Profile eval and school selection

Shina

Thanks very much for you posting. You seem to have pursued a fairly untraditional career path and have unique professional aspirations, so it has kept me thinking a bit today.

I am feeling like you probably have a few hurdles to overcome in the eyes of the typical Admissions Committee. I worry that with eight years of professional experience in LnD that your potential contributions to a business class are probably not well understood and/or appreciated. It also is a challenge for you because your trajectory and management experience has been less than some of your peers (with the same tenure.) So, spend some time really honing your stories of your professional accomplishments. How have you changed your company/project team/etc.? What initiatives have you led? When confronted by obstacles or challenges, how have you overcome them?

Your extracurricular activities are OK but far from stellar. Applicants applying successfully to Stanford, Booth, INSEAD, and so on tend to be stronger in this arena.

On the other hand, your career goals sound really interesting. But you need to be really clear why you are drawn to talent management and how you think that an MBA from a particular school will accelerate your career in this field.

As for the schools you mention, I am very skeptical that Stanford, Booth, or Kellogg are really reasonable for you. Darden and Fuqua even feel like they are still "reaches." Cornell and NYU should be the best of this list in terms of your chances.

Have you thought about any schools in the next tier below these? The University of Texas at Austin, Emory, Georgetown, or UNC's Kenan-Flagler are all solid choice you may want to explore.

Best of luck to you,
Jennifer

Thanks Jennifer

I have interacted with many people about my chances and profile and the answer I mostly got was a different profile and good number of work years should do me good. Yours is the first realistic response which is that my different profile and lack of managerial experience needs to be explained.

I appreciate your your candid response, makes me see the drawbacks in my profile more realistically. This was very helpful.

Great! I am happy to be helpful any way I can!
Your goal of talent management is unique - use it to your advantage.
Best,
Jennifer

I'm a FY at Fuqua - our mean class age is 29, and we are about 40% international. This year % women was a bit lower than usual so they're looking to boost that I think ... I only had 4 years of work experience by the time I started, and a lower GMAT, and was from the US. That said, I personally applied to schools more in terms of fit than what the chances were ... if you want a team-based culture in a non-city location with lecture/case/experiential learning (not just one type) , then go for Fuqua =)

Hi sv02

Thanks for your reply, I looked at this thread after months. I looked at fit and something to attract me to a school enough to really want to be there more than my chances. Unfortunately it hasn't quite worked for me yet. Duke did not invite me for interview which was disheartening. I am looking at other schools for r3 right now while waiting to hear from Cornell and NYU. Hoping something will work out = )


Thanks!