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Just took the GMAT! Admissions advice MUCH appreciated!!

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Just took the GMAT! Admissions advice MUCH appreciated!!

by 2012gmat » Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:50 am
Just took my GMAT today, and was wondering if you could help me evaluate my prospects at a few of my target schools. Any guidance would be much appreciated!

GMAT Score: 690 (42 verbal, 42 quant)
Undergrad: 3.54 GPA from large private Midwestern university, with majors in Economics, Int'l Bus, Spanish. Internships during undergrad as financial analyst intern and marketing intern.
3 1/2 years post-graduate work experience. I work for a very large private multinational corporation based in MN. I started as a bilingual spanish/english customer service rep, then promoted to current position within HR function approx 2 years ago.
Extra-C's: work with program that places disabled students in internships for our company, United Way team captain

Target schools: University of MN (Carlson), Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Arizona St., Georgetown in United States. Also ESADE, IESE in Spain, out of curiosity.

If I'm missing any information please let me know. These may be a lot of target schools so far, but I'm trying to get a better idea of which schools to focus on, which are a good match with my qualifications, and which are a stretch.

Thanks everyone!
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by Jon@Admissionado » Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:51 pm
Hmm, we could use a bit more info here, especially about what you actually do in your HR function and your leadership if any...
but anyhow, very roughly, it seems like you'd have a very good shot at the schools you put here, if you can make a very strong application. and VERY nice idea to apply to the Spanish schools (curiosity is great, after all!) They are pretty well-connected in Latin America, and can open up some nice global Spanish job options for you.

Feel free to write us a wee bit more about both your work experience and your goals here, and we can think together to see if there are any weak points, and what you might want to emphasize, etc.
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by 2012gmat » Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:31 am
Hi Jon,

Thanks so much for the follow up! I'd be happy to provide any info that would be helpful to better assess my profile.
My current position title is Payroll Specialist, within the HR shared services function at my company. I am responsible for processing the payroll (incl. tax withholding, wage garnishments, state transfers, etc) on a nationwide basis for certain Business Units within my company. As for leadership, I do not have direct reports. However, I have been involved in a couple high profile projects, most notably our electronic pay initiative. This involved travel to various plants across the country to give presentations to Spanish-speaking employees regarding direct deposit and paycards. Our team was awarded the company's annual HR excellence award for our $ saving results in this project. I've also given Spanish presentations at different plants about employee benefits.
As for my goals, I am interested in management/supervisory responsibilities. I'm interested in international companies, and would be willing to work abroad down the road. Being able to use my bilingual skills would be an absolute plus. At this point I would lean toward a finance concentration for my MBA.

I'm curious as to how an H.R. background like mine would play for B school applications. I'm trying to narrow my scope of different programs to apply to, or maybe there are some schools I should consider that are not on my radar yet. Perhaps some schools might be more interested in applicants with my type of background than others? Any advice as to how to address my experience and any weak points in my essays?

Thanks so much for you input! I am a newbie to the B school application game so sorry for my rambling :)
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by PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal » Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:23 am
I think that your gpa and gmat suggest that you can even apply to some higher ranked schools vs your list. So many people come to me shooting too high, but I think your scores support you putting in applications to schools like Carnegie Mellon, Darden, Cornell and others.

I will say that payroll processing is not a very typical feeder job into MBA programs, and this may hinder a solid look from the types of schools I listed above. One strategy would be to go for a more general management type job in your current company or elsewhere-maybe a financial analyst or operations analyst. Getting broader than payroll may pay big dividends in a run for MBA programs in 1-2 years.

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by 2012gmat » Sat Oct 20, 2012 11:53 am
Hi Alex - thanks very much for your input! I'm happy to hear that my test scores might qualify me for some higher-ranked programs down the road.

Considering that payroll is not a typical feeder into MBA programs, I was curious how that might be viewed by admissions people. At this point, I'm going to start working on a few applications to the schools I mentioned in my post . Any advice on how I might approach the essays? Given that my work experience may be in a non-typical function, how should I address that? Any input on my application and essays would be wonderful!
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by Jon@Admissionado » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:36 am
One more thought for you.. sure maybe "payroll" is not a typical feeder to many MBA programs, but "HR" is faaaar sexier...

Within limits of reason, you aren't simply who you are, but you are who you present yourself to be. So if you push heavy on the "less technical" aspects of your job... the teamwork, the impact on the HR team, your HR goals etc. I feel you could weave a better and stronger story...
"Hands down the best MBA admissions consulting firm of all-time, and boy, what an incredible founder!" -- Raj Patil, Founder of Admissionado

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https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm

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by PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:46 am
2012 gmat,

Yes, if you can have your title as HR vs Payroll Manager then that is a good move. I agree with Jon if you can push that angle.

In terms of your broader question, I'm afraid that I would need to know more about you and your specifics, in the way I work private clients.

However, I can say that the principles of strong applications don't really change person to person. They are looking, in addition to other things, for evidence of your leadership and broad minded business interest and experience. You can achieve that with both work stories and extracurricular stories that have a "managerial" flavor (how did you organize others, motivate others, persuade others, change the way things got done...).

I would be happy to help you offline if you would like to explore more personalized attention, but that is not my primary aim in these forums. Sounds like Jon would also be an excellent resource.

Alex
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by 2012gmat » Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:12 am
Thank you Jon & Alex for your advice! You have been very helpful..
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by rohitm » Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:19 am
Hi

Took Gmat today. Was hoping for a better score, but alas, turned out to be much lower than expected.
My score is 680 (quant 90 percentile and verbal 67 percentile). I was planning to apply to the following b schools and now i am wary of applying as i think my score is less than the average accepted. Needed your help by looking at the profile, should i apply with the current score or take GMAT again

Schools : INSEAD, Booth, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, LBS, Tuck

Profile:

Undergraduation - among top 3 students
Graduation - Top 20 college in india ; 1st rank in the college
Post-grad MBA from a top 10 b school in india - Allrounder award
Work experience -
1. Big credit rating agency in india (2 yrs)
2. Associate at a domestic PE firm (1.5 yrs)
3. Software consulting at a global IT major (1 yrs)

Other activities - decent activities at school and college level
Currently teach CFA at a leading firm (part-time)
Some charity work in the past though not very active presently

Planning to remain in the same industry but want to target international PE firms which surely need better exposure and a good international b school education in india

Will appreciate any help in deciding between applying with 680 score or target a better score

Rgds
Rohit
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