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by Paul25 » Fri May 27, 2016 7:46 am
Dear MG,

Thank you for your prompt response! Yes, Michigan State does have really good employment prospects in Supply Chain - both inside and outside US. The full ride does make things a lot easier. Michigan State strikes a good balance between academics and partying :) I doubt I will get off the McCombs WL; even if I do I won't get a scholarship. I guess am on my way to East Lansing!

Regards

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by mcbMcK » Wed Jul 27, 2016 10:29 pm
Acceptance Rate at Top US MBA Schools: Selectivity trends

One of the oft talked about parameters that a candidate and bschool rankings talk about is the Acceptance Rate. While words such as rate can at times spark thoughts of complex mathematical geniuses guiding your faith, this is a pretty simple metric.

We explore how this has moved for top 40 schools over the years. Read more
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by mbsingh » Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:27 pm
Hi,

I would really appreciate if you can evaluate my profile and nudge me in right direction. 27 year east indian male living in Canada. I moved here when i was 18 to get bachelors done (International Student). Finished a diploma program became Permanent Resident and started working full time and did studies part time.

Following is a summary of my profile application:

Age: 27

Years of WE: 6

GMAT: taking next year

Undergrad GPA: 80% (With distinction)

Major: Btech in Computer Technology (From British Columbia Institute of Technology) - Dual Major (Web and Mobile Development, UI UX Design and Development)

Area of Work Experience: Business Intelligence Analyst (2 years in Finance and over 3 years in Consumer Product Industry - Top 3 in Canada)

Desired field post MBA: Consulting with focus on Finance

ECs: Established a Student Association to guide International Students - Help with resumes, visa applications & Career Guidance
Volunteered and Mentored at Coaching Institute helping High school kids in academics and staying away from Drugs use and Gangs (Big problem in Lower Mainland - Vancouver Canada)
Playing Cricket professionally in league for over 5 years. Helped team win the cup and promoted to higher Division.




Strengths:

1) GMAT/Grades - Finished diploma, certificate and Bachelors with distinction while working full time (2 programs simaltaneously)

2) Multilingual and helped present firm cut losses by millions and turn positive revenue for first time in 10 years.


Goal:

MBA from a top 7 B school in US. I am confident ill score high GMAT score and working on building my leadership skills as well in mean time.

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by MBACrystalBall » Sun Aug 14, 2016 11:34 pm
GRE Score Percentiles

What are GRE score percentiles? Table for 2016 - 2017 percentile scores in verbal, quantitative and analytical writing sections. How are they calculated?

Read more about the GRE Score Percentile Distribution Table.

And here's a related post on GRE exam pattern & syllabus.

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by mcbMcK » Mon Aug 22, 2016 4:46 am
mbsingh wrote:Hi,

I would really appreciate if you can evaluate my profile and nudge me in right direction. 27 year east indian male living in Canada. I moved here when i was 18 to get bachelors done (International Student). Finished a diploma program became Permanent Resident and started working full time and did studies part time.

Following is a summary of my profile application:

Age: 27

<<snip>>

MBA from a top 7 B school in US. I am confident ill score high GMAT score and working on building my leadership skills as well in mean time.

mbsingh,

My bad I missed this post. Assuming it is still relevant though given the timeline you have.

You seem to have a good profile going in as well as decent ECs. The profile evaluation and action planning however is a pretty extensive process and one shouldn't just look at a single thing in isolation. We have designed our Profile Builder for exactly folks in your situation, so check it out.

Cheers,
MG (Manish Gupta)|The MBA Crystal Ball Team

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Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com

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by MBACrystalBall » Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:38 pm
Distance MBA programs

Those who can't afford to take a break from work start considering distance MB programs where they can retain their job and still get an MBA degree.

We cover the definition, how they differ from MOOCs, pros/cons, types of courses, eligibility requirements, top universities and more for distance programs.

Read more here --> Distance MBA programs.
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by tushark91 » Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:40 am
Hello Sameer (MCB),
I just came across your book. I have already ordered it.Today,I reach out to you to help me decide whether my credentials are fit for the top International B-schools and what my target GMAT score should be for the same. My Profile -

Age: 25 years
GMAT : Male
Experience : 2 years as of today
Passed out of college in 2014
Company : Engineering Industrial Service division with an IT Indian MNC. Deputed full time with a FORTUNE 500 automotive client
Academics :
College : Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal
Course - Electronics and Communication
GPA: 7.16/10
XII: 91%
X: 93%

Extra Curriculum :
1. Was Electronics head for an elite(Formula Student SAE(automotive)) college club for 2 years. Took part in two international competitions in Europe(Germany and Czech). Achieved good results in both. Better than my former teams. Ours is one of the best team from India to take part in these competitions beating teams from IIT-Chennai and other colleges from India. Why elite? Because only 30 odd students out of 500 applications get to be in the team. Manipal has a strength of 1500 students/ batch. Got to travel to Europe because of the competition. Could not take part in other college activities/clubs because this club required undivided attention
2. Have taken part in and won some debating and other competitions in school and only some in college.
3. One of the founding members of an intra-college website for students of my college

Volunteer Experience: Nothing substantial to show. But I do good social work on an individual level, not with with specific clubs or societies eg: wrote Xth boards for a senior while in school because he/she appeared for boards as a dyslexic student (I was in IXth then).

Future Short teem Goals: To get into VC firms / Banking Institutions.

What are my chances of landing an admit from one of the top 5 US b-schools. What should be my modus operandi of achieving the same.


Cheers!

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by MBACrystalBall » Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:44 pm
MBA Subjects

Become familiar with the what the top MBA programs cover in their classes. Here's a list of the syllabus topics you are likely to cover in almost all business schools:

Economics, Accounting, Operations, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Read more on these MBA subjects.
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by MBACrystalBall » Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:27 pm
Experiences of an Indian student in a Top Marketing MBA program - Kelley

Many international MBA applicants are so engrossed in cracking the MBA admissions process, they fail to do enough research into what awaits them after they get the good news from the admissions team.

We reached out to our old friend, Vijay Allen Raj, who completed his MBA from one of the best MBA in Marketing programs in the world on a scholarship. After graduating from Kelley Business School (Indiana University) he worked in USA with a Big 4 consulting firm.

Vijay had written earlier on his application journey that got him into Kelley. He's back to fill us up on what happened since then.

Click here to read more
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by nilesh123456789 » Sat Nov 26, 2016 11:39 am
Hi MBAcrystalball,

I have 6.5 yrs of work-ex in Oil & Gas industry. I am a process engineer and have led plan operations and several engineering project executions. I have received admit from IIMC PGPEX. I am considering to apply to IIMB EPGP in round-2.After my MBA, I'm looking to go for General management leadership role.

I am unable to decide whether I should go for EPGP even after PGPEX admit? How do you compare IIMB EPGP vs IIMC PGPEX? What are the pros and cons of each?

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by mcbMcK » Sun Nov 27, 2016 4:40 am
nilesh123456789 wrote:Hi MBAcrystalball,

I have 6.5 yrs of work-ex in Oil & Gas industry. I am a process engineer and have led plan operations and several engineering project executions. I have received admit from IIMC PGPEX. I am considering to apply to IIMB EPGP in round-2.After my MBA, I'm looking to go for General management leadership role.

I am unable to decide whether I should go for EPGP even after PGPEX admit? How do you compare IIMB EPGP vs IIMC PGPEX? What are the pros and cons of each?

Congrats on the admit Nilesh. There isn't a whole lot of difference between the 3 IIM one year courses; IIMA might have a tad edge but not much else in terms of differentiation. So you may want to put in some personal preferences to decide eventually.

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Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com

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by nilesh123456789 » Sun Nov 27, 2016 4:58 am
mcbMcK wrote:
nilesh123456789 wrote:Hi MBAcrystalball,

I have 6.5 yrs of work-ex in Oil & Gas industry. I am a process engineer and have led plan operations and several engineering project executions. I have received admit from IIMC PGPEX. I am considering to apply to IIMB EPGP in round-2.After my MBA, I'm looking to go for General management leadership role.

I am unable to decide whether I should go for EPGP even after PGPEX admit? How do you compare IIMB EPGP vs IIMC PGPEX? What are the pros and cons of each?

Congrats on the admit Nilesh. There isn't a whole lot of difference between the 3 IIM one year courses; IIMA might have a tad edge but not much else in terms of differentiation. So you may want to put in some personal preferences to decide eventually.

Cheers,
Hi Manish,

Honestly speaking I don't have any personal preferences. But I've few queries. As per the Financial Times ranking, IIMB's EPGP is rated much higher than IIMC's PGPEX program. IIM-A tops the both. Is there any significant reason why EPGP is ranked better than PGPEX?
Also, does the location factor of Bangalore vs Calcutta makes a difference in terms of companies coming for recruitment? In am certainly not looking for IT sector.
In terms of course structure and pedagogy, what is the difference? I've heard that IIM's executive MBA courses are much more focused on academics and classroom contact hours unlike ISB where although it's rigorous but you get to spend time on extra-acads, other stuffs and projects as well. So, I'm still waiting for ISB results. But again, if you can elaborate a li'l more on EPGP vs PGPEX. Citywise I'm fine for both.

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by mcbMcK » Sun Nov 27, 2016 8:23 pm
nilesh123456789 wrote:
Hi Manish,

Honestly speaking I don't have any personal preferences. But I've few queries. As per the Financial Times ranking, IIMB's EPGP is rated much higher than IIMC's PGPEX program. IIM-A tops the both. Is there any significant reason why EPGP is ranked better than PGPEX?
Also, does the location factor of Bangalore vs Calcutta makes a difference in terms of companies coming for recruitment? In am certainly not looking for IT sector.
In terms of course structure and pedagogy, what is the difference? I've heard that IIM's executive MBA courses are much more focused on academics and classroom contact hours unlike ISB where although it's rigorous but you get to spend time on extra-acads, other stuffs and projects as well. So, I'm still waiting for ISB results. But again, if you can elaborate a li'l more on EPGP vs PGPEX. Citywise I'm fine for both.



Nilesh,

There are a LOT of factors that can play into the rankings - so never rely only on them. Recruiters rarely look at rankings difference between these two colleges.

You had not mentioned about ISB in your previous email. Difficult and premature for me to dish out to judgement on schools and their fitment with your profile with the limited data I have frankly. But like I said, don't rely much on rankings to make your decision. Each of these is a good school - decide eventually basis your career priorities as well as by interacting with current students/recent alums from each place.

Cheers,
MG (Manish Gupta)|The MBA Crystal Ball Team

Website: https://www.mbacrystalball.com
Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com

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by MBACrystalBall » Fri May 05, 2017 8:22 am
MBA Scholarships for African Students

While the bulk of work done by MBA Crystal Ball is with Indians, we have helped a few non-Indian applicants too. Many applicants from Africa are unable to attend the top business schools due to financial constraints. So we wrote this article. Read more.
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by MBACrystalBall » Thu May 25, 2017 7:21 am
Masters Degree (MS) in Data Science and Analytics

we have tried to list out the handful of schools that offer a degree course in Data Analysis or Data Science. Quite a few university trainings are in the form of certifications. However there are some that offer an MS in Data Science/Analytics in either an on-site or an online format. The list is arranged to give a sense of the curriculums in some of the well known Universities. They are in no particular order.

Read more: Masters Degree (MS) in Data Science and Analytics in USA
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