Ask MBA Crystal Ball

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC): Most Common Modification Errors

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) questions can seem difficult for non-native English speakers. But with the right practice, they are the easiest to fix to get a high GMAT score. the GoGMAT test preparation series on MBA Crystal Ball moves on to a dreaded topic on the GMAT verbal syllabus. With the examples used you’ll find it easier to understand GMAT SC questions...Read More

Best Entrepreneurship MBA - Resouces and successful alumni startups

The MBA Entrepreneurship series on MBA Crystal Ball continues as we cover the various entrepreneurial resources available in the best MBA programs. The post also lists down some top startups that were built using the resources available in bschool...Read More

GMAT Quantitative Section Preparation: Math Overview

GMAT Quantitative questions are normally considered to be easier than their GMAT verbal cousins. Most applicants from an engineering background score high on the GMAT quant section. But just because they are the low-hanging fruits, doesn’t mean you can take them lightly as a higher GMAT score would require you to crack difficult GMAT quantitative questions.

This post provides an overview of the Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency type of questions in the GMAT maths section...Read More

Management Consulting 101: Types of consulting

Management consultant Amit (aka MBA Dropout) continues his series on the management consulting industry. This time he covers the various types of consulting jobs – from the mainstream options like strategy consulting and operations consulting to the niche markets (real estate consulting, design consulting etc)...Read More

GMAT Sentence Correction Preparation: Comparison and Parallelism

GMAT Sentence Correction is a toughie. During GMAT preparation, you think you’ve nailed the verbal fundamentals, you get down to tackling the tough SC questions and realize you aren’t there yet.

In this post, we share GMAT verbal tips and sample questions to explain two key concepts within Sentence Correction questions...Read More

Profile Evaluation, Please?

Nationality: Indian
Age:21
Gender:Female
Languages known - English, Spanish,Bengali and Hindi

Education:
Class 10:80%
Class 12:90%
College:Bachelor's In Commerce(Honours){from the top college in my country}, Specialization-Marketing, CGPA:6.69

My dissertation was published by my college and ranked first with 96%

Leadership Roles
I was on the executive college commerce committee/ Commerce student council, core team member of the college journal and an AIESEC-er(L-Cong Logistics head of 2009)

Work Experience
Through out college I worked part time in a finance firm and upon graduation I continue to work in the same finance firm. I now lead a team of 10. I have mainly worked in auditing .The clients I have handled include regional banks,a retail giant and a major telecom company.

I also own and run my own spa and salon.

I have also collaborated with a Seychelles company to import,bottle,manufacture and sell a beauty and Cosmetics line of products.(We start production in August!)

Extra Curricular:
I have won national level debates,inter college(state and national) management events, drama and essay competitions. I have certificates in Indian classical music.

Social Service:
I have been involved with 2 local NGOs; one that helps orphans and street children and the other forms a support system for the victims of domestic violence. I was active in my school social service club too.


I am yet to take my GMAT. However, I am scoring at the moment in the 710-740 range in my mocks. I plan to take it on July21st.

My concerns are-
1. My work experience duration. I am hoping the quality of my work experience and my entrepreneurship skills can help compensate.
2. Age

My goals-
Major in marketing and get into the fashion industry ( fashion marketing)

Schools I am hoping for-
Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, NYU(stern), MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Harvard( Far fetched dream). Or any other that you would suggest.

GMAT Maths Data Sufficiency Questions: Systems of Equations

GMAT Data Sufficiency questions in the GMAT quantitative (Maths) section need an indepth understanding of how equations work. In this post, we explain how to tackle Data Sufficiency questions that involve systems of equations...Read More

NUS Singapore MBA and 4 other admits for Indian IT Engineer Male

The NUS Singapore 1 year MBA program gets a lot of applications from Indian IT Male Engineers, just like all the other top bschools. Being closer to India and being more affordable than the US programs means that it gets more than its fair share of such profiles.

Rohit Jaggi was one of the hopeful applicants to NUS Singapore and several other top bschools. He got admits from 5 of the 8 schools he applied to – one offered a mouth-watering MBA scholarship. Quite an accomplishment!

In this guest post, he displays his flair for story telling, probably one of the reasons he stood out among the competition...Read More

You win the crown for being the youngest applicant on this thread.

Warning: I might have more questions for you than answers in this post.


Where does that place you in the class ranking? Top 5, 10, 20 in a batch of ...?


What did you do in that role?


This is unusual except for mandatory course requirements such as an articleship. How many hours did you work in the part-time role and for how many months/years?


For how long? How did you manage this along with your work commitments? I'm guessing this is not on a full-time basis and you have a manager + staff to take care of this. Right?


Getting more interesting now, as this would take your entrepreneurial accomplishments to a different level. Not now, but in a few months after you get the business plan off the ground and get into execution mode.


That's be more or less around the median range for the schools you've listed.


The multiple hats you've worn does make your profile a little different from the others. But with the data you've shared, the quality of work-ex is tough to judge. the questions I've listed earlier would be the starting point to start digging deeper.


How does this connect with your professional or entrepreneurial work so far?


I'd have ideally suggesting waiting and building your profile for atleast a year or 2 more. By that time your international venture would've taken better shape and you'd have more success stories to talk about.

Is that an option or have you made up your mind to apply this year?

Profile Evaluation, Please?
Nationality: Indian, Age:21 , Gender:Female
Languages known - English, Spanish,Bengali and Hindi

You win the crown for being the youngest applicant on this thread.


Warning: I might have more questions for you than answers in this post.
Hope my answers are adequate.
Quote:
College:Bachelor's In Commerce(Honours){from the top college in my country}, Specialization-Marketing, CGPA:6.69
My dissertation was published by my college and ranked first with 96%

Where does that place you in the class ranking? Top 5, 10, 20 in a batch of ...?
I was in the top 20. Not very sure of the batch size. I am from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. Bcom has two departments- Morning ( only boys) and Evening (Co-ed) so, estimate a 1000ish,

Quote:
I was on the executive college commerce committee/ Commerce student council, core team member of the college journal and an AIESEC-er(L-Cong Logistics head of 2009)

What did you do in that role?

Commerce Council- A lot of events. 3 years in different capacities( finance team, event head , hospitality head, Co-incharge of judges department,Head of one fest) Events included inter and intra college fests ( 3 of them- B-plan competitions, Business fests), 1 national level fests- Insignia, Corporate panel discussion- Intellegensia, and a 7 day long seminar ( this is what I was the main incharge-of). We also published our commerce journal- Youthink. So that is about-6 major event a year for three years along with a journal a year. Also organizing Industrial Visits- about 8-10 a year- again for 3 years. [You are usually put incharge of Industrial Visits only the first year as such after that you just sorta just do crisis management]. Also we maintained ties with other college across the country.

AIESEC- Organised the Local conference was the Organizing committee head of Logistics. Apart from that nothing remarkable.

Quote:
Through out college I worked part time in a finance firm and upon graduation I continue to work in the same finance firm. I now lead a team of 10. I have mainly worked in auditing .The clients I have handled include regional banks,a retail giant and a major telecom company.

This is unusual except for mandatory course requirements such as an articleship. How many hours did you work in the part-time role and for how many months/years?

First year of college I wanted to do CA. SO I cleared CPT and started my articleship. However I lost interest in CA and I was keen on marketing. But since I had a good working relation with my boss and I enjoyed frankly the money and working hours I kept working. SXC evening BCOM college is from 4;15 PM, so I worked from 10-3, Mondays-Saturdays. For about 2 years and some months.

Reason why I continued working-
1. The pay
2. I wasn’t finding any decent marketing jobs in my city. I was usually offered sale positions which I wasn’t interested in.
3. The quality of work I get to do at my firm is excellent. With any other firm I wouldn’t get the flexibility or the opportunity to work with the best companies in India. So the experience in my opinion is amazing.
4. I get to travel and I love that.



Quote:
I also own and run my own spa and salon.

For how long? How did you manage this along with your work commitments? I'm guessing this is not on a full-time basis and you have a manager + staff to take care of this. Right?


The Spa has been functional for about 8 months. Since I live very close to my SPA I go at 8:30 (before work). Set stuff up, ensure that my staff have come in, do stock checking, see if there are any major bookings, etc. Then go to work. My work gets over by 6ish (If it is not year ending) and then I go back to the Salon- Go through the books, stock, meet clients at times, talk to the staff , close it at around 8 and leave.
Yes, I do have a manager and I am always available on phone and I have a system in place which works, If I am not available my mother is and she is also involved with the Salon so she takes care of stuff when I am not around,
I do the bridals and make up for other occasions personally. Those are by prior appointment so I take a day off from work or work from home. My boss is pretty cool with that.



Quote:
I have also collaborated with a Seychelles company to import,bottle,manufacture and sell a beauty and Cosmetics line of products.(We start production in August!)

Getting more interesting now, as this would take your entrepreneurial accomplishments to a different level. Not now, but in a few months after you get the business plan off the ground and get into execution mode.

Thank you. The deal is done. Right now we are working on the website and few details regarding the patents.

Quote:
I am yet to take my GMAT. However, I am scoring at the moment in the 710-740 range in my mocks. I plan to take it on July21st.

That's be more or less around the median range for the schools you've listed.

Quote:
My concerns are-
1. My work experience duration. I am hoping the quality of my work experience and my entrepreneurship skills can help compensate.
2. Age

The multiple hats you've worn does make your profile a little different from the others. But with the data you've shared, the quality of work-ex is tough to judge. the questions I've listed earlier would be the starting point to start digging deeper.

I hope my answers are adequate . If there is something else you want to know- I ll be only to happy to answer.
Quote:
Major in marketing and get into the fashion industry ( fashion marketing)
How does this connect with your professional or entrepreneurial work so far?

Quote:

Marketing is something I fell in love with the moment we were introduced to it in college. And I have always been interested in fashion/makeup etc. I think I ll be a good fit in the industry. The marketing side of my salon and now the products is something I look into personally.
I am hoping my finance knowledge helps me as marketer. I just feel having an in depth knowledge about the finance aspect will only help me-not deter me.


Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, NYU(stern), MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Harvard( Far fetched dream). Or any other that you would suggest.

I'd have ideally suggesting waiting and building your profile for atleast a year or 2 more. By that time your international venture would've taken better shape and you'd have more success stories to talk about.

Is that an option or have you made up your mind to apply this year?

I am hoping for a fall intake-2013. I cant wait longer than that. Being honest- I am an Indian girl and I know for a fact that if I don’t do it now- I am gonna get married off and after that I don’t think I ll be able to go to the US and do my MBA.
So as much as I wish I could wait. I cant. I hope you get my point.

Thank you so much for replying.

Thanks for the additional info. Yes, it does add more clarity.

The other thing I appreciate is that you've resisted the general urge (that's common on popular forums) to create a profile template and post it on 20 different threads. You've also patiently waited for a response. Thank you!

Judging by the length of your last response, it might be better to take the discussion offline.

Drop me an email [info at mbacrystalball dot com] and we'll fix up a time to talk. I'll share with you some perspectives on the options you have, if you don't have the liberty to wait for another year.

PaGaLGuY reinvents MBA networking

PaGaLGuY is probably the only Indian MBA portal that can proudly talk about a dedicated case study by an IIM (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore). But despite the traffic volumes and the humongous amount of content it offers (roughly 3.5 million posts, it has retained the desi flavour that attracts a fiercely loyal community of MBA aspirants, alumni and experts.

More than enough for anyone to rest on their laurels and take a breather after having completed a dream run in less than a decade, right? The pagal (crazy) guys at PaGaLGuY didn’t think so...read more

Learn German language to access the non-English speaking world

Learning German, French, Spanish, Japanese or any other language can give you an advantage that no technical or managerial skills can replace. The ability to connect and interact with colleagues, clients and friends from another culture is a huge ice-breaker.

After completing my MBA, I worked for a German company (in India) for 5 years. This involved frequent trips to Germany. So in the first few months after I joined, I spent several hours each day to learn basic German from Anjali Patil, a highly accomplished German teacher from the Goethe Institut.

She has been one of the most patient teachers I’ve ever come across. It’s tough to manage a bunch of over-grown brats in the corporate class, but Anjali did it with poise and elegance. The end result was, after the course, we were able to manage not only our Germany trips well, but also the numerous email chains that would often shuttle between English and German content...read more

Hi Sameer,

First of all congratulations on the wonderful book! It really gave me deep insight of MBA Duniya.

I need your help on my confusion in deciding to join AIM, Manila. I have an admit and schol 50% for the MBA program starting next month. I am still confused over joining.
My profile: Previous Work Ex: Btech in Biotech - 3.3 years in Intellectual Property Rights Research in healthcare and consumer goods at Evalueserve - 10 Months in Strategy Research in Healthcare and consumer goods at Grail Research - 11 Months in mix roles in family business (where my brother is already there with father and it is a small business) + a stint in attempt to launch my own start up in mHealth/Telemedicine with an already running start up where I left last week due to the issues of non-transparency by the founders.
GMAT: 720, Diplomas in French and German
Aspirations: To work in public health/government/intergovernmental programs. Also interested in entrepreneurial or academic route.
Could you suggest me some options which can be helpful and anything else that you may suggest can be helpful for me to decide?

Thanks,
Tarun

Are the schools in my list ideal for my intended career goals? Are there any other schools that i should consider?

Thanks!

Average GMAT scores: What are the MBA admission chances?

Got an average GMAT score in your recent attempt? Chances are that your ‘average score’ isn’t as average as you think it is. If Indian IT Male (and Female) Engineers score a 690 on the GMAT test (a very respectable score by global standards), we still label them as average GMAT scorers. In fact, even a 700 or 710 doesn’t seem to impress the powers that be i.e international MBA Admissions officers of the top business schools.

But statistically, that’s far from the truth. The real average score for GMAT test takers around the world is…hold your breath...Read More

SP Jain Global MBA (GMBA) – Dubai, Singapore, Sydney calling

The SP Jain Global MBA, as the website says, is designed for mature particpants. Their 2-year MBA designed for applicants with lesser experience has already carved a niche for itself in.

With the Global MBA (GMBA) offering, they’ve taken the SP Jain brand to an international level – literally. With cities like Dubai, Singapore and Sydney added in for good measure, the exposure is truly international.

Aditya, a current student attending the SP Jain Global MBA program describes his application experience that got him the GMBA seat...Read More