Nathan Makes His Own Path.
Last year, Nathan Shantz applied to top business schools while he took the medical cannabis company he co-founded, public; deftly juggling both incredibly high pressure processes simultaneously. His company is now listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nathan is headed to Yale with a $50k scholarship.
Nathan has a history of doing things differently though. He took a year off after getting a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada with a full scholarship. While all his classmates joined the corporate world, Nathan used another $10K Toyota scholarship to buy a motorcycle for a solo journey across South America; a trip inspired by Che Guevara’s memoirs.
Nathan returned to Canada and parlayed his newfound knowledge into an investment analyst position at Macquarie Group, working on mining interests in South America. However, while he liked working in finance, Nathan wasn’t cut-out for cubicle life.
So, a couple of years later, when cannabis was about to be legalised in Canada, he joined medical cannabis start-up, Khiron Life Sciences as Director of Finance. Nathan led due-diligence to take them public and drove efforts to achieve the first medical cannabis cultivation license in Colombia.
Armed with his experience taking Khiron Life Sciences public, Nathan then co-founded his own medical cannabis company. As COO of Franchise Global Health, he raised $50M and led expansion into Latin America and Europe. However, Nathan realised that while he had proved he could successfully start a company, he needed to augment his skills to scale businesses. He was also afraid of getting pigeon-holed into the cannabis industry and wanted an American MBA for the opportunity to live and work in the US.
In 2020, Nathan decided to work with Admissions Gateway on applications to Harvard, MIT, Columbia and Yale, after finding they were the highest rated admissions consultants on Poets & Quants. Nathan says another deciding-factor was that their pricing was more competitive than top US-based consultants. Though Nathan worked with other consultants as well, he says Admissions Gateway stood out in their ability to get to know him and understand his profile.
Nathan had already started studying for the GMAT in 2019 but only achieved a 690 on his first attempt. Admissions Gateway referred him to a GMAT tutor that helped him get a 750 but Nathan confesses that between handling the pre-IPO audit of his company and the intense preparation for the GMAT, he was burnt-out.
Nathan had just 5 weeks left to apply and while he prepared applications with Admissions Gateway, together they decided not to submit in 2020 and in a break from industry norms, Admissions Gateway rolled over his package to the next year.
Tired from more than a year of preparing for the GMAT as well as working on his applications, Nathan applied to Wharton in R1 of 2021, just as his company was in the final stretch of its IPO. When he didn’t get an interview call from Wharton, they went back to the drawing board and worked together on his applications to Harvard, MIT and Yale.
Throughout the process, Nathan says he got emotional support unlike any other consultant, from Rajdeep Chimni at Admissions Gateway.
“I felt this guy is there for me”
Nathan got interview calls from Harvard and MIT that didn’t translate into admit offers but Yale called him back for an interview within a week. After he was offered a seat at Yale, Nathan visited New Haven, Connecticut; touring the campus, meeting faculty, going running and drinking with students and getting a feel for what the student-life would be like. Nathan says he returned much happier with his application results.
Recounting his experiences, Nathan says his unsuccessful Wharton application taught him how much essays matter.
“A 750 GMAT and a cool resumé is not enough.”
He recommends attempting the GMAT early and getting a tutor immediately if you feel you need one. Nathan says he took a year to prepare before his first attempt but with the right guidance, took just 3 months for his second try.
Nathan also warns that GMAT plus applications is a gruelling process and you need help from someone that has experience with both. Even then, you need a lot of time and energy to research programs & schools and understand how your own qualities will fit at each. He recommends meeting students and even visiting schools if possible.
“Think really deeply about where you will fit in.”
His last piece of advice is perhaps the most important.
“MBA applications are very competitive but some of it comes down to chance.”
Nathan’s story is proof of the value of persistence in face of an arduous process.