Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi

I am planning to apply for ISB for the batch starting 2013, and was wondering what my chances would be. My profile is as follows:

X: 90%
XII: 89%

Bachelors in Engineering at McGill University (Montreal), GPA: 2.99/4.00 (70%)

4 years work experience by 2013 August as an SAP consultant in Canada.

Internship experience:
Worked for 6 months as a software tester in New Jersey, USA.

Extracurriculars:
1. Worked part-time as a paid RA in University, assisting a professor in his research of routing algorithms
2. Represented my university in a NASA sponsored contest building a space-elevator
3. Held executive positions in Student organisations
4. Participated in several case competions at both the intra-college and inter-college levels
5. Finalist in the 2009 Dobson cup for business plans where I presented my business plan to potential investors.
6. Volunteered to raise awareness for cancer and have run a couple of marathons.
7. Entrepreneurial experience: Currently building a niche networking website. Planning to go public by the end of the year (Dec 2012).
8. Was the Assistant school pupil leader (Head boy) in high school.
9. Participated and won several quiz competions at the inter-school level


GMAT score: 730 (96 percentile):(Math: 50 (93 percentile), Verbal 40 (89 percentile)).

Thank you,
V

P.S: I have listed back things back to my school days as I am unsure as to what is relevant and what isn't.

Hi,

Could you please let me know my chances in ISB with Gmat score of 650 (Q48 V31). Below is my profile, please suggest if I should go ahead with this score or retake the gmat and apply in second cycle.

-Personal details:
Nationality: Indian
Age: 24 years

-Qualifications:
B.Tech from UPTech University: 61.64
12th: 57.6
10th: 58.66

-GMAT: 650 ( Q48 V31)
-Geographical preference: INDIA or others if you suggest, considering I would prefer settled in India.
-Post MBA goals: Technical consulting

-Work profile

-Total exp: 4 yrs and 6 months as of now
-Current Job: Sr Engineer in Leading Telecom MNC (2yrs, 4 months)

-Working as Senior Engineer in in R&D.
-work includes s/w development including learning and performing POC's (proof of concepts) on new frameworks and implementing them.
-Joined it in may 2010 as Engineer and got promoted after 1 yr, 7 months. Following are the achievements

-Demonstrated capabilities as learning anything new very quickly - though, don't have any awards but it can be reflected, apart from leadership, presentation and other skills, in my recommendation letters from my manager and senior CTO of our group.
-Performing additional role of security expert for 3 of the sub products which involves analyzing performing security analysis and tests on these products, analyzing test reports and providing recommendations and taggging them as pass/fail.
-Recived Award for good performance and excellence - though it's a bit common here.
-Selected as a member of technical and journal group (started by manager): The goal was to arranging technical sessions and shairing techical articles etc. I was selected because I keep shairing new articles and technical things with teams i.e. keeps on increasing my technical knowledge. Only 4 members, including me, were selected for this group of which 3 were of project lead level.
-Current CSR spoc of my location and my name has been suggested for CSR spoc for whole NCR which includes 3 sites in Gurgaon and 1 in NOIDA - result expected soon.
-Started (founder) a book shairing club in the company.



-Past Job: A leading VAS provider company (2 yrs, 2 months)

-Joined it as Technical trainee and got promoted to Associate s/w engineer within 5 months for excellent performance.
-Implemented the Reporting tool with a framework - I handled this project myself and I was the main guy responsible for this module. This demonstrated my quick learner attitude.
-Got involved in Fast Track programme which was for star employees. The program included studying the business and providing new idea and business. Though I left the company after 3 months and joined the telecom MNC.
-I can get good recommendation from here as well.


-Extra curriculars and Achievements:
Not as interesting in school and college

-Won many intra school competitions such as swimming and cricket (got a few certificates for swimming from school but don't know if they will be valid)
-As a team arranged cricket and volley ball tournaments but no certificates to prove.
-Involved with one NGO: Involved not so frequent visits and funding them and made efforts to fund them in company.

rachitakapoor wrote:Thanks a tonne for the response and advice, team goISB. A break was something that I couldn't help since my work hours were erratic leaving no scope to prepare. Its a huge risk that I've taken but then again what's life without a few risks?!

MBA material

pincha.swati wrote:Hi goISB,
I am an ISB aspirant. My profile is as follows:

Female, 23
Electrical Engineer from National Institute of Technology, Jaipur
Work expereince: 3 months in Bharat Petroleum Corportaion Ltd.
1 year 5 months (by March 2013) at Caterpillar, Germany.

GMAT: 720
10th : 90%
12th: 79%
Engineering through AIEEE

Extra curriculars: Held Marketing Head position for our cultural fest at university
Organised several events at university
Won several prizes for dance and arts
Sketching and writing poems are some of my hobbies.

I would be so glad if you could kindly evaluate my profile.
Thank you

Regards
Swati

Hi Swati,

According to us you need to add one more year of experience before you apply to ISB. Right now ( with 1 yr 8 months of experience by Mar 2013) you might not be even eligible to apply.

Your GMAT score is decent and work ex also looks good especially given your international experience.

Extra currics look little weak. Most of these look like college activities. So, in next 1 year try to work more on few of these say dance. Diplomas in dance or few performances will add weight to your extra currics.

Feel free to contact us for any queries.

goISB Team

aemannarwal wrote:Male/24
GMAT 720 AWA 4
Btech - NIT Jalandhar - MEchanical Engg. - 6.57/10 CGPA
Work Ex 3+ yrs
Heromoto Corp Ltd.
CBSE - 10th 86%
CBSE - 12th 85.6% ( Maths 100/100)
Comp Courses done as hobby C++, SQL, Java

I work in Heat treatment and Gear Section. I am in operations. Daily routine includes managing a work force of around 30 - 50 on shift basis. Unionized Plant. Feeding material to Assembly Line and other dept. Logistics and coordination with other dept.

Your profile looks good. We think you should go ahead and apply to ISB in Round 1 if you can devote considerable time to your essays and video.

720 on GMAT is decent but your work ex will help you stand out from the crowd. Hero Motocorp is a good brand and few applicants from Operations background apply to ISB.
Highlight experience of leading teams, challenges, crisis management and other things such as vendor management to present a strong candidature.

Though you havent mentioned any extra currics but talk about some in essay 3. Dont present a uni dimensional profile.

goISB Team

vilo_in wrote:Hi

I am planning to apply for ISB for the batch starting 2013, and was wondering what my chances would be. My profile is as follows:

X: 90%
XII: 89%

Bachelors in Engineering at McGill University (Montreal), GPA: 2.99/4.00 (70%)

4 years work experience by 2013 August as an SAP consultant in Canada.

Internship experience:
Worked for 6 months as a software tester in New Jersey, USA.

Extracurriculars:
1. Worked part-time as a paid RA in University, assisting a professor in his research of routing algorithms
2. Represented my university in a NASA sponsored contest building a space-elevator
3. Held executive positions in Student organisations
4. Participated in several case competions at both the intra-college and inter-college levels
5. Finalist in the 2009 Dobson cup for business plans where I presented my business plan to potential investors.
6. Volunteered to raise awareness for cancer and have run a couple of marathons.
7. Entrepreneurial experience: Currently building a niche networking website. Planning to go public by the end of the year (Dec 2012).
8. Was the Assistant school pupil leader (Head boy) in high school.
9. Participated and won several quiz competions at the inter-school level


GMAT score: 730 (96 percentile):(Math: 50 (93 percentile), Verbal 40 (89 percentile)).

Thank you,
V

P.S: I have listed back things back to my school days as I am unsure as to what is relevant and what isn't.

Short reply... go ahead and start working on the essays.
You have a balanced profile. Good GMAT score, international education and international work experience. SAP consulting experience will help you differentiate yourself from other IT applicants. Your extra currics are also good.

Choose 2-3 good ones and talk about them in essay 3. Other extra currics activities can be mentioned in video or application form under activities section.

Feel free to contact us for any queries.

goISB Team

taking wrote:Hi,

Could you please let me know my chances in ISB with Gmat score of 650 (Q48 V31). Below is my profile, please suggest if I should go ahead with this score or retake the gmat and apply in second cycle.

-Personal details:
Nationality: Indian
Age: 24 years

-Qualifications:
B.Tech from UPTech University: 61.64
12th: 57.6
10th: 58.66

-GMAT: 650 ( Q48 V31)
-Geographical preference: INDIA or others if you suggest, considering I would prefer settled in India.
-Post MBA goals: Technical consulting

-Work profile

-Total exp: 4 yrs and 6 months as of now
-Current Job: Sr Engineer in Leading Telecom MNC (2yrs, 4 months)

-Working as Senior Engineer in in R&D.
-work includes s/w development including learning and performing POC's (proof of concepts) on new frameworks and implementing them.
-Joined it in may 2010 as Engineer and got promoted after 1 yr, 7 months. Following are the achievements

-Demonstrated capabilities as learning anything new very quickly - though, don't have any awards but it can be reflected, apart from leadership, presentation and other skills, in my recommendation letters from my manager and senior CTO of our group.
-Performing additional role of security expert for 3 of the sub products which involves analyzing performing security analysis and tests on these products, analyzing test reports and providing recommendations and taggging them as pass/fail.
-Recived Award for good performance and excellence - though it's a bit common here.
-Selected as a member of technical and journal group (started by manager): The goal was to arranging technical sessions and shairing techical articles etc. I was selected because I keep shairing new articles and technical things with teams i.e. keeps on increasing my technical knowledge. Only 4 members, including me, were selected for this group of which 3 were of project lead level.
-Current CSR spoc of my location and my name has been suggested for CSR spoc for whole NCR which includes 3 sites in Gurgaon and 1 in NOIDA - result expected soon.
-Started (founder) a book shairing club in the company.



-Past Job: A leading VAS provider company (2 yrs, 2 months)

-Joined it as Technical trainee and got promoted to Associate s/w engineer within 5 months for excellent performance.
-Implemented the Reporting tool with a framework - I handled this project myself and I was the main guy responsible for this module. This demonstrated my quick learner attitude.
-Got involved in Fast Track programme which was for star employees. The program included studying the business and providing new idea and business. Though I left the company after 3 months and joined the telecom MNC.
-I can get good recommendation from here as well.


-Extra curriculars and Achievements:
Not as interesting in school and college

-Won many intra school competitions such as swimming and cricket (got a few certificates for swimming from school but don't know if they will be valid)
-As a team arranged cricket and volley ball tournaments but no certificates to prove.
-Involved with one NGO: Involved not so frequent visits and funding them and made efforts to fund them in company.

Hi,

We strongly recommend that your retake GMAT to cross 700 and apply in Round 2. Your have an IT / ITeS/ Telecom profile for which 650 is way below average. Add to that your below average grades in college and school which make the case for academic ability even weaker.

Other things in profile are still decent but we dont think that you will be able to compensate for the average academic performance by your IT experience only.

goISB Team

Please evaluate my profile and suggest whether I should go for ISB with my current GMAT score or give another GMAT and aim higher score.

Age : 31 years
Industry: Leading IT MNC with close to 6yr 10 months of experience in same organization.Will be 7.5+ by the time I start t
Onsite Experience : 40+ months in USA in domain Assessment Industry.
Educational:
"¢ B tech WBUT - IT - 8.97/10
"¢ 12 - 12th 65.6%
"¢ Class X - 81.75%
GMAT Score : 680 AWA 5 (50 Q,31 V)
Experience and other summary:
"¢ Received top feedback and recommendations from clients and organization managers through emails and linked-in.
"¢ Have good exposure in Management skills by leading a team of close to 12+ people. Hold different positions in organization from roles of developer, performance tester, business analyst, onsite lead , offshore module leads , project manager , onsite coordinator by handling 4-5 multiple projects simultaneously.
"¢ Very thorough knowledge on Assessment Industry which I think can be the USP.
"¢ Ranked as top performer for months 2 times in organization. Have certificates for same.
"¢ Co-Editor of college magazine publishing group.
"¢ Department topper in college and in class X and received awards for same in different years.

Kindly provide me the feedback for my profile mentioned below:

Age: 25
Nationality: Indian

Acads: XIIth 91% CBSE
Xth: 90% CBSE

Graduation: BIT Mesra, Ranchi ( Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra,Ranchi) 80.8% ( top 8% of the class) Engineering in Computer Science

GMAT 680 ( 49,32) taken in august 2012

Work Ex: Have about 4 years of work experience ( as on June 2013) in direct management and Strategic Consulting ( With PricewaterhouseCoopers , 2.3 years) and Senior Consultant/Assistant Manager with Grant Thonrton 1.7 years). Worked as project management consultant and advisors to government and Public Sector Clients on their mission critical projects. Work included Change Management, Delivery Management, Client handholding, Business Development, Recruitment ( additionally in Grant Thornton). Have worked with central government , DGCA, state governments ( TN, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman etc)

Other extra currics , awards, achievements, : Part of Training and Placement Cell at BIT Mesra, facilitate and manage end to end placement process. Active participation in events and Club activities. Part of football, basketball and volleyball teams. Awards at school and district level in football, chess and quizzes.

Targetting ISB R1 Co2014.

Awaiting your feedback!

Hey,
Please find below my profile:
Indian/F/23
Acads -
CBSE 10th = 84%
CBSE 12th = 79%
B.tech (in Computer Sci.) = 8.01/10

Work Experience -
5months : Trainee + Intern, Infosys Ltd., Mysore, India
3months : Web Programmer, Bulbous Cell Media, Tokyo, Japan
10months : Program Analyst, STS Forum (NGO), Tokyo, Japan
By Mar'13, I will have 2yrs of experience.

Extra-curricular -
"¢Got my name published (honorary) in the Tokyo Weekender magazine for serving as a System Development Engineer for one of the company's major projects.
"¢Was a Class Representative for I, II, III and IV semesters, B.Tech.
"¢Track fields, swimming, lawn tennis etc.
"¢Active member of Students Activities Council College.
"¢Selected by the YFU for an exchange program (11th and 12th standards) to Germany. - but did not join though
"¢Won many singing and dancing competitions

Yet to give GMAT. Planning to apply for the coming R2. Please advise on the GMAT score that I should obtain to be able to stand for ISB.
Kindly evaluate the profile. Your help on this would be much appreciated!

Vineela

My profile:

General:-
Indian, Male

Academics:-
Xth: 92.4%
XIIth: 92.6%
B. Tech, Mech: 8.14 CPI, from VNIT (Visveswaraya National Institute of technology, Nagpur)

Work Exp:-
Working in project planning, manufacturing and product development for past 5 years in one of the reputed OEM (automobile)

Awards and Achievements:-
Some awards from company
Merit Certificate in school

Extra Curricular:
Director of Alumni organization
Participate in Song Concerts as lead singer

GMAT:-
Overall: 720, V: 40, Q: 49, AWA: 5.0, IR: 4

Please evaluate my profile.

Thanks in advance

Need help regarding ISB too.
My profile is as under
Iam from India.
School grades - 83% & 86% in 10th & 12th resp.
UG- 74.4% from NIT-Trichy
GMAT-690
Worked for 34 months with L&T as Marketing executive coordinating All India Marketing and Sales for heavy equipments. Quit to set up a start-up and though the company was registered, could not launch it due to some issues.(14months)
Post MBA I would like to work in the short and Medium term and set up a start up in the long run.
I wish to apply to universities in the top 25 bracket as well. Which uni would be suitable.?

Hi
I am BTECH from VIT in Mech.
10th- 91
12th- 86
Btech- 82.1
Work Ex. - 3 years 3 months in IT
GMAT- 730 AWA-4.0 IR -6

Is this good enuf for ISB.. Please suggest..

Hi,

Please find below my profile:
Indian/F/31
Acads -
State Board 10th = 74%
State Board 12th = 63%
B.Sc (Chemistry Hons.) from BHU (Faculty of Science)= 70%
PGDPM (Finance & Marketing) from Indian Institute of Planning & Management, New Delhi = 68%

Work Experience -
2 years 2 month : Customer Service Manager (Asst Mgr), ICICI Bank, New Delhi
8months : Senior Business Analyst, Evalueserve.com, Gurgaon, HR
1 year 6 months : Business Analyst to CEO, Airtel, Lucknow
1 year 2 months : Revenue Planning Manager (to COO) STel Pvt Ltd. , Gurgaon, HR
3 Months : Business Analyst to CRO, Telenor India, Gurgaon, HR

Overall 6 years of experience. Currently fully devoted to GMAT preparation, left job.

Extra-curricular & other summary-
"¢Founded SITA (in 2010) which works for free preliminary education and IT education for girls. Till date we have educated more than 100 girls. Though I am into free tutoring (free education to underprivileged children) since 2002.
"¢Was a Class Representative since KG to 12th in all schools I attended.
"¢Practicing Tae Kwan Do for last 12 years, won two state championships, train girls.
"¢Have been NCC cadet (Army Wing).
"¢Singing (Have been associated with local band.)Play guitar, Won many singing as well as dancing competitions
.Have accomplished Mountaineering course. I am a trekker and mountaineer.
.NCFM certification in capital market, derivative market & debt market. I actively trade in stock market.
.Have ranked among top 25 employees at ICICI Bank (debut company)
.Participated and won several quiz competions at the inter-school level
.Actively participated in all official functions
.Have recommendations from circle CEO Airtel (earlier supervisor) & CEO SIVA Ventures (earlier supervisor)


I have a gap of 4 years in my studies between 12th and B.Sc. because of my father's sudden demise. During that period I took care of family's monetary needs through full time tuition.



Kindly evaluate the profile. Your help on this would be much appreciated!


Yet to give GMAT on 10th Sep. Planning to apply for the coming R1.
Please advise on the GMAT score that I should obtain to be able to stand for ISB.

Needless to say that I am looking forward to an early reply as I'm taking GMAT on 10th Sep'12.

Thanks in advance.

enthurav wrote:Please evaluate my profile and suggest whether I should go for ISB with my current GMAT score or give another GMAT and aim higher score.

Age : 31 years
Industry: Leading IT MNC with close to 6yr 10 months of experience in same organization.Will be 7.5+ by the time I start t
Onsite Experience : 40+ months in USA in domain Assessment Industry.
Educational:
"¢ B tech WBUT - IT - 8.97/10
"¢ 12 - 12th 65.6%
"¢ Class X - 81.75%
GMAT Score : 680 AWA 5 (50 Q,31 V)
Experience and other summary:
"¢ Received top feedback and recommendations from clients and organization managers through emails and linked-in.
"¢ Have good exposure in Management skills by leading a team of close to 12+ people. Hold different positions in organization from roles of developer, performance tester, business analyst, onsite lead , offshore module leads , project manager , onsite coordinator by handling 4-5 multiple projects simultaneously.
"¢ Very thorough knowledge on Assessment Industry which I think can be the USP.
"¢ Ranked as top performer for months 2 times in organization. Have certificates for same.
"¢ Co-Editor of college magazine publishing group.
"¢ Department topper in college and in class X and received awards for same in different years.

Hi

Though your GMAT score is below ISB average and you come from an IT background, we still believe that you can get an interview call if you do a decent job with your essays and video.


International experience, client interaction and team lead experience will help you differentiate yourself from IT profiles with 3-4 yrs of work ex who generally have a better GMAT score..

Dont really focus a lot on your knowledge of assessment industry. Remember you are applying for an MBA and not for a job in assessment domain. Focus on softer skills such as leadership, initiative taking and problem solving.

If you can use essay 3 to talk about couple of decent extra currics that will strengthen the application.

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact us for any queries.

goISB Team