactive session with a better understanding of what an admissions committee looks for and how each piece of the business school application is evaluated.

Your presenter, Katie Behroozi, is an admissions consultant with Stacy Blackman Consulting. Katie received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as an MA in Education from Stanford and an undergraduate degree from Princeton. Katie’s prior career in nonprofit management included experience in strategic planning, fund raising, PR and sales.

Location: Wharton|San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania, 101 Howard Street, Suite 500
Date: Monday, September 27
Time: 6:00 – 8:00PM

(Doors open at 6, presentation to start promptly at 6:30 and will be followed by Q&A)

Register here.

If you live in the Bay Area, don’t miss this event! 

Wharton|San Francisco has graciously offered to host Stacy Blackman Consulting for an informative evening on the topic of the MBA Admissions process.  Register.

This interactive workshop is for anyone who has wondered what goes on in that mysterious black box otherwise known as The Admissions Committee!  We will go behind the scenes and evaluate real application files from the perspective af an admissions committtee at a top MBA program.  Plus, a bonus – you will get to check out Wharton’s amazing West Coast facility.  Register

Here are the official details:

Join us as we go “into committee” and review real MBA applicant files through the lens of the admissions committee.  You will leave this interactive session with a better understanding of what an admissions committee looks for and how each piece of the business school application is evaluated.

Your presenter, Katie Behroozi, is an admissions consultant with Stacy Blackman Consulting.  Katie received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as an MA in Education from Stanford and an undergraduate degree from Princeton.  Katie’s prior career in nonprofit management included experience in strategic planning, fund raising, PR and sales.

Location: Wharton|San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania, 101 Howard Street, Suite 500
Date:  Monday, September 27
Time:  6:00 – 8:00PM

(Doors open at 6, presentation to start promptly at 6:30 and will be followed by Q&A)

Register here.