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Stanford GSB MBA profile evaluation

by anonymous_Stanford » Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:17 pm
Hi,

Please evaluate my profile for Stanford GSB. Please provide a stringent evaluation of the profile.

Nationality: Indian

GMAT: 700 (a weak point)

Education: B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (one of the most prestigious institutes in the world to get into)
CGPA: 8.373/10 (Among Top 10% in Department)
Other Academic: 12th standard- 96% (among top 10 in the state), 10th standard- 94%
Publications-Published/ presented 3 research papers on economics & finance in journals. Presented 1 paper in international conferences (2011-12); wrote articles in Indian Economist till Dec 2013.

Current Employer: Ernst & Young
Field: Consulting (strategy and implementation)
Key points on work-ex: 3 years in strategy consulting by the time of joining, currently just over 2 years. Completed 7 projects & worked on several solutions such as Go-To-Market strategy, business case development, cost reduction, market study, & risk assessment across sectors- FMCG, Media & Entertainment, Telecom, IT, & Handicrafts.
Once promoted and one initiative award for work on a Fortune 500 client.

Short term Goal(next 3-4 years)- Persist with strategy consulting post MBA to continue learning and develop the right skill sets and look for opportunities/ connects for startups as illustrated below.
Long Term Goal (>5 years)- Try for a startup in either grassroots innovation by arranging funding for such innovations or institute a startup focused on debate oriented elections in India.
Recos- Should get 1 partner Recco and 1 Manager Recco at EY. A third one planning a peer recco who was enagaged with me on the startup.

Awards and scholastic achievements
International-
1. Selected among the 50 finalists for $150,000 scholarship for 2 year MBA program at Stanford Graduate School of Business at the age of 20 in 2011
2. Cultural Exchange Programme, France 2011- Ranked 1st among 20 students selected by IIT Dean from the batch of 700 for prestigious 4 month program; awarded scholarship by French Embassy India

National
1. XXXXX Scholar (2008-12)- One of the top corporate scholarships awarded annually to a total of 20-25 scholars from IITs, IIMs, and select law and med schools; sustained 3 annual assessments
2. Offered scholarships (qualified finalists) for programs by such entities as Department of Atomic Energy, National Institute of Science Education & Research, and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (2008)

Entrepreneurial Initiative and Extra-Curricluars
1. XXXXXXXXX- Invented a debating format; led the team of 15 members and 40 Campus Ambassadors in 75+ Indian campuses across 22 Indian states, including Prime Ministerial fellows, to test and implement the debating concept in various forms through national conferences and implementation in college debating events. (2012-Mid 2014)

2. Letter of patronage from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2011 for efforts in G8 Youth Summit.

3. Best Delegate awards in debates at Harvard (2011), Bonn, Germany(2010), and International Forum for Policy Change (2012).

4. 11 years of debating experience- Participated in 30+ debates from state to international level since 2002, organizing over 10 national debates since 2008

5. National Service Scheme and Economics Club Secretary in college (2009-12)

Thanks
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by mcbMcK » Sat Aug 02, 2014 7:36 pm
Dear Anonymous_Stanford,

Consider the following reflections on your profile:
  1. There are definite areas in your profile that stand out. Primary amongst them are the ECs - primarily at college. The debating society thing was after college? That isnt completely clear as to when/how it panned out. The consistent scholarships build a nice story there. You might find this story inspirational.
  2. The GMAT will be a definite handicap. Was that your first attempt. Because the other areas are strong, this will pull the profile down. So if possible, an improvement here will be good
  3. The years of experience is another area worth evaluating. 2 yrs is on the lower side. The experience is not an uncommon one for those applying to GSB - so you will have to think hard on your differentiators before applying
  4. The startup concept is 'catchy' but not sure if you've thought it through? Without good backup, that is likely to come across as something you've just pulled out of your back - so be very sure what you write there and why.
Hope this helps,
MG (Manish Gupta)|The MBA Crystal Ball Team

Website: https://www.mbacrystalball.com
Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:09 am
The GMAT is definitely weaker for an Indian applicant, so retake the exam. You are competitive enough to apply, but you should consider expanding the schools to which you are applying considering you are applying from the most competitive group in the world to the most selective school in the world.

Best of luck,
Michael Cohan
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by CriticalSquareMBA » Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:40 am
Agreed - you have so much stuff going for you in your profile and background you really don't want it to hinge on your GMAT. Even 20 or 30 points will do!

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by anonymous_Stanford » Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:46 pm
@ Manish, Michael and Bhavik- Thanks a lot for your candid assessment. Truly appreciate your specific comments on weak areas and suggestions.

Please help me on some of my queries further here-

On GMAT- I know the score is damn low. Actually, I have given the exam thrice and of all the olympiads, IIT exams, CAT exams- this is the only one in which I haven't done well on the test day. Still, in knowledge terms I have practised a lot.
Q1. So, would it be worth giving a fourth attempt next month to the exam? Will it help me if I get a 720-730 score in the fourth attempt?
Q2. Does the rest of academics offset this- I mean over 30 academic scholarships etc.? Or it doesn't matter once you screw your GMAT in such competitive schools?
Q3. What would be the convert of CGPA of 8.343/10 (department Rank- 11/85) from IIT Delhi on a 4 point scale? Though not required for conversion, this is just to understand where do I stand?

@Manish- Yes, the founder thing was after the college.

@ Experts-
Q4. The first point in EC related to debating format was a concept- its results were one national conference engaging 100 good participants, followed by implementation in 5 colleges in their debating fests. Is it worth mentioning as an initiative or as a founder activity? It is not a registered organisation but can be traced through websites and people easily.

Q5. Assuming score is 700 and with this profile, Can you please suggest me 8-9 schools I should apply to and maybe with rounds? I had shortlisted some here in order of priority, please tell me candidly how realistic/ bad choices are they-
Top Four
1. Stanford- R1
2. Booth- R1
3. Kellogg- round not sure
4. MIT Sloan- Round not sure

Bottom Four-
1. Darden- R2
2. UCLA Andersen- R2
3. Cornell University- R2

Thanks again
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:44 pm
Yes. You could take the test 6 times and on the 7th time get a 720-730 and the school will only look at your highest score. Plus, you can now cancel your test after knowing your score if you wanted.

You need to think of the admissions process more of as a dimmer switch than as a binary on/off switch. So, your profile is better than if your academics were worse and you had a 690 but worse than with your same academics and a 720. Nobody can tell you ahead of the admissions process if your 690 is sufficient. It might; it might not. Do you want to risk that?

What criteria are you using to select your schools? Given your consulting and innovation goals I would recommend for you to consider Wharton, HBS (only an optional essay), Chicago, Columbia, Haas Kellogg, Ross, Duke, NYU Stern and Yale SOM. Check out Kellogg's MMM program that places many graduates in consulting and innovation consulting companies. Also, look at Haas@Work (https://haasatwork.berkeley.edu/).

Good luck,
Michael Cohan
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by anonymous_Stanford » Wed Aug 13, 2014 3:04 am
Thanks Michael,

That certainly helps.

The criteria I used were- a) Acceptance rate b)4 among top 10 schools c) 4 among 11-20 ranked schools and d) some basic research on the profile of schools

A very basic question- how to categorise a school as a consulting oriented or innovation oriented etc.? Reading forums, school's website?
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by CriticalSquareMBA » Wed Aug 13, 2014 5:41 am
Hey there,

I agree with Michael - you should get that higher score because when it comes to a top school, every little thing matters. And why introduce that risk? Especially now that you see you score and THEN cancel. How awesome is that? Makes you wonder why they didn't always let you do that...

As for picking schools, that's a really cursory set of criteria. I'd suggest you visit our page on [How to Choose MBA Programs]. It isn't a comprehensive list but it's a darn good place to start. There's a lot more to consider than just ranking and acceptance rates. Once you look through it, you'll see what I'm talking about.

When it comes to figuring out which schools have a consulting or innovation focus - that's mostly all shenanigans anyway. Any top 16 school can get you into M/B/B. The top schools will do more placement there than their lower ranked peers but they'll all get you there. Lower tier schools will get you more into Tier II firms. Booth put 9% of its graduating class (~50 people) into McKinsey for 2013. Duke didn't. But Duke puts ~39% of its students into Consulting so they're no strangers to the industry! Also, keep in mind the flip side to this. Competition for those jobs, even though they exist in large numbers at the top tier schools, will be really, really stiff. There's a trade off!

As for Innovation - be careful here. This is a buzzword that's gotten sexy over the last few years. A school having an Innovation Lab or Innovation concentration doesn't mean a whole lot if it isn't very good. For this, talk to people who are doing what you want to do. See what they took at the schools you're interested in and what they think of it. School websites are, at the end of the day, a marketing tool.

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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Wed Aug 13, 2014 5:44 am
I wrote an article for Magoosh on Selecting Suitable MBA Schools which you should read.

For you, you are looking for at a minimum:

Reputation - rankings can serve as a proxy. You might also add reputation in India; in other words a school like Yale SOM might have a better reputation in India given the reputation of its undergraduate program in India.

Specialization - Innovation. This is the harder one to quickly discern but I know based on tribal knowledge (being in admissions consulting for a decade). Look where leading innovation consulting companies like IDEO and Frog recruit (which will take some searching on your part to discover). Start with company career websites and then go to 3rd party career websites.

Placement - Consulting - Look at the MBA Career Reports for each school. See which ones have the highest percentage placement in consulting and look at the companies that hire. Also, do Google searches and read articles from reputable sources. So this is an article from 2012 that still has accurate information - https://poetsandquants.com/2012/06/22/b- ... nsultants/.

Good luck,
Michael Cohan
MBAPrepAdvantage Founder & AIGAC Board Director
305-604-8178
www.mbaprepadvantage.com

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