Your guidance is required, thank you

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Your guidance is required, thank you

by icecube6000 » Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:56 am
Dear Jon Frank ,

I posted my profile in the main forum but has not been reviewed as yet. You are the most active and quick respondant on these forums. Please evaluate my profile. I will be grateful.

I am a 29 year old MBA prospective student
from Pakistan.

GPA/Percentage: I have done my
bachelors in Computer Sciences from NED,
a local University that is among the top 3
Engineering universities in my country. My
final accumulative percentage was 83%.
When I will apply for transcripts, the
percentage will be converted into
equivalent GPA. I, however, cannot tell you
the equivalent GPA right now. I was among
the top 15 in my class.

Career : I have been working with
Standard Chartered, which is a British bank,
for more than 6 1/2 years. Standard
Chartered has a decent network of more
than 140 branches in Pakistan. I started my
career as a sales executive in branch
banking in February 2005. I have steadily
progressed and was promoted four times
during these 6 1/2 years. From 2008 to
2010, I was the floor manager for one of
our flagship branches in Pakistan. I
managed a sales/service team of more than
12 people and a portfolio of more than 100
million dollars. My branch was the best branch pan Pakistan for two years while I was the floor manager there. Few individuals in my team won best relationship manager awards during those two years.At the start of 2011, I was
promoted as a branch manager. Later in
June, I was hand picked for a sales
transformation project. The scope of the
project is to standardise the way sales is
done in consumer banking. In my current
role as a coach, I am responsible for
implementing the new sales model,
bringing about a behavioural and cultural
change in the whole of consumer banking. I
am part of team of 7 people. This project has given me the opportunity to work with different people at all levels of branch banking. I will be able to get good/stellar recommendations.

Personal life: My father was in army and
we moved a lot till I was 18. I have lived in
all four provinces of Pakistan and speak
atleast 2 provincial languages besides the
national language.

Volunteer experience: I had around 3
months of volunteer work experience last
year and would be doing the same before
filing my applications this year.My
volunteer work was on Saturdays. I was
working with a local NGO and my work
consisted of assisting under privileged
children in improving their education and
social life.

MBA major: I am aiming to get an MBA
with major in general management or
consultancy. After graduation, I would like to work few years in the country of my graduation before returning home.

Hobbies: I am an avid supporter of cricket and played the game at my college level. I love collecting watches and this hobby has left me with absolutely no savings. I love reading fiction and comics.

GMAT : I have taken the GMAT test 5 times.
Break-up of score is given below
GMAT 1
March 2010 : 650 (Q 43, V 37)
I was blown away by the difficulty of the
Quantitative section. The testing laminated
sheet also put me off. In short, I was not
prepared.
GMAT 2
Dec 2010: 600 (Q 47, V 27)
This time I was more prepared. However
during the verbal section of the test, I had a
migraine attack. I just randomly selected
most of the verbal answers and my score
dropped as a result.
GMAT 3
Feb 2011: 640 (Q 42, V 37)
I couldn't keep up with the timing in the
quantitative section and ended up missing
2 questions.
GMAT 4
Jan 2012: 680 (Q 44, V 40)
I messed up with my Quantitative section
timing again.
GMAT 5
Mar 2012: 720 (Q 49, V40)
My questions from the experts
Please evaluate my profile on my current
scores. Please advise me on whether

1) Would my applicant age of 30 this
August/September be a turn-off for US
MBA schools?

2) What are my chances with respect to the
following tier of schools? These are 13
schools in total. I would be bringing this
list down to 6-8 schools by August. I just
want a perspective of my chances for each
tier.
I am considering the following schools

European Schools
1) IMD (Europe)
2) LBS (Europe)
3) INSEAD (Europe)

Second tier US Schools
4) Duke ( USA)
5) Michigan Ross (USA)
6) Cornell (USA)
7) Virginia Darden (USA)

first tier US schools
8) Harvard
9) Wharton
10)Kellog
11)Berkley

NON-US schools
9) Rotman (Canada)
10) Australian school of business
(Australia)

Rotman and ASB , although good schools in
their own sense, would be my back up.

Please let me know If I am missing any
information in my profile.
Thank you for reading my long post.

GMAT/MBA Expert

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by Jon@Admissionado » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:58 am
icecube6000 wrote: 1) Would my applicant age of 30 this
August/September be a turn-off for US
MBA schools?

2) What are my chances with respect to the
following tier of schools? These are 13
schools in total. I would be bringing this
list down to 6-8 schools by August. I just
want a perspective of my chances for each
tier.
I am considering the following schools

European Schools
1) IMD (Europe)
2) LBS (Europe)
3) INSEAD (Europe)

Second tier US Schools
4) Duke ( USA)
5) Michigan Ross (USA)
6) Cornell (USA)
7) Virginia Darden (USA)

first tier US schools
8) Harvard
9) Wharton
10)Kellog
11)Berkley

NON-US schools
9) Rotman (Canada)
10) Australian school of business
(Australia)

Rotman and ASB , although good schools in
their own sense, would be my back up.

Please let me know If I am missing any
information in my profile.
Thank you for reading my long post.
Dear Sir,
First of all thanks for the long and detailed post. It helps us help you. Now as I was reading through your post I saw a TON of great things, your GMAT is very nice (lots of work to get there, but you DID!), you seem to have done very well in your industry etc... but the thing that popped into my mind first is: what makes you DIFFERENT??? (it's not liking Cricket :) ). This is gonna be a majorly important part of your application as would your goals.

So on to your questions:
Agewise, you are scraping the top a bit, but at 30, you are still within the standard deviation for most schools, although Harvard ans Stanford would be super tough. The thing to do is to make sure it makes sense that you do this NOW.

As for your school list, Harvard would be a tough one for you. As would IMD, and LBS, Wharton too. Here too the key would be to find something to make yourself unique. But cutting two schools out of this list is a good idea. At Duke Insead, Berkeley they will be tough, but you should be competitive, despite coming from a tough pool.Cornell Darden Ross are what I would call your "Sweet Spot" and your two safety schools are indeed safety schools.

It's pretty rough, but I think a pretty accurate evaluation of your chances. If you want something more precise, feel free to drop us a line, and we can set you up with a chat with a consultant.

Hope this helps you out, dude.
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https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm

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by icecube6000 » Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:04 am
Thank you for the detailed response. I appreciate that you were straight and clear in my assessment.

please rate my chances with respect to following 4 schools also

1) Chicago
2) Columbia
3) Kellog
4) NYU Stern

Again, thank you for your response.

GMAT/MBA Expert

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by Jon@Admissionado » Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:22 am
Chicago is the toughest of the lot, then I would put Columbia, then Kellogg. NYU I feel would fall in that same "sweet spot" for you.

Hope this helps
"Hands down the best MBA admissions consulting firm of all-time, and boy, what an incredible founder!" -- Raj Patil, Founder of Admissionado

Something for everyone:
https://admissionado.lpages.co/admissio ... nter-2018/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/50-essay ... ked-vol-4/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/case-studies-lp/
https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm

Reach out, and let's gab. Our only requirement is that you don't prefer warm milk over cold milk. Everyone else, 100% welcome.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 866-409-4753
Hit us up on WhatsApp.
Ping our satellite: 0884#&@-2#101101
Contact us via web form you lazy git: https://admissionado.com/contact/
Mostly, email Claudia.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:10 am
Thanked: 13 times
Followed by:4 members

by icecube6000 » Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:53 am
Sorry but I am a little confused here.

You put Harvard, Wharton as tough schools for me. Berkley, Duke were also rated tough but you said that I would be competitive for Berkley and Duke.

Where are you putting Chicago, Kellog and Columbia? in the Harvard category or in the Berkley category?

Thank you