The Application Process

Hi All,

I would be really thankful if some experts can help me shortlist B schools to apply to. I am planning to apply for Fall 2013 intake. Below is my profile-

Gmat - 760
Age - 24
Education - GPA of 8.16 out of 10
Undergrad college - NIT Rourkela, India
Work Ex - Currently 36 months in ZS Associates (Analytics based Management consulting)
Done some good projects in ZS. I can get recommendations for my managers in ZS (from both India & US offices).

- One of the toppers of my High school
- Did a nice project in college and won many competitions presenting it. Also, participated in a venture competition in Tepper business school as an undergrad to present this project.
- Member of a sports team in High school
- Regular scout in High scout
- Organized events in college festivals
- Organized many outing while in ZS
- Trekking and Travelling enthusiast

Which Top 10 US B schools should I apply to? Let me know if you need any additional information.

Hey gujralvikas! First off - CONGRATS ON THAT GMAT SCORE!! Very impressive - and the rest of your stats too - you've clearly been someone who takes school seriously. The adcoms will all appreciate your work ethic.

What we would prefer to do is ask you: What schools are you interested in? (And before anyone just says "A top 10 school" then they should probably read our take on that in this post on the EssaySnark blahg: https://www.essaysnark.com/2011/10/relia ... is-a-trap/ )

Unfortunately nobody can (ethically) suggest schools based just off of what you provided. We need to know more about what you want to do with the MBA and what your criteria would be for graduate education. Career goals matter *a lot* -- defining those will help you in selecting which schools are appropriate, and equally so, they will help the adcom understand if you'll be in the right position to benefit from the specific resources and education that they can provide. So career goals are the first thing we'd be curious about, before trying to take a stab at listing off some schools.

We have some posts about selecting schools - you can start here if you're interested: https://www.essaysnark.com/2010/06/how-t ... a-bschool/ and this is another one that talks about our philosophy on the MBA: https://www.essaysnark.com/2012/04/an-mb ... ake-of-it/

With the basics of your profile, you have the whole wide world open to you, practically -- you have a ticket to play the bschool game. Whether you'll be a winner or not will depend in large part on your essays -- and the most important parts of the essays is in showing you as a leader, and in communicating your view of how you fit to the school. You could theoretically find success at ANY top school in the world (but you knew that, right? your GMAT score already says that) -- it's just that the adcoms will be looking for more from you than just the GMAT.

As they say, a low GMAT score can keep you out of bschool - but at the same time, a high GMAT doesn't guarantee you anything. Now it's up to you to communicate why you need an MBA and how you'll put it to use. Thus, those career goals are often paramount!!

Lots of stuff on the blahg about all this, perhaps you'll find it useful, and of course if you want to fill us in on your reasons behind wanting the MBA, we can hopefully provide more value here!

EssaySnark

ps: The stuff from HS is irrelevant now, college largely so too. Most schools won't care about that much since it's too far back - you'll want to be emphasizing recent success stories from your career since college.

With a 760 (or even a 600 for that matter), you can apply anywhere you want. And you should. As Essarsnark points out there, it's where and what you *want* that is key. What do you want to do after you graduate and which program will help get you there?

The best pieces of advice I can offer are to talk to current students at schools and see what they say, read official and unofficial websites about school's academics and culture, and visit schools this fall!

also.. just very quickly. The things that you did in High School and probably not even college won't be relevant, so I would start thinking about other things that you can highlight in your profile. The one thing I always tell people who have great GMAT scores is that your GMAT score is a check box. It will not keep you out of any school and the top schools a 760 is pretty common if the average GMAT score is 720/730.

also.. just very quickly. The things that you did in High School and probably not even college won't be relevant, so I would start thinking about other things that you can highlight in your profile. The one thing I always tell people who have great GMAT scores is that your GMAT score is a check box. It will not keep you out of any school and the top schools a 760 is pretty common if the average GMAT score is 720/730.

I agree with everyone here that nobody is interested in your high school and college achievements.They want to know what you did after college . The key here is to highlight your career progression and accomplishments at work.
Also, selection of schools will be related to your your post MBA and long term goals.Once you are articulate about your need to do an MBA and your post MBA goals, it will be easier for anyone to suggest which schools you could apply to.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I just have one problem here - After college, I have not been so involved in activities outside work. I have focused more on my work. I have, however, tried to pursue some travelling/adventure expeditions (Just came back from a 10-day motorbike trip, Have also tried bungee-jumping, para-gliding, river rafting). I have tried to participate in community welfare activities but could not find a nearby place where I can contribute over the weekend.

The activities I did in high school or college made me the person I am today. Won't Adcoms be interested to know that? Can you please give certain examples of activities people mention in their application?

Also, to give you a sense of my career goals, I have been working in a sales & marketing consulting firm and have a fairly good understanding of the analytical groundwork that goes behind consulting. I want to continue and excel in the field of management consulting. Can you suggest which schools are known to be best for consulting (education as well as career)?
Finally, one other constraint that I have is regarding education loan. Since I am an international student, I am only looking for schools which offer loans without any co-signer. Currently, I am looking at Kellogg, Booth, Tuck, Darden, Fuqua and Ross. Any thoughts/help is appreciated. Thanks once again!!!

gujralvikas that's a lot of questions!

To your inquiry about extracurriculars: All the schools' online apps include fields for you to specify what you did in college. Going back to HS is not generally recommended, it's just too far in the past. There's often this massive emphasis on extracurriculars on discussion boards like this but many schools aren't that concerned with them. Not having a lot of stuff in the recent past is not a reason to reject you. They will look at the full picture. Professional experience matters more than community stuff for most people.

Most MBA programs are strong with topics related to consulting, it's one of the key fields that people go into following business school. You don't necessarily need to identify schools that specialize in consulting (if there even is such a thing). If you're interested in consulting in a marketing capacity, then you should be focusing in that direction.

We've seen lots of threads on the loans/co-signers question so you might want to poke around here to see if you can find them.

Hope that helps!

EssaySnark