Requst Profile Review

[sidh256]

Hello

I am Sid. I wish to study in one of the top Business Schools of the world.
Can you please review my profile and tell me what my chances are?
Also, please help me identify some 'SAFE' and 'Stretch' Schools.

My Profile:

GMAT : 730 (49,41)

Under Graduate (2003-2007): CGPA 9.1 from BITS - Pilani, INDIA (On Par with IIT)

Work Experience(2007 - present) : 49 months as R & D Engineer at IBM, Systems & Technology Group in India

Reccos: From Supervisors in India and USA - Very Very Senior Folks in IBM India and IBM US

Community Leadership : Included various activities from 2007-present, some of which are
1. Chartered a Toastmasters Club in IBM, and Served as Vice President
2. Worked with Dream-A-Dream Non-Profit Organization to organize summer camps for children
3. Worked with Hemophilia Society, Bangalore Chapter to create awareness among children
4. Worked with IBM On Demand Community on several programs (I can give you details if you need)
- And a host of other activities related to my Alma Matter - BITS Pilani Alumni Association (BITSAA)
5. Program Director, Sponsorship for BITSAA Global Meet - raised $330,000
6. Program Director Summer in a StartUp, BITSAA - helped students get summer internships in StartUps ...

etc...

There are a few more points, I can elaborate if you need me to.

Additional Info : I am a Finalist in the Reliance-GSB Fellowship for 2012. (So I am applying for GSB no matter what)

Since there are 3-5 weeks left for the Round1 deadlines, I wish to speed up working on my essays.
I wish to make a very strategic and targeted approach.

I request the experts to help me figure out what schools to apply for....

Some of the Schools that I have in mind are:
1. Stanford GSB
2. MIT Sloan
3. UCB Haas
4. Harvard
5. Kellog
6. Booth
7. Duke
8. Stern
9. Cornell/Tuck
10. Columbia

Please help me identify the Safe and Stretch schools.

Regards
Sidhartha Thakur

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

You graduated from a top Indian school with excellent grades. Your GMAT score will not help or hurt you (about average for an Indian applicant to top 10 schools). You also have leadership positions in a top company and in extracurriculars.

Duke, Stern, and Cornell are closer to safety schools for you. These schools are not purely safety schools because you are competing in the highly competitive Indian Male IT pool. Again considering your applicant pool the rest are both target and stretch schools meaning you will most likely be dinged from less competitive schools than the one you finally attend. I had a former client from BITS - Pilani accepted to HBS who did not even earn an interview invite at MIT Sloan.

So, you should not look at Round 1 deadlines as hard deadlines for all these schools. Do not sacrifice quality for quantity. Rather space out applications by deadlines over two rounds factoring some schools have later 1st rounds (like MIT Sloan and NYU Stern) while others have Early Action or Early Decision rounds like Duke and Columbia. For schools with Early Action or Early Decision rounds handing in the application sooner will help your admissions chances.

I hope this helps you construct a framework to choose schools and deadlines.

Good luck,

[sidh256]

Thankyou for your reply.
It did help me.

I was looking at MIT and Haas - purely because I could play a technology Card.
I think when it comes to the top 5 Univs, it is a game of probability.
I do not want to rush and apply to all the schools in the Round1, like you said, I will never compromise quality for quantity.

I am also considering INSEAD and LBS. These are also great schools, but I am not sure about my chances. Can you please throw some light on these schools?

Also, you mentioned the Indian IT Pool, yes I belong from that pool, but I would like to believe I am one of the best from that pool. So, if Indian IT applicants can get through a top business school, I would like to remain optimistic about my chances as well. But you are the expert. You must have seen a lot of similar profiles in the past. Where do people with profiles similar to mine usually end up studying? - Sorry, this is an abstract question.

Regards
Sid

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

Assuming you prepare an excellent application you should end up at a top program. Don't worry so much about your chances because you are competitive for all schools. Research INSEAD and LBS and if the programs fit with your goals, region, community, etc. apply. Remember INSEAD is a one year program and LBS a two year program.

Just remember to apply to a good number of schools given the competitiveness of your applicant group. So look at schools with similar essay questions. For example, if you are applying to Columbia you might consider UCLA Anderson too because the first two questions are very similar with just different word lengths.

Good luck,

[sidh256]

Thank You Again Michael

Your comments are really helpful.
I am still unable to grasp the concept of a SAFE school.
What is a Safe School?
- A School with an average gmat much lower than my gmat score?
- A School with an average work-ex much lower than my current (current+1) work ex?
- A School with a large number of applicants with profiles similar to mine?

These are some of the questions that I have been struggling to answer.
What according to you are some of the so-called SAFE schools for me?

Regards
Sid

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

A safety school is a school to which you have a strong chance of acceptance. A safety school would be a school with an average INDIAN GMAT and grades lower than yours as well as the competitiveness of the overall profile (which does not mean merely a lower age).

From a very high level, you are reaching into HBS and Stanford with the 3-7 more as targets and 8-15 as safeties. But you should apply to more than one school from the targets and safeties because for Indian candidates you will sometimes receive a ding from a school you expect an acceptance strictly because of the overwhelming number of applicants.

Good luck,

[sidh256]

Michael, Thankyou Again for replying

When you say 3-7 and 8-15 you mean the University ranks, right? (just confirming)
DO schools give information like - 'What % of the class are Indians?' or
'What % of the class are engineers from India?' or "What % of Indian Engineers apply to what B schools?" - Is there a method in which one can get such information?

I now understand the concept of Safe Schools, thanks to your explanation. But if you see from an applicants point of view , there is equal probability that an applicant can get 'dinged' from a school which he/she thinks is safe, right?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but according to my understanding, a Safe school is one in which the candidate is MORE LIKELY to get into than a Stretch/Dream school, right?

You also mentioned about the Early Action rounds - in that they could aid to someones admission chances, right? How else do the EA rounds differ from Round1? I think some schools also expect the EA Applicants to pay some fees to retain the seat? Would you advise in favor of accepting an EA round admission from a safe school while one awaits the results of the Stretch Schools?

Regards
Sid

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

3-7 and 8-15 means ranked MBA programs.

To determine India-specific statistics, I would recommend looking at the different publication rankings. You can see a master list here: https://www.mbaprepadvantage.com/blog/mb ... -rankings/.

Yes, safety school means more likely but I would also add above 50% (assuming of course you prepare a high quality application).

Schools with Early Action and Early Decision rounds generally have a higher rate of acceptance in exchange for the candidate providing some level of commitment or early application. An Early Action round is non-binding (meaning you do not commit ahead-of-time to accepting but you will have to send a deposit early) while Early Decision is binding (meaning you do commit ahead-of-time to accepting).

[FutureWorks]

Hi Sidhartha,
Congratulation on your GMAT score. A score above 700 is desirable when applying to top schools.
However GMAT alone won't determine your chances of admission; beyond the academics and your work experience plays a vital role as well. So make sure you demonstrate those aspects as well.
Unfortunately in general most of the Indian applicants are from engineering background with a good 4-5 years of work experience. So you would need to differentiate yourself from others. Start thinking what makes you unique and what's that 'hook' that will be key to your application. Make sure you follow the 'show rather than tell' principle so that the admissions committee could really understand your strengths and differentiating factors.

Although it is not just the work experience that counts but also what you did there like-what were your achievements, what initiative you took, what changes you drove in your workplace etc. So you need to ensure that in 4 years of work experience you have demonstrated the skills business schools are looking for.
Safe schools- Unfortunately we wouldn't categorize any school as a safe school
Stretch schools-In order of difficulty we would divide the stretch schools n three buckets-
1-Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Booth, Kellogg
2-MIT, Haas
3-Stern, Cornell, Duke

[sidh256]

Thankyou so much Michael and Kavita

Your replies have helped me clear many things.

I wanted to ask you about ISB. In which category/bucket do you think ISB falls under?
I have not made up my mind of applying to ISB yet, but I think I might apply in R2.
As of now, the following is the list of schools that I am applying
Round1 :
- Stanford, Harvard
- LBS, MIT, Haas
- Duke, Stern, UTA(as a mere safety, but I dont think I will go to UTA for sure)

Round 2
- Wharton, Kellog
- Insead, and maybe ISB

I hope I got the mix correct.
Please share your thoughts?

Regards
Sid

[MBAPrepAdvantage]

ISB is far closer to a safety. They would obviously be very familiar with both the quality of your undergraduate institution and performance there.

Good luck,