Success (Kellogg and Duke)

[sdroq]

Hi everyone,

I have been a very quiet observer since I began the admissions process but have enjoyed reading posts and hearing inspirational stories. In the last few days I decided it was time to post my own.

My journey to obtain an MBA started rather late...I decided I wanted to apply in early September 2011 and signed up for a Dec. gmat date. I worked with a great consulting company, and while realistic, my consultant never made me feel I had to give up on going to a top school. I spent a lot of time deciding if I should retake the gmat and apply R3 or the following year. In the end I went with my instinct and decided to apply R2 and spend my time on my essays. My background is in education and teaching and I want to transition into charter school management. I went to an ivy league undergrad and was a student-athlete...I also did Teach for America post college. I applied to the following schools R2:

Kellogg- interviewed
Duke- invited to interview
Michigan- invited to interview
Columbia- invited to interview
Yale- no invite

I was invited to interview at every school with the exception of Yale, which I found surprising.

I got into both Kellogg and Duke. I was dinged from Michigan and have yet to hear from Columbia (I applied rather late to Columbia).

I am absolutely humbled, honored, relieved, and excited to go to Kellogg (most likely). This has been said before and it is necessary to say again, the GMAT does not mean everything!!
The strongest aspect of my application were my essays.

Anyway if anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to send me a message, many posts helped and inspired me to keep at it and not give up and I would be honored to pay it forward!

[nakul.maheshwari]

Congratulations on Kellogg!! Thats a great achievement.
If you dont mind me asking, did you have anymore strong points in your application apart from great essays? The reason I ask is I have a GMAT score in the mid 600s also. I know I will get excellent references from work but thats all I will have. I think if I pay attention to my eassys, I should be ok.
Let me know if you had any other qualities you capitalized on.

Thanks
Nakul

[sdroq]

Hey Nakul,

I think my background and future career goals really allowed me to stand out. I am currently working as a public school teacher (I started out in Teach for America) and am looking to transition into charter school management post-mba and then eventually opening my own school. With such an non-traditional career path, I am assuming this set me aside. I will look through my application and see if there is anything else I capitalized on. Let me know if you have any other questions =)

[sarveshmehta]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your story. Gives tons of encouragement to people like me who are in the same boat. I have a GMAT of 650, with awesome undergrad and decent grad GPA. Nice work experience in investment banking and micro-finance/development sector. I hope i make it too..*fingers crossed*

Can you tell me the consultants you went through. I believe that your admission consultants should believe in you as much as you do in yourself. Kindly let me know where should i get assistance from for my applications.

Cheers and high regards

[sunman]

Lots of low GMAT feel good stories...any low GPA stories?

You can always retake a GMAT, you can't retake 4 years of college.

Le sigh...

[hirenvpatel.mba]

Hello Sdroq (sorry, I don't know your real name),

Congratulations on your admits! Simply great! Hope you'll enjoy and have a great value-addition at the B-school that will allow you to set up base for your future goals!

Reading your post gave me a lot of belief - I was thinking of applying in R1 for the schools I'm targeting and your post gave me a boost. I think I'm going to apply with my current score in R1.

I need your help on preparing essays. I'm going to begin writing essays from this week and have thought of the content. However, I'm not sure about the structure. If you could provide your inputs on the same and possibly share your essays at [email protected] (which will give me an idea on the structure and content), it would be of great help. Here is a brief summary of my profile to give you an idea on my background.

I believe given my strong academic background, strong recommendations from senior managers/VP from top companies, strong essays will get me interviews and possibly a green flag into the school I dream of attending.

I scored a 640 (Q49, V28) on 26th May, 2012. My goal is clear - I want to do an MBA in Supply-Chain/Operations from top 20 schools in US (Duke, Kellogg, Stanford) or from ISB India.

Please review my profile below and let me know if with strong essays and interviews. As far as GMAT is concerned, I need to work on the Verbal as my score ranged from 28-38 (on mock tests) and I want to master it to the level of Quant (consistently scored 47-49). (this is if I decide to give it again)

Profile:

28, Male from India. (have been in the US for past 4.5 years, 2 years of Masters and 3 years of Work Exp)

Education:
Masters in Industrial Engineering (NC State) GPA: 3.9/4.0 (took two MBA courses and scored an A on both )

Bachelors in Industrial Engineering (India) GPA: 3.9/4.0

Certifications:
ASQ certified Six-Sigma Green Belt, CADD certification, French language certification.

Accolades:
Total Employee Involvement at my first job (top 3 motor-cycle manufacturer in India)
Excellence Award at my first employer in US (3rd Party Logistics Company)

Career Summary:

- Present - Supply Chain Consultant - at an ERP Consulting firm. (1 year)
- Continuous Improvement Engineer (Lean Six-Sigma Role at a Supply-Chain company) (Saved $MM here on multiple projects) Initiated metrics to measure facility's efficiency. (2.5 years)
- Project Engineer (Value Engineering/Supplier development role at the company in India) (1 year)

Leadership:

- Led teams of 6-12 team members on continuous improvement projects
- Led Testing team of 8-10 members on SAP implementation project
- Led the Cricket Team in sports for 4 years at college level.
- Deputy (Vice-captain) of Cricket Team in sports for 2 years at NC State.
- Volunteered in community services - helping schools arrange their libraries, coaching kids in sports (cricket)

Languages:
- English, French, Spanish.

Excellent recommendations from VP - Quality, Manager of Project Management department and IT Project Manager at a top company.

Thanks a lot for your time and inputs.

Have a nice day!

Cheers,
Hiren