Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

dare2try wrote:Hi,
Here is my profile...

Acads:
10th: 91% (State topper in one of the subjects)
12th: 96%
Grad: 75.4% (First Class with distinction)

Work-ex:
"¢ Close to 6 years of experience in a leading Indian IT services company
"¢ Currently in NA for an onshore (for the past 1 month. Might stay here for a year) assignment as a backup Prime for a team of 8 members.
"¢ Have been working in Telecom domain throughout my career. Have worked with 3 different clients across 2 different geographies in multiple LOBs
"¢ Was awarded Star award and On the Spot Award
"¢ Recommended by the client for a crucial Module lead role in my previous project.
"¢ Was Learning champion (for a team of 140 associates).

Extra-Curricular:
"¢ Worked with an NGO involved in providing supplementary education to under privileged children. Was the Center head for a center having around 20 volunteers.
"¢ Vice Captain of a Cricket team in Inter Corporate cricket tournaments.
"¢ Have completed a basic Course in Mandarin - Chinese
"¢ Represented college in zonal level football competition. Was part of victorious department team in Intra college football tournament.

YET TO TAKE GMAT...

I want to become a Business Development Manager in an IT services company. I want to apply for ISB 2013-14 batch.

Could you please evaluate my profile? With this profile, is there a realistic chance of getting into ISB?

Pls let me know what should be my GMAT score(minimum) to get a call(and convert) from ISB.

Hi dare2try.

When we evaluate your profile within the IT applicants pool it looks like you have done fairly well in the 6 yrs of experience with onsite experience and few awards.

But you will loose points because you are coming from the highly competitive pool. Use your sports thing well to highlight leadership and team work in the essays.
We would also recommend that you built upon the Mandarin & add knowledge Chinese economy or may be IT sector in China etc to add another feather to the cap.

Still GMAT will play an important role and we would recommend that you target atleast a 700+ or so to stand a chance.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
goISB Team

I would like to seek your valuable opinion for planning my aaplication to ISB ....


Education : -

Bachelor in Business Administration with 73% marks

ISC ( 12th Class )with commerce 68%

ICSE ( 10th )with 73 %



Extra curricular and Projects : -

1. Playing Synthesiser ( Certificate not available )

2. Certificate course in French.

3. Certificates in inter school Acting Championship.

4. completed a one month Vocational Training from ALSTOM Projects Pv.t limited about HR policies in IT sector.

5. NCFM certifications...

6. IIBF certifications...


Work ex :-

Working with Punjab National Bank ( A PSU Bank ) as an Officer / Assistant Manager for the past 2 and 1/2 years .


During this tenure we have gone thru various functional areas of Banking , like Forex , Advances , Retail Banking , Marketing of Banks Products , Industrial Relationship , Risk Management , SME lending , Micro finance , lending to priority and non priority and have also served in rural areas of India for 2 years , in priority sector lending , deposit mobilization and reducing the NPA portfolio of the Branch ...

We were under an extensive training for 31 weeks both classroom and in Branches , we learnt the Leagal and Practical application of Commercial banks...

My job is Basically supervisory in nature , we need to increase our Banks Business , Extend Loans to , maintain customer relations , generating reports and finding out any discrepancies arising out of operations and rectifying those immediately ...

Our job though purely Financial and managerial in name , we don't have the liberty to carry out any forms of innovation and neither do we receive any form of certificates for excellent performance.

However currently I am the Assistant Branch Manager of a Rural Branch...

The only motivating factor is promotion to the next scale after every 3 years...

I know my profile is not so decent when compared to other aspirants .


I would like to seek advice from you to kindly help me how I can strengthen my profile.

Plz give your valuable suggestion about the expected GMAT score ( IF ISB ever considers such a weak profile as mine ) ...

Thankign you in anticipation...

I am a Bangladeshi national, completed my undergrad in Engineering from India. Now I would like to pursue MBA from India. I am 22 years old, female. My GMAT score is 720, Undergrad in Engineering-60%, Work ex- 2 years in research from my country, IELTS-8.5 out of 9, I have a good EC profile and I have been involved with a NGO for past 2 years. Also I know that a foreign national need to have a salary package of 25,000USD/year to get a work permit in India. So in such cases, can you please suggest which Indian universities would be able to help me meet this requirement and also kindly evaluate my profile for the chances of getting admission in ISB. Please suggest if there's anything missing in my profile. Just to provide an alternative to my not so good undergrad score, should I complete a master's in any field before applying to a MBA school?

I am aspiring for ISB 2014 and planning to give GMAT in coming months.
My profile is as follows:
1)X(2002) - 87.2
2)XII(2004) - 87.6(State level highest scorer in Physics and top 0.01% in India)
3)B-Tech(IT-BHU through IIT-JEE) Electronics - 7.96/10

Work Life :
4)3 Years of IT-work exp in Global Capital Market space (in one of the top 3 Investment bank)till the time of ISB application(also a 1-2 months work-exp in IBM-ISL India Software Lab since i got 3 job offers from campus though not sure whether its good/bad to mention the multiple offers and such small work ex)
Worked on IT side development of
- Equity and Fixed Income Research and revamped the 10 years old research platform.
- New Debt and Equity Issuing Platform(which processed major IPOs/bonds deals)
- Launched Equity and Fixed Income Research first time on wall street on AppleiOS/Android on both mobile and tablets(covered globally by media).
Some more current undergoing projects to be added to the list in coming 7 months.

- Managed summer intern for 6 months.
- Helped out senior team members with newly evolving technologies.
- Successfully managed team events as Events Manager for 2 years.

5) Cleared CFA level 1 recently and appearing for Level 2.

Extra Curriculars -
Though I have not been the part of any charity or trust but has been working very closely in the benefit of my own village people.
1) Collabrated with the "Mother Dairy" in the benefit of the village farmers and helped in setting up a village level milk collection/storage setup of mother dairy at my own land in the village and came out with geniune rates to the farmers for pure buffalo milk collected from whole village(300+ people).It has been running successfully since 2010.
2) Educating farmers and spreading general awareness of best practices of farming and materials(seeds,pesticide,fertilizers) for increasing production with hygenic crops on the basis of the information collected from books/internet.
3) Educating/helping students and promoting education in my village.
4) Have been an active part of Hariyali(a tree plantation initiative).
5) Fine Arts event Manager at University level and also organised Art and Photography exhibition at University level.
6) Awarded first prize by "Indian Oil" in Save Petrol State level Competition and more than 20(mostly First and Second rank) such prizes at college events ,inter college(IIT Kharagpur etc),city and School level in Arts,Creativity and painting(have all certificates).
7) I have been merit-cum means scholarship reciepient in my college.


8) I am a good Chess Player and a Photographer(just as hobby though have no certificates as proof).
9) I have also been a Dancer and performed at college/school level in cultural fests.
10) I have been quite active in real estate valuation and equity market analysis at personal level based on my financial knowledge.

Please tell me what min GMAT score should i target and what extra or useless information should I remove from above.And what more should I inculcate in coming 6-7 months for a strong profile.

Also on what points should i mainly focus on while writing essays etc.

10th - CBSE 80.2%
12th - CBSE 74.8%
University - Civil Engineering - NIT Bhopal - 84%
Planning to apply for the class of 2013
Work Ex till April 2013 - 2 year 9 months
Planning and Costing Engineer - Punj LLoyd Limited - 1.5 years
Project and Cost Control Manager - ABB Limited - Jan '12 to present
GMAT Score-680

Extra Curriculars:
While performing CSR initiated by Punj Lloyd, I served a lot. (for details PM me)
Represented my university and won several prizes in academics at national level competitions
Took a dive in the river Beas just to test my fate.

PS: I dont know how to swim, my friends came to the rescue. That was a terrifying moment.

What chances do i stand for an admission in ISB? Or I think this time i might try the Godavari. XD

Abhishek009 wrote:I would like to seek your valuable opinion for planning my aaplication to ISB ....


Education : -

Bachelor in Business Administration with 73% marks

ISC ( 12th Class )with commerce 68%

ICSE ( 10th )with 73 %



Extra curricular and Projects : -

1. Playing Synthesiser ( Certificate not available )

2. Certificate course in French.

3. Certificates in inter school Acting Championship.

4. completed a one month Vocational Training from ALSTOM Projects Pv.t limited about HR policies in IT sector.

5. NCFM certifications...

6. IIBF certifications...


Work ex :-

Working with Punjab National Bank ( A PSU Bank ) as an Officer / Assistant Manager for the past 2 and 1/2 years .


During this tenure we have gone thru various functional areas of Banking , like Forex , Advances , Retail Banking , Marketing of Banks Products , Industrial Relationship , Risk Management , SME lending , Micro finance , lending to priority and non priority and have also served in rural areas of India for 2 years , in priority sector lending , deposit mobilization and reducing the NPA portfolio of the Branch ...

We were under an extensive training for 31 weeks both classroom and in Branches , we learnt the Leagal and Practical application of Commercial banks...

My job is Basically supervisory in nature , we need to increase our Banks Business , Extend Loans to , maintain customer relations , generating reports and finding out any discrepancies arising out of operations and rectifying those immediately ...

Our job though purely Financial and managerial in name , we don't have the liberty to carry out any forms of innovation and neither do we receive any form of certificates for excellent performance.

However currently I am the Assistant Branch Manager of a Rural Branch...

The only motivating factor is promotion to the next scale after every 3 years...

I know my profile is not so decent when compared to other aspirants .


I would like to seek advice from you to kindly help me how I can strengthen my profile.

Plz give your valuable suggestion about the expected GMAT score ( IF ISB ever considers such a weak profile as mine ) ...

Thankign you in anticipation...

Hi Abhishek,

According to us you present a pretty decent candidature ( not at all weak).

ISB gets relatively lesser applicants with PSU sector experience and if you can focus on your learnings and challenges faced you can come up with a good story in the essays.

Rural sector experience will also help especially if you can present your opinion on topics such as microfinance which is one of the favourite research areas at ISB.

Your extra curriculars also look well balanced and add dimensions to your profile. Along with the financial certifications ( which might be expected from you given your job profile) the HR course and Knowledge of French language will differentiate you from other applicants.

If you lead a team, talk about that in the application.

Target a score of 710+ or so since your work ex duration will be lesser than average.

Hope that helps.

GoISB Team

NRToma wrote:I am a Bangladeshi national, completed my undergrad in Engineering from India. Now I would like to pursue MBA from India. I am 22 years old, female. My GMAT score is 720, Undergrad in Engineering-60%, Work ex- 2 years in research from my country, IELTS-8.5 out of 9, I have a good EC profile and I have been involved with a NGO for past 2 years. Also I know that a foreign national need to have a salary package of 25,000USD/year to get a work permit in India. So in such cases, can you please suggest which Indian universities would be able to help me meet this requirement and also kindly evaluate my profile for the chances of getting admission in ISB. Please suggest if there's anything missing in my profile. Just to provide an alternative to my not so good undergrad score, should I complete a master's in any field before applying to a MBA school?

Hi,

We dont think that you need a masters degree before applying to a MBA program. Your score is fine and foreign nationality will help but what worries us is your 2 years of experience.

Atleast ISB looks for really exceptional profile or GMAT score at 2 years of experience. So, make sure that either your extra curriculars are great or you have solid achievements at workplace to stand a good chance.


You can look at SP Jain & Great Lakes Chennai.

goISB Team

suryansh.application wrote:10th - CBSE 80.2%
12th - CBSE 74.8%
University - Civil Engineering - NIT Bhopal - 84%
Planning to apply for the class of 2013
Work Ex till April 2013 - 2 year 9 months
Planning and Costing Engineer - Punj LLoyd Limited - 1.5 years
Project and Cost Control Manager - ABB Limited - Jan '12 to present
GMAT Score-680

Extra Curriculars:
While performing CSR initiated by Punj Lloyd, I served a lot. (for details PM me)
Represented my university and won several prizes in academics at national level competitions
Took a dive in the river Beas just to test my fate.

PS: I dont know how to swim, my friends came to the rescue. That was a terrifying moment.

What chances do i stand for an admission in ISB? Or I think this time i might try the Godavari. XD

Hi Suryansh,

Everything looks good in your profile - NIT, Punj Lloyd and ABB brands, diverse work ex., national level competitions. But your GMAT score is weak.

We would recommend retaking GMAT and pushing it to a 710 or 720 to stand a decent chance.

Feel free to contact us for any queries.

goISB Team

Please evaluate my profile.I think my query was somehow missed in the above reply chain.

:)1

Hi, I am new member here.
I am really excited after going through all the profiles and the evaluations. I just thought to put my profile out here and get it evaluated. Here is my profile.

Acads:
10th: 84%
12th: 89%
Grad: 77%

GMAT: 750 (with 10 days prep .. no, its not fluke..I got 720+ scores in 5 out of 6 practice tests)

Work-ex:
Around 8.5 years work Ex.
2.5 years in India in one of the IT companies, I just don't want to mention the name.. but, its a decent MNC. Has been selected to this company through campus recruitment and in fact, the only one to be selected from a class of 70.
6 years in US.. I have been working with the same company for these 6 years on Business Intelligence solutions.

Extra-Curricular:
Was the captain of our college cricket team.
I am currently leading one of sides in US in a regional competition. I led the team to title after a gap of 8 years.
Was the president of our Department Association in Engineering.
Got numerous awards in elocution, essay writing, quiz competitions at school level.

Can you please evaluate my profile? I am looking to apply for the 2013-14 class.

Thanks in Advance!!

ISB13_ASPIRANT wrote:I am aspiring for ISB 2014 and planning to give GMAT in coming months.
My profile is as follows:
1)X(2002) - 87.2
2)XII(2004) - 87.6(State level highest scorer in Physics and top 0.01% in India)
3)B-Tech(IT-BHU through IIT-JEE) Electronics - 7.96/10

Work Life :
4)3 Years of IT-work exp in Global Capital Market space (in one of the top 3 Investment bank)till the time of ISB application(also a 1-2 months work-exp in IBM-ISL India Software Lab since i got 3 job offers from campus though not sure whether its good/bad to mention the multiple offers and such small work ex)
Worked on IT side development of
- Equity and Fixed Income Research and revamped the 10 years old research platform.
- New Debt and Equity Issuing Platform(which processed major IPOs/bonds deals)
- Launched Equity and Fixed Income Research first time on wall street on AppleiOS/Android on both mobile and tablets(covered globally by media).
Some more current undergoing projects to be added to the list in coming 7 months.

- Managed summer intern for 6 months.
- Helped out senior team members with newly evolving technologies.
- Successfully managed team events as Events Manager for 2 years.

5) Cleared CFA level 1 recently and appearing for Level 2.

Extra Curriculars -
Though I have not been the part of any charity or trust but has been working very closely in the benefit of my own village people.
1) Collabrated with the "Mother Dairy" in the benefit of the village farmers and helped in setting up a village level milk collection/storage setup of mother dairy at my own land in the village and came out with geniune rates to the farmers for pure buffalo milk collected from whole village(300+ people).It has been running successfully since 2010.
2) Educating farmers and spreading general awareness of best practices of farming and materials(seeds,pesticide,fertilizers) for increasing production with hygenic crops on the basis of the information collected from books/internet.
3) Educating/helping students and promoting education in my village.
4) Have been an active part of Hariyali(a tree plantation initiative).
5) Fine Arts event Manager at University level and also organised Art and Photography exhibition at University level.
6) Awarded first prize by "Indian Oil" in Save Petrol State level Competition and more than 20(mostly First and Second rank) such prizes at college events ,inter college(IIT Kharagpur etc),city and School level in Arts,Creativity and painting(have all certificates).
7) I have been merit-cum means scholarship reciepient in my college.


8) I am a good Chess Player and a Photographer(just as hobby though have no certificates as proof).
9) I have also been a Dancer and performed at college/school level in cultural fests.
10) I have been quite active in real estate valuation and equity market analysis at personal level based on my financial knowledge.

Please tell me what min GMAT score should i target and what extra or useless information should I remove from above.And what more should I inculcate in coming 6-7 months for a strong profile.

Also on what points should i mainly focus on while writing essays etc.

Hi ISB13_aspirant,

Apologies for missing out your profile evaluation request earlier.

You candidature is pretty strong given the ITBHU brand and decent GPA. Make sure that you focus on your financial knowledge along with the technical knowledge to actually stand apart from other techies.

Your extra currics are also very strong and will help you differentiate yourself. Stuff such as Mother Dairy experience and CFA certification will help.

Now forget your profile and ISB application for next 2 months as you dont need to invest time on these fronts and target a 720+ on GMAT. GMAT format is changing on 5 June so prepare according to the new format.

Hope that helps.

goISB Team

getISB wrote:Hi, I am new member here.
I am really excited after going through all the profiles and the evaluations. I just thought to put my profile out here and get it evaluated. Here is my profile.

Acads:
10th: 84%
12th: 89%
Grad: 77%

GMAT: 750 (with 10 days prep .. no, its not fluke..I got 720+ scores in 5 out of 6 practice tests)

Work-ex:
Around 8.5 years work Ex.
2.5 years in India in one of the IT companies, I just don't want to mention the name.. but, its a decent MNC. Has been selected to this company through campus recruitment and in fact, the only one to be selected from a class of 70.
6 years in US.. I have been working with the same company for these 6 years on Business Intelligence solutions.

Extra-Curricular:
Was the captain of our college cricket team.
I am currently leading one of sides in US in a regional competition. I led the team to title after a gap of 8 years.
Was the president of our Department Association in Engineering.
Got numerous awards in elocution, essay writing, quiz competitions at school level.

Can you please evaluate my profile? I am looking to apply for the 2013-14 class.

Thanks in Advance!!

Hi,

Firstly congratulations your GMAT score which will help you stand apart.
Your 6 years of international experience will help. Since you are bringing almost 9 years of IT experience you have to be very careful in clearly articulating career progression over these 9 years and discussing your career goals.

ISB this year has added a video on "Life to me is..." . Not that they dont expect a mature answer from others with less experience but in your case they will really want an articulate and mature response.

We recommend that you get one reco from your US experience period and if possible from a client.

So, you look all set to start working on your essays and application.

Best of luck and let us know if you need any help.

Cheers
goISB Team

Hi all,

ISB application for 2013-14 batch is open now.

Visit: https://goisb.com/blog/2012/isb-essays-a ... 2013-2014/ for details.

goISB Team

I am planning to apply to ISB this year and planning to give GMAT in coming months.
My profile is as follows:
1)X(2001) - 81.1(State Board)
2)XII(2003) - 77.5(State Board)
3)B-Tech IT(2007) - 8.12(WBUT)

Work Life :
4 and half Years of IT-work exp (till date) in one of the leading consulting MNC.
Key Pointers:
Onshore experience of 1 year 7 months (Montevideo, South America),with direct interaction with clients. Have picked up decent Spanish speaking/reading abilities from this stint.

Handled 2 batches of around 35 new Joiners each as a mentor as a part of Learning and Development program for around 2 months.

Received several awards/appreciations from client and through internal talent appreciation platform(Certificates available).

Microsoft certified professional.

Currently working as Module lead managing end to end development of projects with 4-6 resources.
Participated in international innovation competition organised by the organisation I am working for.

Worked in BFS and Healthcare domains.
Extra Curriculars -

Played district level cricket, captained school cricket team.

Singles and doubles champion in table tennis in inter college tournament.

Won a badminton tournament organised in office (no certificate).

Do blogging (very less) and photography (photograph chosen for an exhibition from a national level competition - no certificate).

Had set up a business group for starting up a entrepreneurial venture, which eventually didn't succeed.(Can get recommendation from people involved in this)

Have been involved in college fest activities. Have been part of the group which started the technical fest in my college.

Questions that I have:
1) The GMAT score I should target for?
2) I have a medium size family business(5-6 years old) run by my dad, I have very less direct involvement in that till now. Though I have an idea about how the process work. How I can I represent this to fetch an advantage?what kind of involvement in this will give my profile more weightage?
3) I have tried to be as elaborative about my achievements as I can above, what points(If any) should I delete from the above?

My short term goal is to gain exposure about the internal workings of a company from a middle/senior leadership role, so that I can gain experience and expertise in running a business and eventually start up a business venture(long term goal).

It would be great if you can kindly evaluate my profile and provide you feedbacks.