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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.

Hello there,

Sorry to hear about your first application attempt. Don't lose faith! There are still many ways to achieve your dreams

If you decide to reapply to these programs, you will need to make some pretty big improvements/changes to your profile. The GMAT would probably be one of the "easiest"/low hanging fruit. Not to say it alone would make a huge difference... but you just want to show you're doing everything you can. A couple other things that strike me:

• Your career story -- consulting--> analytics --> MBA --> consulting? This story doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You don't need business school to go back to consulting; you've already proven yourself at one of the best consulting companies in the world... So, I think you would really need to come up with a better story.
  
  • You already have a graduate degree - want to be careful not to come across as a 'degree collector.' Not that you can do much about this, but it kind of ties back to making sure you have a compelling case for why you need an MBA.
    
    • Extracurriculars - you can keep moving forward in the organization you're in - try do something that will make a big impact. Also, take on another activity - what's something you are passionate about but haven't done yet? Something that demonstrates your leadership potential and showcases who you are?
      
      Those are the main things I would do in a second attempt. I would also suggest adding other programs to your list - still top programs, but not necessarily top ten. E.g., Duke?
      
      To answer the rest of your questions:
      
      1 - see above
      2 - I don't know that switching jobs will help... again, see above re: career narrative. need a stronger story, I think.
      3 - I think you should reconsider, as I mention above. Apply to these + others?
      4 - See above. Language course won't mean much, but starting a business or starting a soccer team, or anything that demonstrates leadership
      5 - see above.
      
      Good luck!
      Mili
      
      Mili Mittal
      Senior Consultant
      https://www.mbamission.com
       
      Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)
       
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Hi Mili,

Thanks for taking out time to view my case and suggest next steps. I believe in terms of my story line, I was incompetent in explaining it thoroughly on this forum but in a nut shell. Here it the logical flow

B. Tech (loved problem solving) ---> Masters in econometrics/forecasting ( Business Analytics is the new driver of consulting)---> Business consulting (encapsulates industry knowledge/ business acumen/ primary & secondary research and Business analytics. To provide a wholistic solution to client problem, I need to combine business knowledge with analytics. While I have analytics (statistics) knowledge, I need to have sound business knowledge through formal training to have that kind of impact.

I hope I am able to express it little better now. Can you please suggest if this story makes sense to you?

Yes, I think this makes a lot more sense!

Best,
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
https://www.mbamission.com
 
Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)
 
Download [url=https:// https://info.mbamission.com/MBA-Personal ... ent-Guide/]mbaMission's Free Personal Statement Guide[/url]
 
Visit the mbaMission Blog
 
Follow mbaMission on Twitter