Research MBA Programs

Hi,

I just got dinged from the schools that I applied to - Wharton, Columbia, MIT and Booth. While I went till the interview stage for Wharton and Booth with me being on waitlist for Booth, I am just wondering what better I can do to improve my candidature.

Just to give you a brief snapshot of my profile:

Work Experience:
Analytics consultant - Mckinsey and Co (~ 2 years)
Analytics - Tesco (~1 year)

Education Experience:
Masters in Economics (Delhi University) - 3.4 GPA
Bachelor in Technology - 3.5 GPA

GMAT - 700

Extra curricular - Leader at an organisation that teaches autistic children

Have lot of awards at various college events for debates, extempore,business case competitions, case studies, etc

District level swimming champion
Delhi University TT winner
etc

In light of the brief snapshot, could you please tell me what and how shall I go about improving my profile so that I really have an excellent chance of making through?

1 Shall I re-take GMAT? Will notching up couple of points make a huge difference?
2 Shall I switch my job that is closer to my long term goal of being a business consultant (shift from analytics to a more of business consultant domain)
3 Shall I reconsider list of schools that I want to apply to? Though I am fixed on going to top school only
4 Any additional extra curricular that I can do? Shall I venture out more into NGO stuff or take up a foreign language course like German or shall I open a firm that aligns me to my goals or something else?
5 Finally, am I right in re-applying to these schools or the fact that they dinged me once and would not be interested in me again unless I do something extraordinary ( which I can't in like 6 months)?

I would really appreciate your thoughts around this. Thanks in advance for your valuable inputs. Highly appreciate it.

Hey Sul - sorry to hear about those outcomes! You tried for the very best schools and it's just a competitive landscape, so it's not always a reflection of the profile. Round 1 has better chances so whether or not you decide to reapply to these schools, yes you should definitely expand your targets and see what other schools you want to try for. All the schools on your list are open to reapplicants (some others are not) so you could reapply to them too, but in order to maximize your chances, you'll want to have a "fresh" app or two as well.

Retaking the GMAT can be helpful for a reapplicant simply because it shows that you're putting forth the effort, and you're also lower than the average GMAT at any top school, so that **could** help -- but it's not necessarily the reason why you were rejected.

April is Reapplicant Month on the EssaySnark blahg - feel free to check out the posts we're offering this month along with the additional support available there with resources and such: https://essaysnark.com (here's a great place to start: https://essaysnark.com/2013/04/gonna-be- ... ts-review/ )

The rest of the questions you posed are totally valid but we can't really go into the depth and detail needed to do them justice here on the forum (we have a service called the Post-Mortem Review which is an extensive and exhaustive analysis of one of your apps to help you identify the weaknesses and why you were rejected - check out the details here if you're interested: https://essaysnark.com/salespage/mba-rejection-analysis/ )

The best part is that you were invited to interview at two GREAT schools and you're on the waitlist at Booth, so who knows? This could still work out for you this season. (Some getting-off-the-waitlist posts are available here: https://essaysnark.com/appassets/waitlist/ ) And, you clearly have something good going on in your profile.

Many people require two years to get through this whole ordeal so don't lose hope! There's lots of great stuff we're seeing in just the brief sketch you offered below and we're confident you can turn it around.

Good luck and let us know if we can help!!
EssaySnark