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Advice on profile, choice of business school & Recommend

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Advice on profile, choice of business school & Recommend

by RoshanBala » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:47 am
Hi,
Would like some advice on whether i'm targetting the right schools and whether i have a fair shot at getting into them. Sorry for the long post but wanted to be detailed so as to get a good view.

25 years/ Indian male ( how unique !!!! sux right?)
Qualification - B.A LlB (Hons.) (it is an integrated 5 year course in law - thankfully i'm a lawyer and not in IT !!)
Law School - National Law School of India University (top law school in the country for the past 20 odd years - like the HLS of India)
C.G.P.A - 4.23 on a 7 point scale (it's not great but it's definately better than 60-70% of my class though a few crazy people did end up with 6.0 +!!)
GMAT - 730 (47Q, 42 V - as expected did better on verbal); AWA - 5.5 (disappointed about this - ran out of time on the Issue essay without realising) - first try (14th of this month)

Extra Ciriculars
Member of Event Management Committe (2 years) and Convenor of Event management Committe (1 year) - got some great experiences i can use for my essays form this - my team ran all college events end-to-end from raising sponsorship to doing publicity to logistics.
Member of the Co-ordination Council (Apex student body decision making body)
On the univ team (at various stages during the 5years i spent there) for Theatre, JAM, Dumb Charades, Volleyball etc etc (it's a really small skool - just 400 ppl so ended being on most teams)
Swimming & Athletics at a State level in High School.

Work Experience - Standard Chartered Bank
July 2007 - August 2009 - International graduate Program
Over the course of 2 years did stints in various functions including Legal, Compliance & Operations etc as well as 2 fairly large projects (both in relation to risk & controls).
Also got to do three 2 week international training stints with people from about 45 different countries (have kept in touch and thus have a great network)

September 2009 - present - Business Planning Manager & Executive Assistant to the Regional COO, India & South Asia
This is a crazy role. Really hard to define.
Essentially i run the COO's office - create PPTs on various subjects for my boss to use, help manage the 1500+ people who report into my boss, organise events, drive employee engagement, drive various initiatives, do ad-hoc research, write & vet strategy papers, monitor costs, minute the company's India Board meetings (3 times - only do in absence of the BPM to CEO), oversee branding for sposored events etc etc.
Like i said it's really hard to explain but it's a really hard job to get (most people who get these roles have 5-6 years of work ex and an MBA) and i absolutely love it coz every single day is so different. I've also got great exposure to the Bank's senior management both in India and abroad.

Community - Used to volunteer at a hospital for children with cancer when i was in high school
Am a trainer in Standard Chartered's Living with HiV program (drive awareness on HiV & AIDS and also train other trainers)
Also by virtue of my current post am heavily involved in driving all the Bank's CSR activities in India & South Asia - have helped come up with the Bank's latest CSR project in India
Want to start working with an NGO as a mentor to some slum children (need to find the time - really wanna do this).
& a bunch of other little community/volunteering projects... (did one internship when in college with an NGO that does urban planning !!!)

Not quite sure where to put this but i've also been MCing most of the Bank's big events since i joined including the Annual Staff Townhall & the Mumbai Marathon Marquee...

would really appreciate some advice on whether i have a good shot at the Rd1 schools mentioned above and suggestions for other schools i should look at for Rd2... any other advice/ comments/ tips most welcome....
Also wanted to know if my GMAT split was fine since i'm only in the 77th percentile on Quant and am from a non-quant background..
Last edited by RoshanBala on Fri Feb 04, 2011 4:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by Tani » Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:08 pm
Wow! That's a load of stuff! Relax - no school ever turned down an applicant for smiling at the GMAT! With a score like that a smile is appropriate! The math is fine. I suspect they will be pleased to see someone from India who can pull such a strong verbal score, especially the solid AWA, because again, techies from any country tend to be very-lopsided on the GMAT getting lousy verbal scores. (I know - some of them are my students.) In the end, your verbal is well above the 50%ile danger zone

I would have used a different word, but yes, being from India does make the odds a little tougher. On the other hand, of the tons that I have worked with as a consultant, they have all been techies and I've never seen an Indian lawyer. That will be a big help! Are you planning to go back to India after graduation or stay in the States? The lawyer thing is interesting, but of course doesn't set you p to practice here. It might prove of interest to an American company that does business in India.

You have a ton of stuff to talk about. There is a lot of material for building eye-catching essays. Your biggest problem will be bringing focus. Your job, while not "standard" is actually not unlike what a lot of the graduates of these schools look for when they get out. You have been building many more "managerial" skills than have the techies who have been working in labs.

So, there are lots of good things to make you stand out. Sorting through them and presenting them in a cohesive fashion will not be easy. I strongly recommend a good admissions consultant who has worked with these schools. Nevertheless, you are way ahead of the guys who have nothing to talk about except arcane technical achievements, however brilliant.

As for the specific schools, of course you are looking at some of the toughest hurdles at all. Are you qualified to apply? Certainly. Are your chances good? Yes? will you get in? Who knows. In the end, admissions decisions are subjective and made by people so there are no sure things. I know of one guy who applied to the top ten and was turned down by none. Got into Harvard! Those anomalies happen all the time. I tell my applicants "If you really want to go to business school now because you need to learn what a b-school has to teach you, then you need to build a few safety schools into your list. if you are having a great career and only want to interrupt it and spend the money if you get into Harvard or Stanford - then only apply to those schools." Only you can say where you are on that spectrum. Having said that, I don't see a safety school on your list. I often tell people to choose safety schools from ones that are ranked higher in their fields than they are ranked overall. Not surprisingly, the top general management schools pretty well parallel the top schools overall with a couple of exceptions. I find students are very high on Duke and UVa, and their admission rates are a little higher - if only because they aren't in big cities and that limits applications - especially from people with trailing spouses.

The Big Ten (athletic conference) schools are excellent (Northwestern and Michigan are the highest rated), although less well known outside the country. All of them are in the top fifty. They are big schools with great facilities. If you are planning to work outside the States, however, you should probably stick to those schools highly rated by the London Financial Times, which has a much more international focus.


Hope this helped. You have a lot of decisions and some serious work on the writing ahead of you, but you have a great chance to end up at a top school.

Tani
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by RoshanBala » Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:39 pm
Thanks Tani !!! Really appreciate the insight and encouragement... Was getting quite discouraged after looking at the profiles of people applying on the net.

To answer your questions - i am pretty open to working anywhere in the world after the MBA - U.S, Europe, South America, HK look like good options. Definately would like to get some international exposure before returning to India. Your right - i'm not qualified to practice law in the U.S but i have pretty much already made the switch into management and have no intention of returning to law.
Also, i'm pretty clear that it's a top school or bust for me - i studied law at a top school, i love my job and the organization where i'm working, have great goodwill in the organization and potential for progress (even without the MBA) so it really dosen't make sense for me to leave my job and go to a Tier II school.

Also, one more question, is my CGPA goin g to be an issue? i.e. do i need to explain it? I'm pretty sure the top schools (Harvard in particular) know of the law school i went to- lots of international tie ups etc. and my CGPA is actually quite good for my school i.e around top 20 percentile.
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by Tani » Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:01 pm
If your school is well known and you are in the top fifth you should be fine. You have enough other interesting things going on that you should be able to get over that one. You might think about a couple of European schools. One of the Spanish schools would give you a third language (they teach in English but require you to learn Spanish). I don't know anything about the Indian law system. IS it a divided bar like the English one? If your degree has prepared you to work under an English legal system you might be double attractive to LBS or Said.
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by Tani » Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:04 pm
Do you have a good "outside reference"? That could add richness to the communication. Three from the same company could be pretty redundant. Peers are generally not your best bet since they are assumed to be less qualified to judge (except for those schools that specifically ask for a peer). What about clients or vendors or people you have worked with in the community. Just be sure it is someone who knows you and your work, not just someone with a title.

Both prior bosses sound great. I don't see any particular risks in either one. I would lean toward the one who has the most immediate knowledge of your work and potential. Given that you have several schools, you might want to use each for a couple of schools. That would lessen the burden. Some people are not happy about writing four or more recommendations since many of the b-school ones are specific and can't be used for other schools.
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