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Hi there Jon,

I am posting my stats again over here with slight changes in my plan( hope you would be patient enough..) for an evaluation from your side for the range of schools both in US and UK where I may be competitive ( you kinda missed out telling me where i could probably target in my last post). My targets are top 10 in the US and top 5 in the UK. However I would like you to guide me in choosing the appropriate " realistic schools" and if possible advise on the mitigating factors for attaining so.

Also I would like to point out that I have just started working so you could probably evaluate without the work ex part although rest assured I am trying mighty hard to put my work ex at credible standings.


As you can see below there is a rough 1.5 year gap after my graduation although this time was used pursue something which would help me with respect to finance field.

Long Term goal: To start my own firm in Financial services either in Dubai or in India



My Brief Stats are as follows:

UG: Btech NIT Calicut( Tier 2 Engineering College India ), GPA: 6.95/10, Highest GPA was 8.8/10, Class rank: 17/42, No of Distinctions in class( GPA 8 and above): 8

GMAT, GRE: Yet to give I am contemplating something around 700 or 720.

Actually my story goes as follows..

Before entering college I had to drop a year during my 11th grade because my dad got a transfer to a different part of the country & after completing my 12th grade I again took a year off for the purpose of coaching myself for the prestigious IITJEE exam.Thus as you can seen I was about 20 years old when I entered college.


I graduated from a tier 2 Engineering college in India ( NIT), however I had serious health issues during my first year of college and hence i couldn't attend classes for half of the semester..( I received 6 F grades because of this..).My dad who happens to be a doctor of course treated me, hence I can provide some reasoning for this in my Essays as well as in some recommendation letters from some of my professors who know me quite well. Towards the end of my college I had began to do a bit of financial modelling and with sufficient interest I had taken up my final year thesis with a professor of my college for a financial modelling and optimization project.

I became interested in this field and again took up another 2 finance project under the same professor, all based on higher degrees of financial modelling and optmization ( He is now an Assistant Professor at IIM Indore). Since I needed time to put myself into this track I had to devote near to around 8 months solely for making out these thesis and subsequently publishing them into an International Finance Journal. These 3 projects have now been published.. Very Happy I have plans also to present them in a national or an international conference.

After 8 months of research in finance i decided to spend some time in doing social cause work and for around another 7 months was actively working for 3 to 4 NGOs( 1 international and the rest having offices abroad) in the field of Child rights, Environment protection etc..helping them with fundraising and campaigning. I was also subsequently offered to become a campus ambassador for a micro finance NGO in helping them find investors for the firms operations.( I am presently doing this apart from my full time work.

Most of the NGO work had specific outputs such has raising huge funds, roping in large no of investors, raising awareness on child rights to a larger section of the society etc.

Also the entire episode with the NGO's helped me realize and attain interpersonal skills such as pitching, managing investors etc.. which i am sure has incorporated itself into my work skills.

Thus after 1.5 years after graduation I joined for a job in Dubai at a reputed I bank.

Along the way I have taken CFA level 1 and 2 and FRM level 1 and 2 as well. Also I am planning to take up GRE Math ( apart from GMAT) as well some UC Berkeley extension courses to help rectify my academics.

Can you tell me whether I can make a shot to the top 10 schools with this profile or what steps are required for the same.


Hope you can help me out.

Hi Jon,

As a matter of fact we did have conversation on this in this forum. Check this out..https://www.beatthegmat.com/which-mba-pr ... 80222.html

The differences are already highlighted in Bold in this post.. so you could just skim through the rest and tell me where I could start looking for options..

Thank you..!

Hi Jon,

Thank you very much for your inputs..Helps me understand more about where I am still lacking.

Actually I was intending to set up my firm before leaving for my MBA studies. Now I am pretty sure that there is no way an Adcom is going to miss that one . Though the traditional route also seems good for me. But since these are things of the future so I cant exactly tell how my expectations are towards that point of time. All the more I did feel that entrepreneurship was more to my liking.

I think you have got one part of my story misinterpreted. The 1.5 years after my graduation was used to do the research work(finance publication) + NGO activities.So in reality I have actually just started my work as a credit analyst.Hence I would be applying approximately 4 years from now..



Is there any change in the list of schools Jon..?

Thanx a lot Jon! I think I get it now..