Hmm..I'm going to play the devil's advocate here since no one's done it already..
finmaster wrote:
I understand what the point of listing EC's is. The thing is, I will have to try and bring some change in the organisation that I work for. I will try to do it and if I succeed, I will then list it in my app, otherwise, I'll just let it go.
The keyword is 'change'.
Look at it this way; if I am able to bring even a small change in an organisation other than my job in the coming 5 months, it could also make some adcom say, "Well, okay it's five-six months and he has obviously done this to tick the box, but at least he has done something rather than nothing."
If I cannot bring any positive change; I'll simply not list that stuff in my app.
Not happening. The adcoms don't want to see you involved in some activity for the heck of it. They want to see demonstrated leadership in an activity that you have been involved in over the past several years. 5-6 month involvement is just not going to cut it. The adcoms have been around since the stone age (ok, not really) and they've seen this trick a million times. They are definitely not going to think of it as "ok, he's at least done something". They are just going to treat it as a "checkbox" activity at best or a load of BS at worst.
finmaster wrote:
As far as CFA is concerned, well, there were a few things which prompted me to take part in the CFA program:
1. I don't know how my Indian CGPA of 7.27/10 from my university will be taken by the adcoms. There's no rule of thumb for that. I wanted a quant-intensive course which has a strong reputation in the adcoms' country and which could give them a fair idea of my ability to handle the MBA workload. This of it as a way of telling the adcoms, "I have the ability to handle the tough coursework you guys will throw at me for two years."
You are giving lesser credit to the adcoms than they deserve. They literally see thousands of applications from Indian applicants each year and know quite well as to what are the Tier 1,2,3 institutes and what are the typical scores in these institutes.
finmaster wrote:
2. Related to '1' above, my performance in mathematics during engineering wasn't anything to write home about. I needed something to buttress that with.
3. Although I do not seek a career in finance, my participation in the CFA program (and the knowledge of finance that comes with it) along with my technical work-ex of five years and the MBA degree should make me a pretty strong candidate as far as finding job in a consulting/general management position is concerned. Put simply, it increases my employability.
After graduating from their B-school, I will be a manager from a great school having a core technical work-ex and equipped with a pretty decent knowledge of finance. That does increase my chances of becoming more 'employable' at the end of two years.
Think of it as a way of telling the adcoms, "You guys don't have to worry about finding me a job at the end of two years."
The CFA certification argument is pretty illogical since
a. You have not worked in banking/finance
b. You have no intention to pursue a career in finance post MBA
c. You're trying to impress upon the ad com to consider a CFA certification as your performance barometer over your undergrad math performance?
If you want to prove that you're good at Math and can handle the coursework, score a 50/51 on GMAT. That's what the GMAT is for. That is enough for the ad com.
The part about "core technical work exp + finance" increasing employability does not make any sense at all. Are you trying to get into the automotive sector post MBA? Are you planning to get into Corp Finance in that industry? Apparently not, since you suddenly threw consulting into the equation. Adcoms are just going to look at the CFA as a random certification. You will be in no position to convince the adcoms (first) let alone employers (later) about the link between your technical experience, CFA, MBA and how that increases employability.
finmaster wrote:
Coming to the point of applying to a large number of schools, well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure about all of these schools straightaway. I might end up not applying to 2-3 of them. Right now, I'm only at the 'research' phase. In another 30-40 days, I shall have a fairly good idea of which schools to eliminate, if any. However, I can safely say that I will not eliminate more than 3 schools. Probability does count.
Perfect recipe for disaster. Read Cheetarah's post on Page 1. Read it again. And now read it again.
You cannot possibly apply to more than 6/7 schools in a year. Of those not more than 4 will be quality applications. You seriously need to cut down the no. of apps. In fact if you don't cut down, it will automatically happen since there's no way you can submit all these applications in time. Given the fact that you're not looking at a GMAT score until Aug end (which would hopefully be good), you can virtually be sure of not applying to more than 3 schools in R1. You could stretch to 5 in R2 and that will still be 8 at a stretch. And now read Cheet's post again. It's the best advice you could get at this stage.
Sorry to be blunt, but I really couldn't put it out any other way..I really hope you do a course correction soon!
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11 Jul 2012, 03:49
