Please Evaluate

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Please Evaluate

by amenon » Sat Mar 26, 2016 11:26 pm
Hello

Kindly suggest bschools that are most suitable for my profile-

Indian female 25
GMAT score- 690 (V33 Q50 IR6)
10th- 95% School topper, French topper
12th- 92% Phy, Chem, Bio topper
UG- Degree in Electronics and Communications Engg from NIT. Passed with First class (gpa- 4)
Work experience- 3.5 years in deloitte. 2 years as a business technology analyst and 1.5 years as a marketing and communications analyst. Shifted my role since I was keen to move to a marketing profile.
Other exp- Currently working with a rural school (1year plus experience). Actively involved in the admin process and teaching communication skills to high school children.
Extra curricular activities- Well trained singer. Won several awards as a singer.

Please let me know if you need more information. I am targeting schools such as NUS, ISB and Nanyang (because of closeness to my country- India) and US schools such as Johnson, Tepper and Darden.

Thank you!

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by MargaretStrother » Mon Mar 28, 2016 4:28 am
Hi Amenon,
I am happy to weigh in on the US schools, but I don't have enough experience with the programs in India or Singapore to add value there.
Top US schools will love your work at Deloitte and your clear commitment to the community. However, one crucial piece of information is missing: what are your GOALS from the MBA and beyond? A school is a fit for your profile if it fits with your career vision, and we don't see that so far. Your numbers appear good but not stellar: your GMAT is at or slightly below the median for the US schools you have listed here, and your undergraduate grades are not entirely clear to me (high school grades would not be taken into consideration by the admissions committee). I am also not seeing any international exposure, which would be an important factor for US schools, although it's great that you work for a well-known international company.

Moving forward, for US schools you'll want to go beyond the rankings and even the class profiles, and learn more about each individual program, with a clear set of your own post-MBA goals in mind. The short-term goal -- who's going to hire me, doing what, and why? -- is crucial. Schools want to see that you have analyzed your first step out of the MBA and that the step you've identified is relevant to the assets of the program that school offers. Your long term goal -- your career vision, what you hope to impact in the future as a global leader -- shows the schools how you will add value to their brand as an alum. This is a hypothetical exercise, but it's still an important one.

Once you have some clear goals in mind, it will be easier to decide whether Cornell's intimate Johnson School, in remote upstate New York, has more that is relevant for you than Darden in the South or Tepper in gritty, urban Pittsburgh.

So if you are at the beginning of your MBA research, I recommend that you analyze these top MBA programs through the lens of your own unique goals, not only hard skill-sets but industry targets, relationships, unique global opportunities..and then think about size, geography, brand. You might decide that re-taking the GMAT would make you significantly more competitive for the schools you like most, or that you would get just as much from slightly lower-ranked programs for which your GMAT is already strong; you might also consider traveling to the US to visit these campuses and get an in-person feel for the life of the community. Many Indian applicants don't take that extra step, so this will give you an edge over the competition.

The good news here is that you're quite young, so if the extra steps I recommend push you into Round 2, it won't hurt your chances at all; it's more important to build a strong foundation for your applications.

Good luck!
Margaret Strother
Margaret Strother
Senior Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting

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