Hi Guys,
This is by no means a rant. More so an attempt to help others learn from my experience with applying to B-schools.
I hope many of you can come across this post and hopefully save yourself some money, time and exasperation.
Let me begin by giving you a brief intro about myself.
As the title suggests, I am the typical Indian male who applied for courses beginning fall 2016.
The profile:
1. 3 years work ex with a fortune 50 bank in commercial banking analytics (analytics is supposed to be the hottest field right now. I dont say that, McKinsey and IBM do)
2. 2 promotions in 3 years (was the youngest Associate in the org when I applied)
3. Undergrad GPA of 3.8 in Engineering from University of Pune
4. Very strong extra curriculars (Published 2 international IEEE research papers, taught MMA for 2 years, rose to a good rank in an NGO)
5. GMAT 740 (Q 47 V 45)
6. TOEFL 118
That by all means is a competitive profile. Wouldn't you agree?
The application:
R1:
1. Cornell
2. Duke
3.IESE (Spain)
4. UCLA
R2:
1. Tepper
2. Darden
Got a decline from all. No interview either. Still on the waitlist for Johnson but that's without interview.
The possible problems?
1. Essays:
Now we hear a lot from B-schools saying that they want someone who demonstrates "FIT". Guys, let me be very honest and tell you that it is a bunch of BS. Absolute BS. Colleges don't care about what you write in your essays. The more number of years the essay is repeated the less read or important it is. There are a lot of admission consultants / gurus who claim to help you tell your story but they are simply fleecing you for cash. It is your hard earned money and hiring a consultant for essays can set you back by a huge margin.
For e.g. I have a friend who applied to Tepper, Darden, Tuck, Cornell, Austin McCombs, Kellogg, Duke, UCLA
He hired a consultant from a famous website and he couldn't convert a single application. The consultant cost him INR 4.5 Lacs and the applications another $250-$300 each. You can do the math on his expense.
I have decently good English( read TOEFL score) and wrote essays with different but convincing goals in R1 and R2. However, a friend of mine ( a girl ) wrote the same essay. Word by Word and she got an admit. Hence Proved.
2. Work Experience:
I have also observed a lot of guys asking for the ideal work experience. After a lot of research I was able to come up with the definition for this. A safe school is one where the average work ex is at most 1 year more than your work ex.
All the schools I applied to had an average work ex of 4 years, which is 1 year less than my work ex. Did that help? Hell no
Quality of work ex? Does that matter? Hell no. I could very well have called myself an Investment Banker and gotten away with it. How do you think a bschool will verify it? Will they ask your firm if its a small hedge fund? They dont have the man power to do that kind of extensive verification. Hence, what matters is the absolute quantity because that can be verified easily.
3. GMAT:
This is as simple as it gets. Indians are used only and I repeat ONLY to skew average GMATs. A 740 is just not good enough guys. I am sorry for being brutally honest but neither is 750. If you are an Indian male with < 5 years work ex, you need a 760 or 770 to get an interview call. Not even an admit. Just the interview call.
E.g. A different friend ( 750 GMAT , 3 yr work ex in Big 4, hired consultant for essay) could not get an admit even to a college like Emory Gozieuta. He is now pursuing MBA from UC Irvine (which ranks 54 in USA and >90 worldwide)
The final Advice:
Its very clear guys. If you just look beyond the glamorous websites that b-schools create, what is the first thing you notice about a bschool? The class profile right? Of course you do. Now this is also what fetches a Bschool its ranking. You are a means to boost that ranking. The girl from Congo or Zaire who has done her undergrad in liberal arts is not gonna give them a 770 and they know it. They will take her at 640 too. That's why they have a range.
Every bschool is worried only about its stats.
If you have 3 or 4 years of work ex, you are not gonna be placed as a manager. That's too less for big firms even if you are a
prodigy. They cant place you at entry level jobs because that's too beneath you with a 3 year work ex. So the best thing is to not take you. Why create a head ache for themselves 2 years later.
Bitter Truth: There is always an Indian with your exact profile but with 3 years extra work ex. Its just statistics. Given our population, its highly probable and happens virtually every time.
Take it with a pinch of salt. I have spoken to over 100 people and can cite examples at will. That's all I have done for 3 years. There can be exceptions but 99% of times, this is the norm. If you are a girl however, a 750+ will get you most schools that are ranked 15 and above in the USA.
If you have a 770 you can aim higher, but your M7 are still out of grasps.
Finally for my brother, the fellow Indian male. If you want to dream about M7, your typical profile would be:
770 GMAT, 5 year work ex, 3.8+ GPA, At least a fortune 100 company, 3 promotions or more in 5 years, Alumni recommendations.
Don't even bother getting your profiles evaluated and wasting your time. You'll be disappointed after being given stellar hopes.
Please feel free to ping me to discuss in detail.
Thanks.
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07 Jun 2016, 07:48
