Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

BeatMBA19 wrote:Hey there ,

Following is my profile . I am a 26year old Indian male .
-Did my B.com 62%
- Have a NCFM certificate in Fundamental Analysis and Financial markets issued by National Stock exchange (NSE)
-GMAT - 700

<<snip>>

It would be very helpful if you could evaluate my profie and let me know if my profile is apt for the following programs :
1. Warwick Business school
2. ISB
3. Oxford
4. Cambridge .



Thanking and Regards,
Raj

Raj,
I would put verbatim what I responded to you on our own forum:

1. You have a pretty eclectic mix of experiences. Is there a theme that connects them though? Does your experience as an entrepreneur help you in your PE job for instance? And did the service center work help you later in life? That is what you'll have to think as you prepare your applications
2. Arent you a little late in starting for ISB? i-Banking opportunities are not very common at ISB or Warick school; so you may want to choose wisely. 'Starting' a VC firm is a HUGE deal - make sure you've thought that through rather than making it appear as a mere wishlist
3. Any reason for not considering US schools? Some schools there could be good for a career in finance for you.

Cheers,

Hi McbMcK ,

I did notice the answer on your forum too . Thank you for that .
Although I have one small disclosure to make The firm I worked in wasn't really a "PE" . It was a firm where we made reports regarding the activities of PE and M&A deals which happen in India . And then the reports are sold to other PE's . Many Top PE's in India use our reports namely , Kotak ventures , Carlyle etc...
It's something like a newsletter to the top PE's in India . So basically its an intelligence/analyzing firm which analysis the PE , M&A and VC activities in the country .

Would this be counted as a good experience ?

2. Yes , I am a bit late for ISB . I will be sending in the applications next year . This is how my application looks like right now . I'm working on putting the application together and filling the gaps

3.Starting a VC , yes it is a big deal . But as I have been analyzing VCs and PEs . I have noticed that its just like running a normal business , The only difference is the idea and people to work on it are already available (on a broader view , not going into technical here ).

4. Well US schools conduct programs for 2 years . so il be taking a loan of around 100k$ and it will be blocked for 2 years . If I go for a 1 year program , it wont be so expensive and i would get returns on my 2nd year to pay back the loan and 3rd year the income starts flowing .

5. Thanks for mentioning ISB and Warwick are bad picks . Would there be other schools in which I would have a shot at ? (which would be good for Investment banking opportunities)

6. The service center job was actually waste of time . I fell for the trap for the brand "Mckinsey" .
But at the end of it I realized that Accoutning was not for me . It was extremely passive . it felt like I was a clerk and I was not contributing . I was looking for a more active job .


Thanks&Regards,

Raj

BeatMBA19 wrote:Hi McbMcK ,

I did notice the answer on your forum too . Thank you for that .
Although I have one small disclosure to make The firm I worked in wasn't really a "PE" . It was a firm where we made reports regarding the activities of PE and M&A deals which happen in India . And then the reports are sold to other PE's . Many Top PE's in India use our reports namely , Kotak ventures , Carlyle etc...
It's something like a newsletter to the top PE's in India . So basically its an intelligence/analyzing firm which analysis the PE , M&A and VC activities in the country .

<<snip>>

Thanks&Regards,

Raj

Have already posted the reply here; avoiding multiple posts on the same topic to avoid e-clutter

Please evaluate my profile :

-Female
-25 Years
-GMAT : 650 Q47 V33
- 4 Years experince in Market Research and Consulting
- BITS Pilani , Mechanican Engineering GPA : 6.9

- 2 years experince with one of the well known market researh and consulting firms. Worked mainly on consulting projects for some really big names in the chemical industry globally.
- Was a purely client facing role.
- Got 3 articles published on the chemical industry on vairous magazines and economic times magazine.

- Next 2 years in joined a German company, world leaders in their product, in their in house consulting team. This move was to mainly get the knowledge of how an organisation operates from inside, being in a consulting firm did not give me that perspective.

- Interned with 2 major companies during college.One of them was pre sales, and the other was for documentation for ISO. One of the projects was with the construction supplies for Burj Khalifa and the other was with the RO plant in Palm Jumeira.

- Extra currics : Black belt in Karate.Freelance wedding photographer.Regional level gold medalist in Javelin throw. VP of college SAE club.

Want to do MBA to mainly network and to better my knowledge in Market reseach and consulting.

Looking at only US schools
-cornell
-tepper
-kenan-flagler
-Marshall
-Scheller

Please tell me how this list looks.Could there be any addition to this?

Thanks for your help.

cd86 wrote:Please evaluate my profile :

-Female
-25 Years
-GMAT : 650 Q47 V33
- 4 Years experince in Market Research and Consulting
- BITS Pilani , Mechanican Engineering GPA : 6.9

<<snip>>

Looking at only US schools
-cornell
-tepper
-kenan-flagler
-Marshall
-Scheller

Please tell me how this list looks.Could there be any addition to this?

Thanks for your help.

Dear cd86,

Here are a few reflections on your profile and school choice:

1. You seem to definitely have some very interesting work-experience and achievements. It is however difficult to assess the credibility of your work without knowing the brands you've been associated with. For your first job, it is also not clear when you say client facing role, did you travel outside India? Some of these are critical to understand if your school choices are right
2. The motivation for an MBA is not clear. Learning and networking are definitely what you get out of a bschool. But all this has to be towards an 'end'. Do you want to stay in the same industry or move to somewhere else for instance? That is the first question you have to answer
3. The GMAT score looks amiss compared to your achievements at workplace. It will also make some of the schools in that list difficult to get. Are you planning for R2 this year or R1 next year? If latter, you would do well to improve that score and hence add a few more aggressive schools in that list

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Hi Sameer

I am a 28 year old female. Please help me evaluate my profile.

My GMAT Score: 710 (Q49, V38)
10th/12th: Scores are around 83%/72%
B.E. in IT: Score of 57%
PGDM (Marketing) from Tier II College: 66%

Worked for around 8 months in the IT Industry after my B.E. on Mainframes.
After my PGDM in Marketing joined Siemens in the IT division in their pre sales team for 1.5 years. Was handling all the Global clients for the Company. My profile was to prepare proposals for various bids in the market. Also handled in house marketing for the company.
Then I completely changed my profile and joined Pepsico in Modern Trade Sales for a few months. Then I joined J L Morison as an asst brand manager. Here we manage licensed brands. So we manage the marketing and distribution of imported brands for these Companies in India.

I have a total of 4 years of experience now ( quite varied and a lot of job changes).

My extra curricular are: Have remained the House Captain in School. Have been District Champions in Handball for my School. In College have been inter college Throwball Champions. I am a member of IYC and have undertaken a camp for making voters id, ration card and senior citizen card. Have written a blog on the same on CNNIBN website. Have also been a part of a start up Travel Company and taken trips for them over the weekend as a travel coordinator.

I am looking to continue in Marketing and specifically in Brand Management. Basically looking at a more strategic role after this MBA.

This is more or less my profile.

I have applied in ISB in R2. I wanted to know my chances. Also if you could suggest me some more colleges where I could apply. I am looking for a 1 year MBA.

Thanks in advance.

Deblina Banerjee

deblinab wrote:Hi Sameer

I am a 28 year old female. Please help me evaluate my profile.

My GMAT Score: 710 (Q49, V38)

<<snip>>

This is more or less my profile.

I have applied in ISB in R2. I wanted to know my chances. Also if you could suggest me some more colleges where I could apply. I am looking for a 1 year MBA.

Thanks in advance.

Deblina Banerjee

Deblina,

I have been responding to queries on the thread for a while, so here goes:

1. The strong points about the profile are your ECs which you seem to have continued over the years. The startup experience sounds interesting - something you should dig deeper and see if you can relate to your post-MBA goals
2. Getting into B2C marketing roles after an international MBA is usually quite tough due to both visa issues as well as lack of regional insights. Brand Management is usually different than strategic marketing. So you should develop a better understanding of the various aspects of "Marketing" which is a pretty broad term in itself - the goals part of your essays will be accordingly good or bad
3. I wouldnt really play a soothsayer as it is a very tough job; but if you've been able to justify the various career moves well, and have connected the dots - you may have a finite chance at ISB. For other schools, I think the chances will depend on this aspect. If you have a coherent story, you should have a decent chance at good 1 year programs.

Cheers,

Schulich School of Business MBA Interview with Admissions Team

York University's Schulich School of Business offers an international MBA course in Ontario (Canada) and Hyderabad (India).

If you check out the class profile, you'll find the average work experience to be 5 years (average age of 29). The average GMAT score is 664, half the students are international (i.e. from outside Canada) and 36% are female candidates.

Manish Gupta, from the MBA Crystal Ball team interviewed Imran Kanga, from the Schulich School of Business to find out more about the admissions process, GMAT requirements, financial aid, placements, locational differences and more...Read More

Please evaluate my profile

Experience - 16 Years
Current level - Senior IT consultant

MS (CS)in US - GPA 3.3 - from university ranking second in the nation among public engineering programs
BS (CS) in India - 68% (Is it GPA 3.7??)
GMAT 716

I have worked in India, Singapore and US. I am currently working as senior IT consultant at World Bank with good billing rate. My goal is to get into Manager and Director level down the line in 3-5 years and then finally C-level positions. Even though my title says senior consultant, I manage the issues and projects that are assigned to me and coordinate with external players.
I am planning to apply at Wharton, Duke and Darden's EMBA programs.I am going to sponsor myself for the program.Can I make it to Wharton even though I don't have Manager title? Are they very particular about job titles?

SmashMBA wrote:Please evaluate my profile

Experience - 16 Years
Current level - Senior IT consultant

MS (CS)in US - GPA 3.3 - from university ranking second in the nation among public engineering programs
BS (CS) in India - 68% (Is it GPA 3.7??)
GMAT 716

I have worked in India, Singapore and US. I am currently working as senior IT consultant at World Bank with good billing rate. My goal is to get into Manager and Director level down the line in 3-5 years and then finally C-level positions. Even though my title says senior consultant, I manage the issues and projects that are assigned to me and coordinate with external players.
I am planning to apply at Wharton, Duke and Darden's EMBA programs.I am going to sponsor myself for the program.Can I make it to Wharton even though I don't have Manager title? Are they very particular about job titles?

Dear SmashMBA,

A few questions and reflections:

1. GMAT score is in multiple of 10. So not sure what you score is? Another question, were you asking me on what your UG GPA is? Didnt get the question there if yes.
2. When you say Manager/Director level, it is not clear which sector you are talking about. Did you mean within the IT Consulting space? If yes, are you sure you need an MBA because many firms are ok with a masters (non-MBA) too for career progression.
3. Finally coming to your question on chances. For reasons mentioned here, I would not hazard a guess on specific schools. But the way I see your profile, despite missing data, is that you have some good brand names associated with you for both your education and work-ex. So if you get your story right, you should have a fair shot at most of the Exec MBA courses out there.

Cheers,

I am an Ivy league graduate with a Master's in Engineering. I have a 740 on my GMAT (should I retake?) which I took last year before graduation. Now I have a couple of questions I hope you can help me with -

- My undergrad GPA is 8.96/10 from a decent Indian university, but I have a very low grad GPA of 3.19/4.00 from an Ivy league school(rigorous engineering program). Does this mean I will never crack the top schools- tier 1 and 2?
- I am working as a design engineer for an automotive company in the US right now, will my techie-tech work ex put me at a disadvantage?
- Should I apply for a general MBA or an MBA in Operations (considering my engineering background-coursework, also certifications in Six Sigma and similar)
- I am considering going back to India and starting something on my own - a real estate investment firm (family ties will help, considerable know-how), or a restaurant (with a partner). Will unrelated work experience hurt my application?

I am in a quandary as the jobs being offered to me in the US are hard core engineering jobs and there is not much opportunity for growth. I would like to apply in 2016 or 2017 to the top 10 schools( with roughly 2 and a half years of ex under my belt). I would really appreciate if you could guide me with some of my queries.

kawakawa89 wrote:I am an Ivy league graduate with a Master's in Engineering. I have a 740 on my GMAT (should I retake?) which I took last year before graduation. Now I have a couple of questions I hope you can help me with -

<<snip>>

I am in a quandary as the jobs being offered to me in the US are hard core engineering jobs and there is not much opportunity for growth. I would like to apply in 2016 or 2017 to the top 10 schools( with roughly 2 and a half years of ex under my belt). I would really appreciate if you could guide me with some of my queries.

Dear kawakawa89,

Here are a few thoughts for your to ponder on:

1. The grad GPA will have more weight no doubt in your assessment. So that's a bit of a drag. But you have a pretty decent GMAT score which should help matters. For the top schools however, you'll need a few more things going for you.
2. Foremost among those is your story. If you will have 2-2.5 years of experience, that is likely to put you on the lower side of the average. I am guessing that you are only starting out on your professional career journey. To break into the real big names, you'd need to showcase some really meaty work related achievements. Since acads wont get you in, this is going to be your main weapon. So think deep and hard on this. No, your tech background will not mean you cannot get a seat. But it does mean that the onus on showing differentiation is on you.
3. Most schools offer majors in functional areas. Not a lot of top schools offer dedicated operations or other MBAs. Meaning, you enroll for the full time course and then opt for the majors. If your question meant about what function should you talk about in your application essays, I think its too early for that. You need to really go out there in the professional world, understand areas that you need to work on, and decide accordingly.
4. I am not sure what you meant about going back to India. Was that before or after MBA? If before, sure go ahead and build your career on those lines. After a couple of years, you will know whether you even need an MBA or not. If you meant doing this after the MBA, then you'd have to really think of why would you do something completely unrelated now and hope the adcom agrees with your logic.

Hope this helps give some direction to your thought process.

Cheers,

Thank you for the reply.

1 - My GMAT score is 710(Q49 V37). I am assuming 68% equals to around 3.7 GPA
2 - I am planning to move out of consulting and get into director and above roles in Corporate world. Most of the companies take masters candidates for manager and director positions , but if we want to get into C-level positions in corporations they are prefering MBAs. That's what I have heard from others. Correct me if I am wrong. If doing MBA does not make any difference for my career, then I need to rethink about it.

Thanks for your time

mcbMcK wrote:

SmashMBA wrote:Please evaluate my profile

Experience - 16 Years
Current level - Senior IT consultant

MS (CS)in US - GPA 3.3 - from university ranking second in the nation among public engineering programs
BS (CS) in India - 68% (Is it GPA 3.7??)
GMAT 716

I have worked in India, Singapore and US. I am currently working as senior IT consultant at World Bank with good billing rate. My goal is to get into Manager and Director level down the line in 3-5 years and then finally C-level positions. Even though my title says senior consultant, I manage the issues and projects that are assigned to me and coordinate with external players.
I am planning to apply at Wharton, Duke and Darden's EMBA programs.I am going to sponsor myself for the program.Can I make it to Wharton even though I don't have Manager title? Are they very particular about job titles?

Dear SmashMBA,

A few questions and reflections:

1. GMAT score is in multiple of 10. So not sure what you score is? Another question, were you asking me on what your UG GPA is? Didnt get the question there if yes.
2. When you say Manager/Director level, it is not clear which sector you are talking about. Did you mean within the IT Consulting space? If yes, are you sure you need an MBA because many firms are ok with a masters (non-MBA) too for career progression.
3. Finally coming to your question on chances. For reasons mentioned here, I would not hazard a guess on specific schools. But the way I see your profile, despite missing data, is that you have some good brand names associated with you for both your education and work-ex. So if you get your story right, you should have a fair shot at most of the Exec MBA courses out there.

Cheers,

SmashMBA wrote:Thank you for the reply.

1 - My GMAT score is 710(Q49 V37). I am assuming 68% equals to around 3.7 GPA
2 - I am planning to move out of consulting and get into director and above roles in Corporate world. Most of the companies take masters candidates for manager and director positions , but if we want to get into C-level positions in corporations they are prefering MBAs. That's what I have heard from others. Correct me if I am wrong. If doing MBA does not make any difference for my career, then I need to rethink about it.

Thanks for your time

mcbMcK wrote: A few questions and reflections:

1. GMAT score is in multiple of 10. So not sure what you score is? Another question, were you asking me on what your UG GPA is? Didnt get the question there if yes.
2. When you say Manager/Director level, it is not clear which sector you are talking about. Did you
   
   <<snip>>

Cheers,

Dear SmashMBA,

You may find the post here useful for the GPA conversion point.

On the point of moving to Director level position - I dont think you got my question correctly there. Just talking of some random C-level position is pretty weak and shows lack of clarity. You have to have some idea on what sector/function you'd like to join post MBA. 'Director' is only a designation - it does not explain ANYTHING about what you actually want to do and why. An MBA can help depending on what area you are looking at and whether you have or dont have the skills needed.

Cheers,

Tuck MBA Admissions Success Story

Among the Ivy League MBA programs, the Tuck MBA from Dartmouth University figures prominently on the list of many MBA applicants from India. But there are several hurdles you'd need to cross first to get into the high ranking course.

The Tuck MBA application process is highly selective. And it has to be, because the class size is pretty small. The average GMAT score of 718 is just one of those indicators that provide an insight into the competition level. The average age, experience level, international student mix are all in the same range as the rest of the elite MBA programs.

Subhajit scored a 660 in his first attempt and he knew this could be a deterrent in his journey. And then there were other other challenges of writing essays, tackling the MBA interview. He narrates more about his MBA admissions experience...Read More