Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi

I have been following Your posts and i thought may be you can clear my confusion....

I have a very low GPA 44% Scale 100 But according to my university i fall under 75 Percentile . Work experience 5.5 years mainly in consultation...

I am prep for gmat but my average score is around 620...

What i want to know is that i am looking for top 40 US b schools...IF not then i will do a part time mba from my country India.....

Kindly suggest me what to do...what are my chances....

Hope to hear from you, Thanks in advance

Hi,

Can you please evaluate my profile?

Here it goes:

Indian/IT/Female

Age-23

Gpa:8.81 from an Indian university(not really known outside my home state), top 10 of my department

Xth:90%, top 10 of my class
XIIth:96%, 2nd in school

gmat:720(q49 v40) awa-4.5

WE: 1 year in Asia's largest IT consultancy firm. If I apply this year, would be 2 years by matriculation.
I am working in Enterprise Resource Planning(Oracle EBS, a software that has a lot of market value), our client is one of the largest corporations of US.
Identified as key resource in the project.
Primary point of contact for a module.
Good ratings.
Was Class representative during a technical training program.

EC: organized fests and cultural activities during school and college
- was class representative during college
- love photography
- charity events as part of company's charity organization
- love reading, so part of company's book club

Post MBA goals: I want to work in the finance sector(preferably in investment banking) in future and my plan is to gain experience and international exposure in that field.

Target schools:Harvard, Tuck, Booth, Duke, Darden, Yale, Ross, Haas, Tepper, Cornell, sloan, kelley

My questions:
1.I realize that my experience is quite low compared to other candidates, and especially compared to the competitive Indian-IT pool. So, I know it makes sense for me to wait at least another year before applying. But I would really like to apply to atleast one school this year to get some perspective. Is that a good idea?

2.Are these schools within my reach? Would my prospects increase if I wait another year?

3. Should I retake the gmat? Would a higher score (say above 750) help?

I know a lot of these questions are difficult to answer, but some guidance and insight would be helpful.

Indian MBAs going to business schools in Singapore, the UK and Italy!


If you're considering doing your MBA outside India, you're probably feeling overwhelmed by the number of business schools out there, all of them making very similar claims about how great they'll be for your career.

Businessbecause.com recently interviewed three Indian MBAs studying in three very different countries: Singapore, the UK and Italy. Two of them are engineers by training and one is a medic. They all have very specific reasons why they chose their MBA program. Read more

I actually posted this in the main forum as a separate post but realized that you were probably the best person to give me some feedback... I am yet another Indian male with work-experience in Finance IT. Wanted your feedback:

Age - 29 (turning 30 in a month!)

GMAT:

Total Score: 710 (92 percentile)
Quant: 48 (80 percentile)
Verbal: 40 (89 percentile)
AWA: pending

GPA: 81% marks from University of Madras in Computer Science, graduated with "distinction"

Additional Certs: CFA
Work Experience till now - 6.75 years

I work at Goldman Sachs in New York as an IT/quant type guy for a trading desk doing programming for a Prop desk's risk management system. Also do some automated trading strategies. The trading book is > $5bn and I m the main tech lead. Since its based in brazil i ve gotten to travel down there for work as well. Also got promoted to VP earlier this year, and manage a couple of people.

I m looking to segway into the asset management/investment management business, specifically either a hedge fund or as a portfolio manager sort of opening at a buy side shop. Also interested in trading gigs. I do harbour some dreams of private equity/venture capital since I m involved in the NY Tech start-up Meetup scene but I dont wanna throw that into my admission essays since I feel I dont have a connecting theme there yet.

Extra-curricular: Did after school tutoring with a volunteer group for 3 years, and for the past 5 years, I ve done at least one bike ride or cancer-run sort of fund raising event every year. I was a pretty good student in school and have tons of awards for quizzes, improv events etc(pretty random) as well as some honor certificates for academic accomplishments.

I am targeting the Top 10 B-Schools. I ve got these on my list so far:

Booth
MIT
Columbia Uni
Wharton
Harvard
LBS

Also have NYU parttime mba as a backup since my work will pay for me to go parttime, although a big motivation for me to leave my job is basically to effect a career change and I am not sure how effective a part-time mba will be on that front.

I m not thrilled about my GMAT score being on the low side, especially since I tested higher in practice, so definitely taking the test again.

My worry is the usual overcrowded pool of male Indian IT guys/engineers with extremely high gmat scores. I m also worried about being too old and locked-in to my current job path since I ve been here nearly 6.5 years, and would be above the average applicant's age at a lot of schools.

Do you think I have a decent shot? I m also gonna put time into school visits as school kicks off the next couple of weeks, do you think that could help as well ? (will visit all schools except LBS!)

Shreya Kundu shares her thoughts on the MBA Mock Application Process (MBA MAP)



"MCB's Mock Application Process was an eye opener for me too. It gave a me a lot of insight about the process of how a B school would like to select its future candidate.
Sameer's feedback on the interview was very candid which has given me a lot of confidence and the know how to start with the application and essay writing process.
What I liked the most was the proactiveness with which Sameer did the entire process. I am glad that I went through the process because now I feel more equipped."

- Shreya Kundu

prateek_guy2004 wrote:Hi

I have been following Your posts and i thought may be you can clear my confusion....

I have a very low GPA 44% Scale 100 But according to my university i fall under 75 Percentile . Work experience 5.5 years mainly in consultation...

I am prep for gmat but my average score is around 620...

What i want to know is that i am looking for top 40 US b schools...IF not then i will do a part time mba from my country India.....

Kindly suggest me what to do...what are my chances....

Hope to hear from you, Thanks in advance

Prateek,

I may be able to clear your confusion if you can first clear mine.

When you say consultation, what do you mean? Do you mean IT consulting, strategy/management consulting, medical consultation?

I'm confused about what you want from the MBA. If you are willing to look at the top-40 in the US and part-time programs in your country India (after-effects of 15th Aug? Hum bhi wahin ke hai, bhaiyya-ji), I wonder what overlap you see in these diametrically contrasting options.

Happy to help, if you could be just a little more clear, my friend.

MBACrystalBall wrote:

prateek_guy2004 wrote:Hi

I have been following Your posts and i thought may be you can clear my confusion....

I have a very low GPA 44% Scale 100 But according to my university i fall under 75 Percentile . Work experience 5.5 years mainly in consultation...

I am prep for gmat but my average score is around 620...

What i want to know is that i am looking for top 40 US b schools...IF not then i will do a part time mba from my country India.....

Kindly suggest me what to do...what are my chances....

Hope to hear from you, Thanks in advance

Prateek,

I may be able to clear your confusion if you can first clear mine.

When you say consultation, what do you mean? Do you mean IT consulting, strategy/management consulting, medical consultation?

I'm confused about what you want from the MBA. If you are willing to look at the top-40 in the US and part-time programs in your country India (after-effects of 15th Aug? Hum bhi wahin ke hai, bhaiyya-ji), I wonder what overlap you see in these diametrically contrasting options.

Happy to help, if you could be just a little more clear, my friend.

Hi sameer

Thank you for replying well mostly i have experience in IT Consultation and lately in Aviation as cabin crew . Have done a diploma in aviation GRADE A.

Apart from academics i am a certified stage actor and a sportsman .

Well my priority has always been usa and eager to know what are my chances if not top 20 then atleast in 20 to 40 ranking range.

Hope hear from you soon.

chaw

prateek_guy2004 wrote: Hi sameer

Thank you for replying well mostly i have experience in IT Consultation and lately in Aviation as cabin crew . Have done a diploma in aviation GRADE A.

Apart from academics i am a certified stage actor and a sportsman .

Well my priority has always been usa and eager to know what are my chances if not top 20 then atleast in 20 to 40 ranking range.

Hope hear from you soon.

chaw

Prateek-bhai,

Most folks on these forums (specially those who are looking for simple black-and-white answers) run away when they get counter-questions thrown at them. So, thanks for getting back with more inputs.

I still don't know about your post-MBA goals. That would play a key role in shortlisting schools, working out the RoI and evaluating the risks.

A few more points that you should consider while applying. Right now, apart from the challenges you've mentioned about the low academic grades and GMAT, I think another challenge for you would be to logical string together all the diverse hats you've donned - IT consultant, actor, cabin crew, sportsman. I'm sure you have your priorities there.

It'll all be about figuring out who you are currently. And what you want to be after graduating.

So thoda aur introspection lagega sirji. Take your time to get some clarity. Don't jump into the application process before knowing the answers to these fundamental questions.

MBACrystalBall wrote:

prateek_guy2004 wrote: Hi sameer

Thank you for replying well mostly i have experience in IT Consultation and lately in Aviation as cabin crew . Have done a diploma in aviation GRADE A.

Apart from academics i am a certified stage actor and a sportsman .

Well my priority has always been usa and eager to know what are my chances if not top 20 then atleast in 20 to 40 ranking range.

Hope hear from you soon.

chaw

Prateek-bhai,

Most folks on these forums (specially those who are looking for simple black-and-white answers) run away when they get counter-questions thrown at them. So, thanks for getting back with more inputs.

I still don't know about your post-MBA goals. That would play a key role in shortlisting schools, working out the RoI and evaluating the risks.

A few more points that you should consider while applying. Right now, apart from the challenges you've mentioned about the low academic grades and GMAT, I think another challenge for you would be to logical string together all the diverse hats you've donned - IT consultant, actor, cabin crew, sportsman. I'm sure you have your priorities there.

It'll all be about figuring out who you are currently. And what you want to be after graduating.

So thoda aur introspection lagega sirji. Take your time to get some clarity. Don't jump into the application process before knowing the answers to these fundamental questions.

Hi Sameer ji

Well post graduation short term goal is to work in a leading company, to be honest my dream is to work with Indian cricket board, though it may sound funny.

Long term goal as i know quite a bit about IT recruitment want to have my own company down the line.

Reason why i want to do MBA -

1- Passion for studying further even after bachelor's bash down percentage.
2- To get a better future.
3- To buffer to leadership quality which is already there inside me.
4- Most important want to master my own abilities.

Hope this would be you to know little bit about me and my future goals.

Chaw

Business & Creativity: You could be dull in another era. Not this one.



Charismatic, mesmerising and creative. Three adjectives that are associated with the Advertising industry (what were you thinking?). Unfortunately the same 3 adjectives are seldom used while referring to MBAs or mainstream business. In a world where following 'best practices' (nice way to say, 'stop getting creative') gets incentivised, clichéd terms like 'thinking out the box' generate sarcastic laughter more than inspiration.

So we asked Vrinda Gupta to share some perspectives with us, about lessons that we can learn from the advertising world to add a little more zing to our day-to-day work. Vrinda completed her graduation in Advertising from Pennsylvania State University (consistently being on the Dean's List) and has worked in New York, Los Angeles and Mumbai with the some of the best names in the business - from Nike to Nickelodeon (not saying that just for impact). Over the next few blog posts, Vrinda takes us into the overlapping worlds of creativity and business. ... Read more

prateek_guy2004 wrote:Hi Sameer ji

Well post graduation short term goal is to work in a leading company, to be honest my dream is to work with Indian cricket board, though it may sound funny.

Nothing wrong in having that goal, Prateek sir, assuming you aren't going in there to do exactly what the current folks are doing. If you are aiming for it for the right reasons (e.g. you want to play the role of Anna after getting in), it's all good, buddy.

prateek_guy2004 wrote: Reason why i want to do MBA -

1- Passion for studying further even after bachelor's bash down percentage.
2- To get a better future.
3- To buffer to leadership quality which is already there inside me.
4- Most important want to master my own abilities.

This list doesn't work for me, bro. It's too general and ambiguous. For your essays, try to crystallize that into more specific and actionable reasons.

MBA Essays: No NGO, Non-profit, social work experience?

After taking their GMAT test and scoring a 700+, many MBA applicants start thinking about the rest of their MBA application components and that's when they start realising about the (most perceived) gaps and flaws in their otherwise bullet-proof armour. Then they resort to last-minute workarounds to cover up those shortcomings. And the results can be far from what you expected.

That's the issue of approaching the MBA admissions as a checklist process. Let's do a role-play. You are doing a status-check on your MBA application.

GMAT score: Done, 730 [smirk on the face]...I'm such a stud
TOEFL: Done, piece of cake [smirk still on]
Extra curriculars: Some sports work in college days...aah..how I miss the cheerleading...and the cheerleaders! [smirk expands to a silly grin now] ...read more

Sameer,

Could you evaluate my profile and let me know my chances for Admission at Stanford, Kellogg and NYU if I apply during R1 this year (for Fall 2012)?

--------------------
Overall Profile

1. GMAT Score: Yet to give, but have scheduled a test-date. (expected 680-700 based on current GMAT Prep scores)
2. Completed Schooling and Graduation in Dubai - BE (Hons) in Electronics Engineering (GPA: 3.28/4)
3. I have 3 years of Entrepreneurship Experience running an IT Services company (4 yrs by Fall 2012).
4. Nationality: Indian; Age: 24 yrs old (25yrs by Fall 2012)
5. Currently held position: COO/Co-Founder
6. Started first company right out of college in 2008 with 2 partners; grown successfully to 3 companies across Dubai, Hong Kong and India, managing a total of 12 employees.
7. Biggest success is an Online network currently ranked among the top 150 websites in the world.
7. Languages known - English (Expert), Hindi (Expert), Telugu (Expert), French (Basic Proficiency), Arabic (Basic Proficiency)


Work Ex Highlights

"¢ Interned at 2 very large Oil & Gas companies in the Gulf during college (for a total of 8 months (2+6)).
"¢ Worked for 2 years (lasts for only 2 months each - so a total of 4 months spread across 2007 and 2008) with Dubai International Film Festival, directly managing about 500 or so Volunteers each year. Gained significant leadership experience here, due to the various groups of people I had to manage at once (people from various parts of the globe, varying from 15yrs to even 60yrs in age).
"¢ Started my first company with right out of college, turned it into a successful venture and am now managing 3 companies across Dubai, Hong Kong and India, with a total of 12 employees.
"¢ Company's annual turnover is currently over 1 MM$ - would say it's a pretty successful venture, having started off without any external funding from family or VC's.


Extra-Curricular Activities

- Volunteered at Dubai International Film Festival for 2 years.
- Was promoted to Captain at Dubai Film Fest, wherein I trained and managed about 500-700 volunteers through the event.
- Was an integral part of the Events Organizing Committee at college.
- Helped in organizing several Inter-College Competitions and Events during college.
- Was a Professor's TA (Teaching-Assistant) at various Engineering Lab's during final 2 years of College.
- Won 3'rd place in a Software Development Trade Show held at University of Wollongong, sponsored by Microsoft Gulf.


Hobbies:
Karting, Archery (taking professional classes), Football, Volleyball

Target Schools:
2 Year Full Time MBA at Stanford (Entrepreneurship), Kellogg (Marketing/Entrep), NYU: Stern or McCombs.
Safety Schools: Babson, UCLA, ESADE & IESE (Spain)

Why MBA?
To network with people from my Industry, to network with VC's for my projects currently in development, to learn how to efficiently form & execute business plans on a much larger scale and to hone my leadership skills.
--------------------

From my perspective, my strong points are: Entrepreneurship, EC's, Right age-group for Stanford.
Potential weak points could be: GMAT Score (not yet given, but with my profile would 680-700 be low?), Undergrad-GPA (is 3.28 low?), Nationality (Indian male, from Engg background in IT).

Please let me know your thoughts on this. Thanks a lot for your help!

MBACrystalBall wrote:

prateek_guy2004 wrote:Hi Sameer ji

Well post graduation short term goal is to work in a leading company, to be honest my dream is to work with Indian cricket board, though it may sound funny.

Nothing wrong in having that goal, Prateek sir, assuming you aren't going in there to do exactly what the current folks are doing. If you are aiming for it for the right reasons (e.g. you want to play the role of Anna after getting in), it's all good, buddy.

prateek_guy2004 wrote: Reason why i want to do MBA -

1- Passion for studying further even after bachelor's bash down percentage.
2- To get a better future.
3- To buffer to leadership quality which is already there inside me.
4- Most important want to master my own abilities.

This list doesn't work for me, bro. It's too general and ambiguous. For your essays, try to crystallize that into more specific and actionable reasons.

Ok what else should i include there......

Hi,

I posted this in a separate thread a few days back but thought I'd ask you for your opinion on my profile as well.

Nationality: Indian
Age: 27 yrs
Education background: (PG - Finance, UG - Engineering)
1) P.G.D.B.M. - Finance from Top 5 Business School in India (CQPI: 5.17/8.0)
2) B.E. (Hons) - Instrumentation & Control Engg from Top 10 institute in India (76.2%, First Class with Distinction, 7th position in class size of 110)
3) School (Grade 12th: 88%, 2nd in my school, Grade 10th: 84%)

Work Exp - 42 months/3.5 Yrs (Will be 54/4.5 yrs if joining the Fall 2012 program, Have been promoted twice now)
1) 22 months - Goldman Sachs (Equity Research Analyst) in Singapore
2) 6 months sabbatical post layoff (Recession 2009)
3) Currently 20 months - Top Financial KPO in India (Investment Banking Consultant for a bulge bracket IB, working on live M&A deals with my client. Also lead a team of 12 members)

GMAT - 690 (49Q / 34V): Still awaiting my official/AWA score

Intended MBA Specialization - Finance / Strategy / Entrepreneurship

Goals: Since I already have a perspective of Investment Research/Banking area, I would like to get some more exposure in the industry hopefully PE/Hedge Funds (to make my experience more diverse) post MBA and then open my own financial services firm soon thereafter (a Boutique investment firm 5-6 years down the line).

Targeted B-schools: Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Sloan, Booth and Stern