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amit_y2a · Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:22 am

Hello Grahm,

Could you please evaluate my profile

I'm a 24 years old, Indian, living in India.

GMAT
Total - 700 (90%)
Q- 45 (75%)
V- 41 (91%)

Education:

2001-2004 - Bachelors in Corporate Secretaryship (Commerce)- 73% overall
2007 - Diploma in Business Management (6 months correspondence course)

Work Ex: Close to 4 years (incl. international experience)

May 2008- Present: Family managed business into distribution of bicycles and products for children, - Chennai, India

May 2007- April 2008: Full time working internship in Marketing Communications department with a leading automobile OEM manufacturer,- Paris, France

April 2006- September 2006: Full time working internship as a Business Development Coordinator with a leading commercial vehicles manufacturer,- Salzgitter, Germany

June 2004- February 2006: Associate Consultant with a leading Public Relations company, - Chennai, India

Extra Curricular achievements:

- Certificate of Appreciation from Loyola College for good managerial and communication skills

- Took part in the Loyola College Community Service Program and achieved targets successfully

- Associated with a start up NGO for over 6 months.

I am looking at 1 year or 2 years MBA in general management and should be strong in Marketing and Consulting. I am not too much of a finance guy.I have a list below. Kindly evaluate them on basis of the kinds of scholarships offered by them and the return on investment factors as well.

- INSEAD
- HEC, Paris
- London Business School
- Manchester Business School
- Warwick Business School
- IE, Madrid,
- IESE or ESADE, Barcelona (I have a lot of confusion as to which university should I apply to, kindly give your suggestion)
- NUS or HKUST Business School
- Please let me know if I should look at any other universities in Europe (Erasmus, Imperial College London, CASS etc.)
- Please suggest a couple of US universities which would provide me with good grants (Darden, UCLA etc)

Thank you very much and looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Amit

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Graham · Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:34 pm

Dear Amit_y2a,

Thanks for your post!

Before I offer my thoughts, I had a question: Do you have a four-year undergraduate degree? The reason I ask is because some MBA programs insist that applicants have at least 4 years of post-high school education.

Beyond the education issue, you seem to have a bit of a mixed background. Your grades from ugrad were decent, but your GMAT is fairly average for schools like INSEAD or LBS. In particular, the slightly weak quantitative score may raise some eyebrows.

Your career path is a bit complex for someone who graduated four years ago. Essentially, it looks as though you've held four jobs in just over four years time. As such, you'll need to think carefully about how to present the moves you have made. The good news is that it seems you have had some nice exposure to the automotive sector - and arguably, your current role in your family's business is related (cycles = transportation, as do automobiles). Your XCs look a bit thin of late - are any of the items you listed current?

In terms of school selection, nearly every program on your list is going to provide you with a strong general management education. Of course, the best schools for marketing aren't presently on your list (Kellogg, Wharton), but I worry about your chances at those schools with a three-year ugrad degree and somewhat average academic stats.

In terms of ROI, this is a calculation that only you can make. You'll need to consider what you'd be missing in terms of salary, the cost of the school and the average salary upon graduation (and beyond). Of course, I don't stress ROI as much as some folks when it comes to selecting a school, since in my opinion there are so many intangible benefits to the MBA experience that it's a bit narrow to view it solely through the lens of financial reward.

In terms of scholarships, I'm afraid that you won't find much in the way of 'free' money for b-school. Keep in mind that most MBA students finance their education through loans (or in some cases personal finances or employer funds - for those returning to the same company). This is because starting salaries for graduates are so high, that it has hisotrically been easy to borrow funds and pay them back. While scholarship dollars are given out to a select group of candidates, they are often merit based (e.g. for students with exceptional academics - think: 4.0 GPA/750 GMAT or for students who are truly accomplished and under-represented in the applicant pool). Given your numbers and the fact that there are many other Indian males in the pool, my sense is that the schools may not offer much in the way of scholarship dollars.

Thanks again for your post.

Best of luck,

Graham

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