Winning Admission to Part-Time MBAs at Haas, UCLA, USC ($)

Justin’s non-traditional career path motivated him to pursue an MBA in order to consolidate his knowledge and prepare for an executive role in the healthcare industry. He started in oil and gas, then moved to pure finance analytics, and afterwards moved into his family’s business as a general manager in a totally different field, healthcare.

Justin’s Challenges

#1: Explaining Frequent Job Changes

Although his family business afforded him the opportunity to rapidly make career changes, this was something he wasn’t really sure how to properly communicate to the admissions committee or within his essay.

We helped Justin to explain the skills that he built at each step, and show the results that he had achieved in his latest role, proving that he was hired into the role not only because he was a part of the family, but because he was highly effective in the role.

#2: A Crazy Work Schedule

As a General Manager supervising a significant business, Justin’s work schedule was very busy. (The fact that he could not spend much time away from the business was a big driver in selecting part-time MBA programs rather than full-time programs.)

Justin was appreciative of Menlo’s flexibility and dedication, stating, “I expected a consultant to be very reactive where I would have to be pushing them for answers and pushing them for the tricks to increase my chances of getting into a program. But really they were the ones that came forth to me. David and Rebecca are working early, working late, and usually I would get a response within an hour or two.”

For an MBA applicant like Justin, with a busy full-time job, this quick response was crucial.

#3: Interacting With Admissions Officers

We helped Justin to manage a number of potentially tricky interactions, including how to have a great interaction with an admissions director who he knew through a friend, and how to negotiate deadline extensions for the first offers that arrived while maintaining goodwill with each program.

In the end, Justin was admitted to all three part-time MBA programs that he applied to with Menlo Coaching, including UCLA Anderson’s FEMBA, USC Marshall’s “MBA.PM” Part-Time MBA, and his stretch school, UC Berkeley Haas, where he has enrolled in the Haas EWMBA program.

Want to hear more admissions case studies from real MBA candidates? Check out our collection of Applicant Stories.