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Could you please evaluate my profile?

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Could you please evaluate my profile?

by kilzwitchengage » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:54 pm
G'Day!

I am a 29 year old Australian male examining the prospect of doing an MBA overseas and I would like to get a professional opinion on my chances for admission, so here goes :)

Academic History:

# I graduated in 2008 with an Information Systems (read: technology) undergraduate degree from a top Australian University (Monash). Ranked in the top 10% of my graduating class. (High Distinction average).
# Awarded a Research Scholarship for outstanding academic performance and published a paper based on said research which was picked up by the WWW Consortium and presented at the annual conference in Spain.
# Inducted as a Member of the Golden Key Honor Society for outstanding academic achievement.

Extra-Curricular:

# Worked as a volunteer and Travelled to over 30 developing nations across Africa, South East Asia and South America, from building orphanages, to visiting prisoners and setting up infrastructure in rural communities.

Professional/Career:

# I work as a Senior Consultant at a top tier, well respected Management Consulting firm that I've been with since graduation, working as an analyst in their technology division. I was swiftly relocated to Management Consulting and have been consistently promoted from Analyst - Consultant - Senior. Rated "At the very top of my peer group" in my current performance appraisal.
# My Working expertise lies primarily across the Process Improvement & Organisation Transformation for the one of the world's largest mining firms. I've worked in Singapore, South Africa and all over Australia.

B Schools in consideration:

The schools I've decided on applying to be:
1. Insead
2. Oxford Said
3. Paris School of Management (Hautes Etudes)
4. Wharton

I intend to continue my career in my current field post-MBA since one of the main reasons I've decided to do this is because of the impact I will be able to make at C-level engagements within my firm.

Also, the schools listed are those that my firm has agreed to sponsor me by paying tuition.

The kicker:

1. I haven't done my GMAT yet, and whilst I aim to get a 700+ score, would a weaker score preclude me from consideration?

2. Would the services of a professional MBA consultant be of use in putting together my application?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I would truly appreciate any insights, tips and advice.

Thanks and Regards,

Cameron
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by milimbamission » Tue Aug 07, 2012 6:17 am
Hi Cameron!

Thanks for the detailed info. Overall, I'd say you've got great professional experience and a strong academic profile. Your volunteer experience sounds very interesting - was that something you did during a gap year? The only concern that I would have about your profile is a)lack of a strong leadership profile -- I'm thinking you'll have strong professional leadership stories, but I'm not seeing a lot of non-professional leadership activities (e.g., leading a non-profit chapter, starting a club in college, captain of football (soccer!) team, etc. b) lack of extracurriculars all together - don't see any extracurricular activities listed from undergrad or thereafter and c) unknown GMAT (we'll hope for the best here!).

To be honest, though, for some of your target schools, my concerns will be less relevant. I think with your current profile (assuming you score a decent GMAT score), HEC and Oxford are strong targets. If you score 700+range, I think you'd have a good shot at INSEAD. Wharton may be a reach given the lack of extracurricular and strong leadership stories, but it's hard to really say as I don't know your full profile and your unique stories. It's definitely a possibility if you score well on the GMAT! If you get a weak GMAT score then Wharton and INSEAD would become reach schools (still not impossible to overcome, but would be difficult based on what I see in the rest of your profile).

The use of a consultant can definitely help build strong applications, but is not for everyone. It just depends on how confident you are in your own ability to index your experiences, choose the right ones for each essay while ensuring that holistically they showcase your multidimensions and characteristics, and write strong essays. Of course, I'm a bit biased, but I do believe most candidates benefit from the guidance of a consultant. In the end, it's a personal decision. If you have more specific questions on that front, please let me know.

Hope this helps,
Mili
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by kilzwitchengage » Tue Aug 07, 2012 4:08 pm
Hey Mili,

That's brilliant, and thanks for writing back to me.

Just to address your points above, my time spent volunteering wasn't quite a gap year, it was done yearly over a period of 5 years since I graduated from high school and in between semester breaks at Uni. (I still do it on my annual leave, my next destination being West Africa)

I guess I failed to mention any leadership activities or elaborate on my extra curricular. I've got a significant amount to contribute to my application on both fronts
Leadership: Mentor for new graduates at work, President of University Athletics and Drama Clubs as well as performing a number of on-the-job supervisory roles on projects.

Extra Curricular: Rescue Scuba Diver, Personal Trainer, High School swimming champion (certified on all of the above!)

A couple of general questions directed to the MBA Mission service -

1) Does the service alleviate any effort involved in the application itself?

(In no way implying that I expect the application to be done for me, but will I be provided with a framework of tools, templates and expert reviews that will save me time in putting it all together?)

2) Does the service provide any assurance (I won't use the word guarantee!) of admission?

(Based on proven stats, for instance)

Thanks again for taking the time to talk!
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by milimbamission » Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:57 am
Thanks for the additional info - glad to hear you have lots of leadership and activities to include in the app. To address your questions:

1. We certainly provide you with a large set of tools and templates and such that will make your process more effective and in my opinion, efficient, but you should note that use of consulting services will likely add time to your application process in the sense that you now are adding an editing process to your flow. You write an essay, send to your consulting for editing, then spend time integrating our edits and redrafting, and so on. In the absence of a consultant, you would likely draft and redraft in quicker iteration on your own... but not necessarily be improving with each version!

2. We obviously can't offer any guarantee of admission - (if we could we'd charge more, right? haha just kidding!). At the end of the day, your fate will lie with the admissions committees. What we can do is help you target realistic programs and help you put together the strongest possible application for those programs. But at the end of the day, where you decide to apply is up to you, and if you decide to over reach, then certainly our chances for success go down. So, while I believe we increase chances of admission, we do not claim to 'get you in' :) As for the mention of 'stats' - we don't give out any sort of success metrics because we find them to be somewhat meaningless: if a client with a 550 GMAT and 3.0 GPA insists on applying to HBS and GSB and doesn't get in, is that a failure on our part? Alternatively, if someone with a 750/4.0, and stellar profile applies only to NYU and Tulane and get in, is that a success in your opinion? If someone gets into 4/6 schools they apply to, is that success? Or if someone gets into Columbia with a scholarship but not HBS, is that success? "Success" in this process is so subjective, so we simply don't put a number to it. Hope this makes sense.

Cheers,
Mili
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by kilzwitchengage » Tue Aug 14, 2012 3:48 pm
Hey Mili, Thanks again for taking the time to write back. You make some great points there that I will take on board and will be in touch! Cheers.

Cameron
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by milimbamission » Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:27 am
sure thing!
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