Profile Evaluation Request

[normalguy]

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[ivyctor2010]

Great GMAT, decent work experience, and hence or otherwise there is no need to write any glamorous goals, write the goals which you truly seek to achieve and be very clear how do you achieve them. B-schools value clarity of goals much more than novelty of them. Infact in my discussions with various MBA, adcoms and experts, goal clarity comes out to be one of the most important deciding factors when it comes to MBA admissions. And goal clarity here does not necessarily imply predicting your exact designations 5 years later. It means that your goals are logical, make sense and are coherent with your current profile and background.

For example when you say Investments in Emerging market, quote specific examples of why, why it makes a perfect sense to drive investments in these markets and what would be your exact role. Would you be concentrating on SMEs or on entrepreneurial ventures in emerging markets or on large firms looking to expand/diversify. Your action points should be more obvious in your essays than the facts which are already obvious.

Some possible schools prima facie (though on a more accurate analysis of placements, recruiters, school culture, faculty and student testimonials you may be able to glean out a little different result set):

1) NYU Stern
2) MIT Sloan
3) Columbia
4) LBS
5) Tepper
6) HKUST
7) NUS
8) Oxford Said

Hi All,
Please evaluate my profile.
Male, 26 years, Indian
GMAT 740 (Q51, V 40)
TOEFL 104 (a bit of worry)
Bachelor's - Mechanical Engg IIT in 2008
3 years of experience as a sell side investment research analyst at a major US bank.
1.5 years of experience as a senior executive at a private equity firm, I do valuation for acquisitions, potential targets, also portfolio mangement of a tiny equity fund $14m .
POST MBA goals:
long term goals:to build an investment firm focussed on emerging markets, most of my investment exp is in emerging markets.
Short term: to work as an associate at an investment firm and gain portfolio mgmt experience and in emerging markets.

Extracurriculars:
1. Entrepreneurial experience in college 2.considerable community service
3. piano player in college (although honestly i learnt to impress girls)

other points of interest: CAIA charter holder, CFA charter waiting

Weak points: 1. same old finance guy, with same old goals. No differentiation in my profile.
2. low gmat verbal and toefl score.(should i take gmat and toefl again)
3. average gpa

strong points:
strong leadership experience - closed 6 deals over $250 m, generated over $2 m in investment profits an annual return of 15%. Led 5 member valuation team. Good risk taking ability.

I would like to know which schools are suitable to me, how i can project diversity in my profile.
I want to know should i write some glossy, glamorous goals just for the sake of getting admission? I suppose most appplicants in finance write more or less the same goals. which should i follow the ends or means?

[Yashveer]

Hi Normalguy,

No need to write "glossy or glamorous goals" as the b-school adcoms are much smarter than we might think. Rather you can make you application essays strong by writing professional achievements, leadership skills & other aspects. A well presented and perfectly written essay is absolutely critical to make a strong case for yourself during the final interview. Well, you have a decent profile & a good GMAT score. So, I would rather suggest you to target b-schools like: Wharton, Booth, Stanford, Tuck, Columbia, Yale, NUS, Nanyang, HKUST & Cambridge-Judge with good placement rate post-MBA. You can also try your chances by clicking https://www.general-ed.com/chances-of-bschool

Feel free to post any other concerns you might have.

Regards,
Yash

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