GMAT - Second attempt at the GMAT - Expected score is 720+. First attempt a year ago was unimpressive (due to paucity of preparation time) - 660
Background - Indian, Male, Non-engineer (Commerce Graduate with a CA Professional Degree).
Education - B-Com from RA Podar College (My aggregate in college was 71%). I have also successfully completed my CA (Chartered Accountancy, equivalent to the CPA in the US, albeit much tougher). I scored pretty well in my professional course as well. I have also completed 1 year of Law, but abandoned it after a year since I wasn't able to meet justice to my CA preparation alongside work and law.
Work Experience - 5.5 years with Ernst & Young, India. Currently working as a Senior Consultant in the Risk Advisory Team for the Retail vertical. I have also had a 6-month stint in New York working with E&Y. Cumulatively (factoring in other 1-2 month client stints abroad), I have an international experience of 1 year.
Leadership Skills - Most of the leadership experience has been gained over the past 2 years. I typically work on consulting projects, leading a team of about 3-4 members. I work on 3 live projects at any given point in time. So I work with a team of 8-10 people at a point. I have also been working on a lot of Business Development initiatives, in cohesion with the Senior Management along with my day-to-day consulting responsibilities.
Volunteering - I have been associated with the Lions Club, Mumbai for the past 4 years and have led several initiatives in the past period.
Passions - Travelling (have travelled extensively in Europe/N. America on backpacking trips), soccer (played soccer in school/college and also watched the World Cup in Germany!), fitness (addicted to Kick Boxing and Yoga), food (Experimental cook) and movies (English and International Cinema). Plan to travel and study another language (preferably Spanish or French), once I get my applications out of the way.
Future Plans - I want to major in Finance or Strategy (or both), and the career paths that appeal to me are - Strategy Consulting, Private Equity/Venture Capital. I have worked in the Retail/Telecom/Travel and Hospitality Consulting verticals of E&Y so far. Eventually I want to start my own venture, and I have been working on a B-plan of starting my own bar/pub for the past year. However, I am just in the exploratory phase, and I want to pursue enterprise only some time down the line.
What I look for in a B-school - Diversity (Cultural/Experience/Background), reputation, resources (infrastructure/faculty/alumni network) and most importantly learning not only within but also outside of the classroom (through peers, projects, clubs, affiliations, judicious mix of case and practical learning)
Something else - I spent 7 years of my early life (from the time I turned 9) in a Boarding School in India (Rishi Valley - one of the most prestigious schools in the country), and I felt this was an amazing character building exercise. I would want to talk about it in my essays, as it helped me in becoming very independent/self reliant/adaptable/tough/mature individual
Target Schools - Wharton, Chicago GSB, INSEAD
Other schools in the consideration set - Michigan Ross, LBS
Applying for - Round 1 and Round 2. Will try to stagger the application depending on how the essays evolve
Couple of specific questions which I want to ask
1) How can I choose schools, when most of them talk about the same things - diversity, leadership etc? Wharton/Chicago are top schools of choice because I have some first-hand accounts from friends/family members who have studied there, and also because I would love to be a part of a city-school, which is a good school for finance/strategy. I have been a part of the MBA World Tour/chat discussions/podcasts, but honestly without visiting the school how do I arrive at a final list? Especially a safe school?
2) How can I bolster my chances for admission in the interim period? How can I demonstrate that I am keen to bridge the gaps if any in my profile and an ideal candidate? Take courses? Volunteer more? How?
3) How do I choose my second recommender? The first one is my immediate supervisor from work (a Senior Manager). If I choose the second recommender as the Partner from the Current practice I work for, he might have similar things to share about me as the manager himself. However, since I have assumed most of my leadership roles in the past 2 years, choosing someone who had worked with me earlier, might not be able to highlight my obvious leadership responsibilities. Please help!
4) Do I need to convert my graduation marks into a GPA? If yes, how? I have percentage marks from graduation (71% to be precise).
5) Also since I am an Indian, male, I have fears of belonging to a huge applicant pool with very high GMAT scores, stellar acads. How do I distinguish myself? Also will the past score - GMAT 660, work against me or will they look only at most recent scores? I have my test date on July 27 and I expect to get a good score (higher than the average for the schools I am targeting).
6) Is it true that the top programs are increasingly looking at younger students, which reduces my chances? (I have 5.5 yrs of experience)
7) What are my chances of getting into the top programs of my choice? How can I work harder towards it? Should I take the TOEFL too? Will a very high TOEFL score reflect positively on me?
Background - Indian, Male, Non-engineer (Commerce Graduate with a CA Professional Degree).
Education - B-Com from RA Podar College (My aggregate in college was 71%). I have also successfully completed my CA (Chartered Accountancy, equivalent to the CPA in the US, albeit much tougher). I scored pretty well in my professional course as well. I have also completed 1 year of Law, but abandoned it after a year since I wasn't able to meet justice to my CA preparation alongside work and law.
Work Experience - 5.5 years with Ernst & Young, India. Currently working as a Senior Consultant in the Risk Advisory Team for the Retail vertical. I have also had a 6-month stint in New York working with E&Y. Cumulatively (factoring in other 1-2 month client stints abroad), I have an international experience of 1 year.
Leadership Skills - Most of the leadership experience has been gained over the past 2 years. I typically work on consulting projects, leading a team of about 3-4 members. I work on 3 live projects at any given point in time. So I work with a team of 8-10 people at a point. I have also been working on a lot of Business Development initiatives, in cohesion with the Senior Management along with my day-to-day consulting responsibilities.
Volunteering - I have been associated with the Lions Club, Mumbai for the past 4 years and have led several initiatives in the past period.
Passions - Travelling (have travelled extensively in Europe/N. America on backpacking trips), soccer (played soccer in school/college and also watched the World Cup in Germany!), fitness (addicted to Kick Boxing and Yoga), food (Experimental cook) and movies (English and International Cinema). Plan to travel and study another language (preferably Spanish or French), once I get my applications out of the way.
Future Plans - I want to major in Finance or Strategy (or both), and the career paths that appeal to me are - Strategy Consulting, Private Equity/Venture Capital. I have worked in the Retail/Telecom/Travel and Hospitality Consulting verticals of E&Y so far. Eventually I want to start my own venture, and I have been working on a B-plan of starting my own bar/pub for the past year. However, I am just in the exploratory phase, and I want to pursue enterprise only some time down the line.
What I look for in a B-school - Diversity (Cultural/Experience/Background), reputation, resources (infrastructure/faculty/alumni network) and most importantly learning not only within but also outside of the classroom (through peers, projects, clubs, affiliations, judicious mix of case and practical learning)
Something else - I spent 7 years of my early life (from the time I turned 9) in a Boarding School in India (Rishi Valley - one of the most prestigious schools in the country), and I felt this was an amazing character building exercise. I would want to talk about it in my essays, as it helped me in becoming very independent/self reliant/adaptable/tough/mature individual
Target Schools - Wharton, Chicago GSB, INSEAD
Other schools in the consideration set - Michigan Ross, LBS
Applying for - Round 1 and Round 2. Will try to stagger the application depending on how the essays evolve
Couple of specific questions which I want to ask
1) How can I choose schools, when most of them talk about the same things - diversity, leadership etc? Wharton/Chicago are top schools of choice because I have some first-hand accounts from friends/family members who have studied there, and also because I would love to be a part of a city-school, which is a good school for finance/strategy. I have been a part of the MBA World Tour/chat discussions/podcasts, but honestly without visiting the school how do I arrive at a final list? Especially a safe school?
2) How can I bolster my chances for admission in the interim period? How can I demonstrate that I am keen to bridge the gaps if any in my profile and an ideal candidate? Take courses? Volunteer more? How?
3) How do I choose my second recommender? The first one is my immediate supervisor from work (a Senior Manager). If I choose the second recommender as the Partner from the Current practice I work for, he might have similar things to share about me as the manager himself. However, since I have assumed most of my leadership roles in the past 2 years, choosing someone who had worked with me earlier, might not be able to highlight my obvious leadership responsibilities. Please help!
4) Do I need to convert my graduation marks into a GPA? If yes, how? I have percentage marks from graduation (71% to be precise).
5) Also since I am an Indian, male, I have fears of belonging to a huge applicant pool with very high GMAT scores, stellar acads. How do I distinguish myself? Also will the past score - GMAT 660, work against me or will they look only at most recent scores? I have my test date on July 27 and I expect to get a good score (higher than the average for the schools I am targeting).
6) Is it true that the top programs are increasingly looking at younger students, which reduces my chances? (I have 5.5 yrs of experience)
7) What are my chances of getting into the top programs of my choice? How can I work harder towards it? Should I take the TOEFL too? Will a very high TOEFL score reflect positively on me?
