The Application Process

Hi all,

Hope someone would be able to help evaluate my profile to see if I'll be suitable to apply for an MBA programme for 2012. I'm keen to go into consulting and have shortlisted a few universities like Rice and Boston for my applications. Would schools like Cornell and/or Kellogg be a stretch? Many thanks in advance!

GPA: 3.56/4.00
GMAT: 730 (Q49, V41)
Work Experience: About 38 months now (3 years +); will be about 44-46 months by the time I enter the programme
Current Work Experience: Working for a ministry in the government, in charge of planning of events, coverage planning, in charge of a few tech projects where I implemented a few systems for my department
Work experience as an undergraduate - Research work, did a couple of consulting projects
Background: Undergraduate degree in psychology

Uh, jillz??? YOU CAN DO MUCH BETTER THAN RICE OR BOSTON!!

Sorry for shouting -- we got a little excited.

Your profile would absolutely qualify you for Kellogg. And Cornell, though Kellogg is a *much* better school. Your GPA and most especially your GMAT are super! You have doors opened to you. You're a little younger but even so, you should be in good shape for targeting any number of top MBA programs in the U.S. or Europe.

The best way to choose a bschool is based on career goals, and then personal factors like geography, type of environment (urban/rural), size of school (big class or small intimate), and most importantly, what the school specializes in, which determines not just the educational opportunities but also what recruiters tend to come on campus.

You should aim high though! It of course depends on what type of experiences you can write about in essays on leadership and achievement etc. - lots depends on the essays - but in terms of the basics of your profile, there is no reason not to shoot for a top program.

If you've got more detailed questions, feel free to ask!

EssaySnark

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement and prompt response! Was just a little worried about the work experience bit as the average for most programme is about 5 years?

In terms of career goals, I would like to go into consulting, in Organisational Behavior in particular. I kinda shortlisted the four programmes based on the electives/specialties they offer. Problem is the MBA fair is only coming over to my country on 20 Nov, by which time I would have missed quite a few of the application deadlines already. Wondering if you could point me in the direction of other schools I can consider. I've been going back to the same schools over and over again

In terms of other factors -
Geography - not very particular, better if it's a bigger city as I would think that employment opportunities will be better (taking into account the fact that I'll be an international applicant and I hope to stay on in the States to work)
Environment - Preferably not too rural, but I'll go where the school is
School Size - I would actually lean towards a smaller class size

Thanks so much!

Hmmmm..... organizational behavior - that's cool stuff! And, it obviously is a natural fit to your psych undergrad. Pretty much every bschool offers some org behavior coursework as part of their core curriculum. Kellogg is definitely a good choice for you, because they are one of the strongest schools for consulting in general - HBS too. And, since you're a little younger, you really might want to consider HBS - yes it's a daunting target to toss out there but you have the basics that would qualify you (you'd need to be able to highlight leadership and impact in a really big way in those essays but there's no reason you shouldn't consider Harvard!). Harvard trends a little younger, Kellogg does prefer applicants to have more work experience, but we've seen plenty of people have success there with 3+ years. You are actually in the sweet spot right now, you could theoretically be targeting schools that generally have younger students like Harvard, and you can also try for those that prefer more experience provided you can demonstrate that you're ready for bschool now. (That needs to come through in the essays, in terms of what stories you present to showcase your achievement etc.)

The specific angle that you're focusing on of org behavior consulting will actually set you up as differentiated among the larger applicant pool of people interested in just 'consulting' - so this is good. Consulting and finance are the two major tracks at ANY bschool, so you actually have plenty to choose from. You're right to identify Cornell for their strength in industrial relations through their ILR school but obviously that's separate from the MBA offered from The Johnson School. At most MBA programs you can take classes at other graduate schools on campus though, so this might be worthwhile for you to pursue. Cornell Johnson is not the best-ranked program though - it's a good school and clearly Cornell has a great reputation overall, but in terms of MBA, it's not that highly regarded compared to these others we're discussing.

Another that you may want to research is NYU - like Cornell, they have a separate Master's in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, separate from the MBA, but you maybe can take classes through that school while you're getting your MBA from Stern.

One reason that Kellogg is interesting is because Dean Blount has a PhD in management and organizations, and she frequently talks about organizations as drivers of change. That alone doesn't mean that you'd automatically have a specialty in org behavior just by going to Kellogg, but it doesn't hurt that there's an interest in this area at the top of the school! The new dean at Booth, Sunil Kumar, was also the head of org behavior when he was at Stanford. These aren't the only ways to evaluate a school but they might be worth investigating.

Speaking of Stanford: maybe that would be a target? Of course, it's really tough to get in (!!!), but in terms of your field of interest, they most definitely have some interesting stuff going on.

Cornell is very rural so you might want to rule that out if you want to go to school in the city. NYU is obviously in NYC; Kellogg and Booth are in Chicago; Stanford is Northern California, it's a beautiful campus in Silicon Valley, about an hour from San Francisco, not technically rural but definitely not city. Kellogg and Chicago Booth are both pretty large programs; NYU and Stanford are about the same.

Wow, sorry for the long post - basically you have lots to investigate - we may not have helped you narrow your list here!! But that's actually a nice problem to have, isn't it?

Happy to entertain other questions - hopefully this is helpful and not completely adding to the overwhelm!

EssaySnark

Thanks so much for your reply... it's a little overwhelming, but in a very good way. Really really appreciate it... Hmmm.. I may consider Stanford... but will definitely let you know what happens down the road. Busy with my essays now.. but I will definitely keep update this post when there are new developments!

You have a strong profile so Cornell and Kellogg are not stretch schools in your case. You have good chances in these schools. if we look at your gmat score. Generally most of the applicants have a good 4-5 years of work experience and you are on little lower side of this.
Although it is not just the work experience that counts but also what you did there like-what were your achievements, what initiative you took, what changes you drove in your workplace etc. So you need to build your work related profile around these areas.
Given all aspects of your profile are showcased in good light just as your academics you could also target ore top schools.

Feel free to ask any further query, we're here to assist you