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Need Advice

by maddy_kaps » Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:56 pm
Here is my profile.

Indian Male

Age-26

Engineering Degree in Computer Science with 72% (Don't know how it will convert into GPA). Can you please tell me how much it would be in terms of GPA approximately.

Pursuing MS in Software Engineering from Arizona State University (completing in April 2010)GPA Avg till now - 4.0

GMAT - 650 (Q46,V34, AWA- 5.0)

Profession - IT - Software Engineer with American MNC

Work Exp - 5 years (by Aug 2010). I would be applying for Fall,2010.

International Work Exp - 7 months - US

Target Schools - Europe and Asia Pacific colleges.
Some specific schools are
Insead
ISB, India
Oxford
Cambridge
SP Jain,Dubai
NUS,Singapore
Nanyang, Singapore
GSIM, Sydney
other UK schools ranked 20-50 category.

I am looking for accelerated 1 year residential program so not considering any US colleges. I would like to continue in IT after MBA in a Management or Consultant role.

As per my initial analysis, my GMAT score is close to the avg GMAT score of most of these institute except ISB and Insead. Moreover I prepared for GMAT extremely well and think that one more attempt won't increase my score dramatically.

Career Growth - Good

Co-curricular activities - Good

Please advice whether this profile is sufficient for admission in the colleges of my choice. What can I do better to increase my chances. I have already started working on my thought process for interviews, Recommendation Letters and Essays.

Thanks
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Quick evaluation

by Paxton Helms - Kaplan » Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:37 pm
Hello!

At the schools that I know (mainly in Europe), your GMAT is going to be your main limitation. Everything else looks solid to very solid. Did you score better (in terms of percentile) on the quant or the verbal?

Another consideration which goes to both your personal goals and to your chances of admission: how do the schools that you have selected track to your career goals? If you want continue to work in S. Asia then Singapore might make sense; if you want to work in Europe then one of the European schools might make sense. As I read over your brief outline I nodded my head in agreement with everything until I saw the geographical range of the schools that you're considering.

Just remember that you will need to make a compelling case for why you want to get your MBA in one region rather than another. And, for your personal career, remember that MBAs are still very regional: if you go to school in Europe, many of your colleagues and much of your network will be there. Please do NOT underestimate --this network is, in some ways, more enduring than the education itself.

Let me know your thoughts--

Paxton



Target Schools - Europe and Asia Pacific colleges.
Some specific schools are
Insead
ISB, India
Oxford
Cambridge
SP Jain,Dubai
NUS,Singapore
Nanyang, Singapore
GSIM, Sydney
other UK schools ranked 20-50 category.

I am looking for accelerated 1 year residential program so not considering any US colleges. I would like to continue in IT after MBA in a Management or Consultant role.

As per my initial analysis, my GMAT score is close to the avg GMAT score of most of these institute except ISB and Insead. Moreover I prepared for GMAT extremely well and think that one more attempt won't increase my score dramatically.

Career Growth - Good

Co-curricular activities - Good

Please advice whether this profile is sufficient for admission in the colleges of my choice. What can I do better to increase my chances. I have already started working on my thought process for interviews, Recommendation Letters and Essays.
Keep me in the loop about your thinking and let me know if you have any more questions.

Paxton



Paxton Helms is an MBA admissions consultant for Kaplan Admissions Consulting. He earned his MBA from UCLA and specializes in helping clients that are applying to top twenty and "reach" programs. He can be reached directly at [email protected].

To begin working with Paxton immediately, follow this link and request him specifically: https://www.kaptest.com/GMAT/Admissions- ... lting.html
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by maddy_kaps » Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:32 am
Thanks for your reply Paxton.

I scored better in Quant (77 percentile) than Verbal (69 percentile). I can make up little bit on Verbal side by scoring good on TOEFL. My earlier score was 100 ibt when I gave it for MS program from ASU.

Now to your second Question

When I decided to go for MBA, I had two things in my mind

1. Goal - I have learned a lot about IT and software Engineering in my work exp and my interest includes Leadership, strategy and of course IT. When I was thinking about MBA to intellectually challenge myself and learn more about business side, 1 year MBA made more sense to me as it equips you with all tools and resources needed to get back to the IT industry and take more senior positions.

2. Money - All US program offers 2 year MBA and even if some of them offer 1 year, they want people to have undergraduate degree in Business so it is out of scope for me.
Now 2 year MBA is out of my reach money wise. So I concentrated on 1 Year programs as they are more affordable.

During my preparation of GMAT, I also came across the concept of IT Consultancy which can provide me great opportunity to leverage my existing knowledge and business skills from MBA and to apply that to different teams and companies.

Having all these things in mind, I started to navigate Economist and Financial Times latest rankings and got some good information about various programs from their websites. One thing I found is that most of them are same in their course content and their graduates are getting placed in both Consulting and IT Management role.

Now to take geography of these institutes into consideration, I shortlisted most of the institutes from Europe and South Asia which includes cities like London and Singapore as they are great industrial hubs and chances of getting jobs are better there.

Insead, ISB, Oxford, Cambridge are some of the top ranked institutes so I included them in my list as I felt that education from these institutes would be of extremely high quality and Insead again has a center in Singapore.

I hope I have provided some of my thoughts to you regarding my selection of institutes. I am still working on my thought process and want to be very sure about my goals and purpose in my applications and interviews.

Let me know what you feel about it?

If you can suggest me some good institutes apart from what I have mentioned in my post where I have a reasonable chance of getting admitted, it would be a great a help.

Any other advice is highly appreciated.

Thanks
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by Paxton Helms - Kaplan » Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:25 pm
Your scores are solid but not outstanding. You have a chance but perhaps not a great one at the really top programs. That said, you are probably in the running for many very very good programs.

I am a bit concerned about some of the misinformation that you seem to have picked up along the way. Business schools, for instance, do not require people to have an undergraduate business degree. Many do but many do not. If that causes you to go back and re-evaluate your options then that may be worth your while.

You are right that places like London offer good chances of finding a job in the sense that they are very large cities; but, the big consulting firms have offices all over and you will certainly be sent to work all over!! I would stress again: business schools are still very regional. I would not go to Oxford if you don't really want to work in Europe. Remember, the geography of your business school has a long-term impact on where a great quantity of your personal and professional network is. Please don't underestimate this factor!

Good Luck--

Paxton
Keep me in the loop about your thinking and let me know if you have any more questions.

Paxton



Paxton Helms is an MBA admissions consultant for Kaplan Admissions Consulting. He earned his MBA from UCLA and specializes in helping clients that are applying to top twenty and "reach" programs. He can be reached directly at [email protected].

To begin working with Paxton immediately, follow this link and request him specifically: https://www.kaptest.com/GMAT/Admissions- ... lting.html
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by maddy_kaps » Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:42 pm
Thanks for your reply.

I am re-evaluating my options now after receiving your thoughts. Can you please suggest some really good 12-15 months MBA program in Europe and US. I am interested to work in any of the locations.

What about my chances in Emory and Cornell.

Thanks.
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Emory and Cornell

by Paxton Helms - Kaplan » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:29 pm
The best (i.e., highest-ranked) short-term program is probably INSEAD outside of Paris. IMG in Switzerland is good but geared a bit more towards senior executives. Some googling might be a good idea to evaluate options.

I can't really give you an idea of your chances at Cornell and Emory except to say that they are probably better at Emory than at Cornell. Cornell is more competitive though Emory is improving. Those seem like an odd couple: what is making you consider those two?

In general, a better approach for you might be be to come up with a new list of criteria and then use a spreadsheet to filter your choices down to 10-15 that merit more in-depth consideration.

Good Luck--

Paxton
Keep me in the loop about your thinking and let me know if you have any more questions.

Paxton



Paxton Helms is an MBA admissions consultant for Kaplan Admissions Consulting. He earned his MBA from UCLA and specializes in helping clients that are applying to top twenty and "reach" programs. He can be reached directly at [email protected].

To begin working with Paxton immediately, follow this link and request him specifically: https://www.kaptest.com/GMAT/Admissions- ... lting.html
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