Ask mbaMission

My details are as follows.

Personal: Male/26 Years

Undegraduate: BTech, IIT Kanpur

GMAT: 710/5.5

Professional: Strong Experience in Analytics and Business Strategy for 4 years at time of application. Worked in Big Brand like HSBC and strong startup experience (1st analytics member and now the team is 15 people). Couple of Performer of the year awards and strong appraisals

Additional Certification: Financial risk Manager(FRM) by GAARP

Goals - My long term goal is to run my own Risk Management Consultancy with the vision of helping businesses shield themselves from Micro and Macroeconomic fluctuations to achieve more bandwidth to focus on their core business areas.
My short term goal is to learn the dynamics of financial markets and the day to day utility of market instruments in Investment and Risk Hedging decisions by joining the brokerage or equity research department of a big financial organization

Extra Curriculars: Decent - Taught at a professional development school, Event Management Roles for Culfest, Aeromodelling Hobby - Won at Asia's Largest Hardware contest

Right now I am targeting the following schools

Chicago Booth - My dream school. Would love to study there
Wharton
ISB Hyderabad
INSEAD

Thanks in Advance for all your help and support

Amarabhi2003 -

Thanks for your email. I am a bit torn as I read your profile. As I am sure you know, your demographic (Indian, male, analytical background, average GMAT) is a tough cohort of applicants.

However, your deep interest in Risk Management and your clear longer-term career goals are somewhat unique. You seem to know exactly what you want to learn in MBA school in order to prepare for your future plans, and this is a very good thing. Your extracurriculars are also unique; the key will be showing how they exemplify traits about yourself (leadership, dedication, etc.) that a business school will want to see in a candidate.

If Booth is your first choice, I would really spend some time trying to research the school, talk with alums, and find out exactly how you would like to spend your two years there. The school has so much to offer and is the most flexible in terms of required courses of the top tier American business schools, but this means students need to know how to navigate the program. However, I still feel it is a bit of a reach for you. INSEAD and Wharton are as well. I am not that familiar with the ISB Hyderabad, but it looks less competitive than the other schools you mention. If you are 100% committed to business school for next year, I would consider adding some generally less competitive programs to your list.

Best of luck,
Jennifer