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Profile Evaluation Needed!

by arushijyoti » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:25 pm
I did my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering with minors in Biomedical Engineering from Canada. I have worked 2 years till date. I aim to start applying to B schools in 2014 so that I can be enrolled in a B School for the fall term of 2015. My ambition is to get admitted to top 10 Business Schools preferably Ivy League Schools. Since I am just starting off the process, I would need your thoughts and guidance so that I can get admitted to the school of my preference.

Academics
GPA of 3.5.
GMAT score of 690. I took the GMAT in June 2012 before the exam form changed to include the Integrated Reasoning portion. Is the score good enough or will I need to retake the exam? Is it a 'norm' these days to take the GMAT more than once? Also, does it matter when you take the exam with respect to when you start applying to schools?

Work experience
# of years till date: 2 years

I have 1 year of work experience in design engineering in O&G Industry. My job role is very technical by nature. I also have 1 year of rotational work experience with my current company's accelerated leadership development program for new graduates. Rotations were in in the areas of process improvement, marketing, applications support, and supply chain.
I am not in a leadership role yet where I am managing people and I have not yet been promoted. I want to transition to more of an internal consulting/strategy role within my company sometime later this year. Do you think this will be a better option, given the tradeoff that I may be starting from the start again? Also, will my technical work experience be a drawback in my application?

Volunteer work
Providing financial education to low-income women and teens.I also plan and coordinate fundraising events with an non-profit organization which does work for children in third world countries.

Why an MBA?
I want to branch out of my engineering role and pursue a career in strategy consulting. I believe that an MBA will open avenues for me so as to enable me to make this career change.

Profile Evaluation
Taking all aspects of my admissions process for 2014, what do you feel about my current profile? What should I do in the next year and a half or so to better prepare myself and improve my profile?

I look forward for your feedback! Thanks.
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by Melissa@Fortuna » Thu Feb 06, 2014 9:21 am
Hi arushijyoti,

A few things to keep in mind... schools will look at your years of experience up to the start of your program so you will have more than 2 by the time 2015 comes around which is good. As a lot of schools require at least 2-3 years of experience so you fit this criteria.

Your gmat is fairly good though it really depends on what your verbal and quant percentiles are as many top schools have a min criteria i.e. 75th percentile and above. So look into the schools of your choice and see what their minimums are as you might have to retake the gmat.

All schools will be looking for your leadership abilities so over the next year or so keep that in mind as they will want examples of how you led a team or took initiative on a project (through work or through volunteering). They will also look at career progression so if you can get a promotion, that will be recognized and work in your favor. But if you want to switch roles, then best to do what you feel is right as you don't want to be unhappy in your current role over the next year or so.

Keep up the volunteering work and extra-curriculum activities as all schools will be looking for candidates who engage in more than just work.

If you are looking into any of the international schools, try and get more international experience, i.e. a work term abroad or volunteering abroad, or maybe you can work on some type of international project at work.

Hope this helps a little bit. If you'd like to chat further, contact us anytime.

Best,
-Melissa and the Fortuna Admissions Team

Melissa Jones | Fortuna Admissions - a dream team of former Admissions Directors from the world's top business schools

Interested in a free 30-minute admissions consultation? Sign up on our website https://www.fortunadmissions.com
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by [email protected] » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:29 am
What about my GMAT score? Is this good enough for the top 10 schools or will i need to retake it?
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by Melissa@Fortuna » Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:16 am
Hi there,

Your 690 score is quite good but not fantastic. If you really want a top tier school and you feel you have an 'average profile', I would definitely aim for 700+. I wouldn't suggest to retake it just yet as I don't know what your quant and verbal scores are. What percentiles are you in? To remain competitive, you need to aim for 70-75th percentile or above on both the quant and verbal parts of the exam. So if you haven't reached that, then yes I would retake. And yes it's absolutely 'the norm' to take it 2 or 3 times. More than that, then schools might be concerned.

It doesn't really matter when you take the gmat but the score is valid for 5 years so it must be valid up until the time of your application deadlines.

Good luck!
-Melissa and the Fortuna Admissions Team

Melissa Jones | Fortuna Admissions - a dream team of former Admissions Directors from the world's top business schools

Interested in a free 30-minute admissions consultation? Sign up on our website https://www.fortunadmissions.com
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by [email protected] » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:46 am
Hi!

Thanks for getting back to me. I got a 90% percentile on the verbal and 66% percentile for the quantitative. Are both portions given equal weightage? Or is the verbal score weighted more than the quantitative, from what I have heard?

Thanks!
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by Melissa@Fortuna » Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:22 am
It generally needs to be equally weighted - top 10 schools prefer scores in the 70-75th percentile + on both quant and verbal. For 2nd tier schools it doesn't need to be as high.

Good luck!
-Melissa and the Fortuna Admissions Team

Melissa Jones | Fortuna Admissions - a dream team of former Admissions Directors from the world's top business schools

Interested in a free 30-minute admissions consultation? Sign up on our website https://www.fortunadmissions.com
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