Hey DukeCityMBA,
Thanks for reaching out to me. him him I do have a few questions about your international work experience, and since I do not have the answers I'm going to have to make some assumptions for this analysis. For the record, I am not quite sure if you are implying that you already have international experience and that it may not be enough, or if you were saying you don't have any at all. To me, it's not clear by the way you phrased some of your experiences. Moving on…
Now whether or not INSEAD this is a good fit for you – given your international experiences – is pretty much based off of how well you can address the questions/essays they are asking you. Most of the questions do not "require" you to provide an international example. Of course, knowing INSEAD we know that you need to at least bring something to the table with international relevance. There is one particular question that the school likes to ask regarding "culture shock". This question requires – for the most part – an international experience, and a slightly awkward one at that. Given your personal background, you could address this essay prompt quite effectively. Remember, if you with a personal example here you are probably going to want to address the majority of earlier questions with your varied work experience. Anyway, addressing this culture shock question with a personal experience you could talk about visiting the old country. Perhaps your parents are immigrants from Mexico. You could talk about visiting where they grew up and address how it completely took you out of your element and life in the United States. How you – at an early age – realized what the other side of the tracks is like. You began to appreciate your parents struggles and efforts on your behalf a bit more. Perhaps you began to get more involved in your heritage or culture. Perhaps you began volunteering at the ESL center down the street or outreach to poor immigrants. Addressing something like this would pretty much satisfy this essay very, very well.
For the most part, everything else appears to be in order. You are a little older than the average but I do not think that is going to be a problem – provided you have a explanation you can work into the essays. I would tell you that your explanation should revolve around the start of your own business, and then having to reset after its failure. That may have delayed your career progression by three or four years, for example.
IE Business School and IESE are both great schools, and are literally down the street from each other. I . both programs this past spring, and both campuses are in excellent parts of the city. As an aside, Barcelona has to be my favorite city in the world. I don't believe that you will have any problems getting into the schools as well. None at all, in fact.
With respect to Columbia business school, if you're not going to apply early decision, do not apply immediately after endearingly decision deadline. Give it a few weeks – possibly a month before you submit. Trust me on this one. I definitely would not wait until after the new year to apply to Columbia.
Georgetown round two should be no problem.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
DukeCityMBA wrote:
I would appreciate your assistance and opinion. I’m going to try for great schools, but am worried about my GPA, experience, and age. I want to work internationally after school, so many of my targets are international. Is my profile good enough to get me into Insead? Or am I dreaming with my schools list? What parts of my profile should I stress, particularly for Insead and IE?
Here's my profile:
American Latino Male
720 GMAT (Lower quant, very high verbal)
3.2 GPA
30 years old
Education:
I received my BBA from 2nd tier state university with a finance and marketing dual concentration. During my undergrad I founded a campus political organization and was very active in a campus parish (everything from leading retreats to hosting guest speakers). In addition, I was an active campaigner and volunteer for congressional campaigns. Took an internship my senior year with the US Senate in DC researching proposed trade legislation. My low GPA was mostly due to my focus on my extracurriculars and job.
Work Experience:
Shortly out of school I left my job at a local bank to be an entrepreneur and start my own business, which was successful for 3 years until the economy went south and I had to close shop. At its peak, the business employed 8, and had monthly volume of over $1mil.
Then went to work for my family's small business where I mostly helped with marketing campaigns/promotions and overseeing finances. Finally decided to work for a large firm with the possibility of a higher career trajectory. Currently, I am working at Fortune 20 healthcare firm as government analyst.
Post-BBA Activities
Hospice Volunteer
Captain of Flag Football Team
Short term goal:
To work internationally as either a strategy consultant or possibly somewhere like booz that does government consulting work.
Long term goal:
Use my international business expertise and interest in the intersection of business and politics to work for an organization like the State Department, UN, or World Bank.
Dream Schools:
INSEAD (Consulting job opportunities and global perspective, perfect!)-Round 1 (April Deadline)- This is my first choice by far but I’m worried about my lack of international experience. I have lots of cultural experiences to write about in an essay, however.
Columbia- Regular decision
Target schools:
IE- Early December (rolling)
IESE- Round 2/3 (of 5)
Safety
Georgetown- Round 2
close
17 Sep 2012, 22:20
