Ask Stratus Admissions Counseling

Hello,

I am an Indian living in Chennai,India who is looking to get some good management learning in a country abroad for better exposure. Also, I've always wanted to start a company in my early 30's after getting good experience working at great companies.

I've a few queries that I'd like someone's counselling on. Here's my profile :
10th standard - 94 %, 12th standard - 97 %,
Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Anna University, Chennai - 77 %,
GMAT - yet to give ( will be giving by end of January )
Work - Quality Assurance Engineer at Amazon for 1 year and 5 months. ( still working )
Extras - Guitar player, Secretary in Toastmasters International Club, Co-partner of a tee shirt printing business.

Now that I have been working in a predominantly technical IT role, I am looking at exploring other options. I'm actually in a fix, right now. I got to know about the various MiM programs offered by top b-schools a month ago. Considering I have a ~1.5 year work-ex in an IT role, what is the best way to go about my career ?
I'd really want to do a full time MBA after working for 3-4 years, but I don't want to do away my next 3 years in a software IT role, even though I work in a big brand. In short, I want to change my career path.

So, is MiM the best bet for me, considering my profile ? Should I go ahead write my GMAT and apply for the MiM courses starting in 2014?
The following are the schools I have in mind :
1. ESADE
2. IE Business School
3. HEC, Paris

What should I be targeting in the next few months ? How does my profile look for a MiM course ? How will MiM change my career ?
I'd really appreciate, if someone from the consultants or a present student studying MiM could counsel me on this and help me with my situation.
Thanks !

(Sorry for the late answer, hope it helps someone else) Well i am a current student of ESCP, but i think the profile to get into any of the top ranked MiM schools is almost the same so ill give you my 2 cents and then hopefully you should have a pretty good idea of where you stand:

1) Well the MiM is marketed as a degree for people with no or relatively little work experience, but from what i have experienced most of the international students who come for the degree have at least a year or more of work ex, this sometimes goes up to 3 years in some cases. What you have to understand is that once we do a MiM we do not plan to do an MBA, the course is almost the same and you get a pretty good push in your career.
So coming back to the question a little work experience is a plus, may it be internships or a full time job. If you have worked for big companies the brand name helps, if not then also fear not as it all depends on how you explain the job you did and how interesting you can make it.( I worked as a electrical engineer for an Indian construction material mfg. company, so i have some experience of polishing things up

2) Well a high GMAT score is absolutely essential. Most schools have a median score of 710. But if you have a score of 680+ and a strog profile, that gives you a fighting chance.

3) Your academic background also matters, most schools want an ideal mix of engineers, economic, arts etc students so if you have a different background it helps, as it adds diversity to the whole school mix and scores good points on the international ranking scene. Here your nationality can also help, especially you are from one of those countries from which there are relatively lower number of foreign students studying abroad.

4) Your academics play a decent role, a high CGPA shows that you are a consistent performer, but i know many people who have lower CGPA's but still score an admit. So it depends on how you explain your marks and whether you have a viable alibi for it. Also colleges know how hard it is to score top grades in certain UG colleges of the world, so they accordingly scale the marks and evaluate you. So no worries about that.

5) Extra curricular, well this is something i believe really helped me gain an admit in many colleges, and is something schools are very favorable towards. They love people who are different and have done something which makes them stand out from the crowd. It may be related to sports( a national level archer), school associations ( president of some XYZ association),an interesting hobby (completed a course in handwriting analysis), Volunteering work etc. So i hope you get the point.

Well all these things have to be clearly explained to the school admission committee in your Resume and your Essays. Many people think that having a GMAT score is enough, but that's just the tip of the ice berg and is only one of the first screening techniques used by schools. An excellent, creative and well written essay or set of essays which showcase your multitude of talents is absolutely necessary!
Only by looking good on paper do you have a chance to be called for an interview and then actually explain all that you have already written about. You can check out @MiM Essay Editing Service , for some pointers about how to write your essays.

A Letter of Recommendation is also very important as it acts as a 3rd person certification of your exploits and gives the admission panel a view of your character from the eyes of somebody else. A lot of people don't give the LOR due attention and send half a page, poorly written LORs, this can be a strong cause for the demise of their application. So a well written LOR clearly explaining your strengths and describing experiences is absolutely essential.

and yes of course you have to ace the interview too

So a well knitted culmination of all these lands you an admit into LBS,HEC,IE and any other top school for that matter.

Hope this helps.
Check us out at https://www.mim-essay.com/what-is-the-mim-.html for more information about the Masters in Management degree and to get a personal profile evaluation and gauge your chances at any of the top MiM schools.