ThinkAdmit wrote:lankylint wrote:I'm just looking for a simple "can happen" or "can never happen" kind of an answer. My academics prior to UG are miserable to say the least.
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Academics:
X - 68%
XII - 47% (That is not a typo)
UG [B.Sc. (Information Technology), no-name college in Mumbai] - 79% (First in college)
PG [M.Economics, University of Hong Kong] - 3.5/4 GPA
Certifications:
PRM, FRM, CAIA, CFA L3 passed
Experience:
2 years in a financial firm in Hong Kong as an analyst
3 months, Teach India program (volunteer work)
Awards/extras:
Dale Carnegie training certificates
Scholarship from GARP
GMAT:
740/800
IELTS:
8.5/9
Hi lankylint,
Frankly, I see a bit of negativity in your profile description. Will tell you how. If you want one answer: "Can happen", but not this year. Let me elaborate:
Academics: GMAT-fantastic, UG, PG - very good. PG univ: excellent. XII: major dampener and am sure you will be asked for an explanation.
Certifications + experience: "Good to see in the resume" certifications. Without supplementing stories in your essays, regarding how these certifications help and why did you think you needed those certifications will bring you a breakthrough application. For example, "disclaimer: I don't know you and I need a proper brainstorming session to be perfect, but just a hypothetical scenario", you can say that you knew you excel in academics and you were strong in your domain (both theoretical and practical applications), you wanted to prove to yourself and have an external validation of your potential. This will bring in the requirement and reasoning of these certifications. Moreover, when you connect these with your career goals, they will be all the more better.
Your teach for India association is great. But why are you doing it? For MBA applications, or are you genuinely interested? If you are genuinely interested, continue your association and keep teaching. If time permits, do some other similar activity as well.
Now, coming to, why did I say "not now". You have 2 years of experience. Add to it, I dont know the quality and contributions at your work place. It makes sense to wait for another year and apply. Though your profile is great for a B-school, but for ISB specifically, 2-3 years is just the beginning and you need to prove a lot more. Are you looking at some other schools as well?
If you think it is an inaccurate description, give me more meat, more info to comment. Call me if you want to discuss. Happy to help.
The negativity comes natural to me, I suppose. I just feel that I may have under-performed due to various reasons. The Teach India program was around the time of my UG. Since I'm not IN India, I can't really volunteer there anymore. When I did it, there was a 6? month gap between my final exams and leaving for Hong Kong, I decided to use it productively. Since the program was well over 200 hours, it is safe to say that I was SOMEWHAT interested at least.
My 12th score is a result of me wanting to explore avenues other than studies. I did not fear the prospects of the future. My mother, although a lecturer herself, never pushed me academically. She always told me to do what I feel was right. I had 0% attendance throughout 11th and 12th. In fact, I was surprised I passed. I swear that the little I wrote was scribbling of random words. 47% is a skewed score because I scored 35% in 3 subjects; English increased the overall aggregate. I can never really justify the score. Remember Teach India? Many, in fact, ALL my learners had 12th scores higher than me.
As for my certifications: After getting in 47% in 12th, career choices were limited. It was between two no-name colleges and reappearing for 12th. Since I decided not to reappear, I had to pick one of the colleges. They only had IT. In the third year, I had an epiphany of sorts? Sort of like, "Where am I going?" I was good at programming, but, I didn't like the long-term prospects. Since I didn't know what a "stock" was, I decided to learn some basic finance. At that point, my brother told me about CFA? I think. I thought to myself, the exam isn't THAT expensive, I have free time and I might as well have some direction in learning. Now, I don't if this is good or bad but, I got obsessed with what I was learning and how much I could learn. In the span of 300 days, I gave 4 levels of PRM, 2 of FRM, 1 of CFA, and 2 of CAIA. Aside from CFA, whose second level I couldn't appear because I wasn't a graduate (against policy to register for level 2 without graduating), all my certifications are from the final year of UG. By the end, I had spent close to 225k on these exams and couldn't spend more because I needed the money for Hong Kong.
Talking about Hong Kong, that is a story in itself. I was supposed to leave for UK in my final year (transfer). I didn't because of financial reasons. After that, I was supposed to go to Germany, Ireland and even France at one point. Eventually, I had to find a course that was more affordable than the rest. I had offers for finance and economics from HKU. But, the fees for finance was 1.4 mil INR vs 850k for economics, the choice was made. I'm not saying that economics is in any way inferior. In fact, they let us pick finance courses to some extent, just that the title is not looked at with the same "practicality."
I am targeting no other school. If I don't get in now, I'll try next year. Or the year after that. I need ISB because I cannot stop working for long and I can't afford another foreign degree, especially an MBA. My immediate family and close friends have "invested" a lot in me, financially and otherwise. It isn't about me anymore. Not until I can provide for them.
Also, I do want to start my own biz. But, not until the liabilities are only mine. Maybe half a decade later? Investment consultancy, it will be.
So, again, what do you suggest I do?
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