Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

On behalf of MBAPrepAdvantage, I am extremely excited to join the Beat the GMAT community and answer your questions about the MBA admissions process. My bio can be found on https://www.mbaprepadvantage.com/Our%20Team.html.

I would also like to thank Eric for inviting us to participate in the Beat the GMAT community. I have met Eric at conferences throughout the world and share his passion for providing applicants with the resources to realize their career potential.

Hi Michael,

Could you kindly evaluate my profile for the following school: HBS, Wharton, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, Yale

Background:
25/Asian/Male

Education:
- 1st generation to graduate from college
- Top 5 public US College - Industrial Engineering
- (Honors Program) GPA:3.7/4.0 - Major GPA: 3.8/4.0
- Multiple Cultural/Engineering Scholarships
- Hold two leadership position (President) of two different ethnicity organization as a result of my multi-culture background (have a strong cultural hardship story to tell)

Work Experience (by matriculation will have 4 years post graduate WE - 3 years US, 1 year Asia):
- 8 months intern at Distribution start-up (help grow from $4M to $10M sales by improving operations capabilities)
- 5 months intern at Boeing as Advanced Manufacturing (Have superb recommendation from Boeing Senior VP)
- 2 years leadership rotational program at Global Fortune 500 companies specializing in supply chain(travel on average twice/month and including international travel) - have great relationship with senior executives


GMAT:
- the best practice test: 720 (q48, v41)

Post MBA goal:
- 2 years in Management Consulting/Private Equity related to infrastructure
- Long term: bringing family business to IPO


If you find target school is far from reach, please advise on what I can do to improve my chances.

Thanks in advance.

On the surface you are competitive for all the schools to which you wish to apply assuming a 720 GMAT score. Focus your community service and professional experiences on both skill sets gained and accomplishments achieved.

One potential weakness is within your career goals. Merely bringing a family business to IPO seems like an intermediate goal (in other words then what?). Schools like Stanford and HBS care about having ambitious goals/vision. Furthermore, management consulting experience is not a logical career path to returning to the family business to guide its IPO and your non-finance background might make landing a Private Equity job unlikely. I would recommend revisiting your career goals: (1) Elevate your career vision and (2) Test to see whether your career path to this vision is realistic from both the skill sets you will gain and your likelihood of being able to accomplish this.

Best of luck,

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Thank you and have a great weekend,

Hi Mike, thanks for your expert feedback. I would like to ask more specifically on few things:


How important is the company reputation? my company is big enough to be in the Forbes Global 500 companies, but it's definitely not Google, McKinsey, etc. If I delay my application to next year, what's can do to improve my chances on the top school? (get involve in company strategic team? International experience?)

Thank you so much.

A company with a strong reputation is helpful because top MBA schools are familiar with how these companies train applicants. Also, a top company sends a signal about quality (in other words someone able to get a job at McKinsey has already been pre-selected before applying to MBA school).

That said working at a top company is not a make-or-break factor. Applicants must still position their accomplishments well versus their peer group. Plenty of candidates from top companies are rejected while plenty of other candidates from no-name companies are accepted.

Good luck,

hello sir

I am a indian btech student (just about to graduate) and thinking to give GMAT now and then gradually building my profile in next 3-4 years

I have a low GPA (btech-civil) also my college is
non IIT nd non NIT (does it mean My MBA dreams are already DOOMED?)

so i am strongly considering a
ALTERNATE TRANSCRIPT nd I really want guidence
in that matter I dont know where to prsue these
courses in india nd moreover which course should I
take (part time)
are online courses ok ?? nd the most imp ques is
where to pursue these courses from ??
and aredistance learning couses adviseable ?
and I would love to have sone more valueable
sugessions
I am in starting stage of MBA journey . so plz
advise what steps should I take and what needs to
be done so that 3-4 years from now when I ask for
advise. I dont want to hear the comment "top 10. -
schools are a far strech for you" . tell me what I
need to do for that . I knw my GPA is a bad think
but I would like your views on what should be done
I have read on various fourms that GPA nd college
are just the starters ..which make the adcoms look
into your profile but it could be compensiated with
good GMAT score and other aspects of profile

regards
thedarklight

hello sir

I am a indian btech student (just about to graduate) and thinking to give GMAT now and then gradually building my profile in next 3-4 years

I have a low GPA (btech-civil) also my college is
non IIT nd non NIT (does it mean My MBA dreams are already DOOMED?)

so i am strongly considering a
ALTERNATE TRANSCRIPT nd I really want guidence
in that matter I dont know where to prsue these
courses in india nd moreover which course should I
take (part time)
are online courses ok ?? nd the most imp ques is
where to pursue these courses from ??
and aredistance learning couses adviseable ?
and I would love to have sone more valueable
sugessions
I am in starting stage of MBA journey . so plz
advise what steps should I take and what needs to
be done so that 3-4 years from now when I ask for
advise. I dont want to hear the comment "top 10. -
schools are a far strech for you" . tell me what I
need to do for that . I knw my GPA is a bad think
but I would like your views on what should be done
I have read on various fourms that GPA nd college
are just the starters ..which make the adcoms look
into your profile but it could be compensiated with
good GMAT score and other aspects of profile

regards
thedarklight

Unfortunately, you are not going to like my advice. For the most competitive applicant group, Indian engineering/technical applicants, the quality of undergraduate school, GPA and GMAT have greater importance than these factors do for applicants from less competitive groups. I am assuming you did not graduate from an IIT/NIT-equivalent level school like say a BITS, Pilani. So, the first thing you can do is take the GMAT now and score as high as possible (750+ would be great) to mitigate to the best you can your less competitive undergraduate school and GPA. A high GMAT score will help your MBA admissions chances substantially more than taking online courses will. You then want to excel in all other MBA evaluation criteria, such as gaining a good post-college job and hopefully acquiring solid leadership experience and international exposure. You will also want to lead in community service as well.

But even with a strong GMAT score and other variables the lower half of the top 10 might still be a stretch for you. You will need to diversify your options by applying to both selective and less selective MBA schools. But if you are realistic about your goals and diversify your opportunities then you can make your MBA dreams a reality.

Good luck (tempted to close with "I am the Bat" Batman reference for your moniker),

Thanks a lot sir for the valuable feedback

To be honest 750+ is a tough score to manage .. I am targeting 720+ score and i can achive that too

I am already in community service and i dont know how can i highlight those things as i dont want to flaut those things as achivements or something as it is whats me and seems bad to use those things so as to compentiate my GPA

Internatinal exposure is also a problematic area as i am into Entrepreneurship and it might not provide me with much of international exposure as i wont be travelling to other parts of world anytime soon

On last question "is the sucess of my experiments matter more or the fact that i took a step and thought out of box to achive something that i wanted (is failure a bad thing ..i hope not )


THAT all being said i firmly belive in doing rather that speculating and my primary goal would be to achive a high gmat score

Try to educate yourself as much as possible about the MBA admissions process. Within your existing community service seek additional responsibilities. You are not trying to use community service to compensate for your lower GPA, but rather you are authentically becoming more desirable in other areas which the admissions committees way. So, for instance, HBS looks for a Habit of Leadership and Engaged Community Citizenship per https://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/Pages/default.aspx.

International exposure does not mean only traveling to other parts of the world but engaging in projects or business problems with global dimensions, managing international relationships, working with culturally diverse stakeholders and so on.

More broadly speaking a certain amount of failure is fine especially if growth is shown, but there is "a tipping point" where too much failure clouds the overall picture.
I hope this helps and good luck with your studying.

Have a great weekend,

Thanks alot

I am glad this feedback has helped and keep your spirits and motivation positive and you will be fine.

Have a great day,