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Hi,

I need help to decide which schools to apply in. Please evaluate my profile and guide me:

- Age 30

- GMAT 690 (Q47, V38, AWA 5.5)

- Undergrad (University of Delhi, India, Computer Science) GPA ~3.5

- 1.5 years of work experience in India in a global software development firm. Traveled to client site in Germany for 1 month too.

- MS (Computer Science, University of Delaware, US) GPA 3.5

- Working for the past 4 years in a small professional services company in US. Speech recognition software consulting and development are my areas of expertise. Working in project management for almost the past two years as well. As it's a small organization so there is quite a bit of collaboration and interaction with the clients and everyone wears different hats depending upon the client.

- Extracurricular activities include; some volunteer work in Chicago cares for helping families of people affected by HIV, participated in a marathon, good at sports in school etc., some hiking experience as well...

- Career goal: My goal is to move into technology strategy consulting and product management

I wish to know the best combination of 5,6 schools out of the following:

Kellogg, Tuck, Columbia, Duke, Ross, , Cornell, IMD, UC, Darden, NYU, INSEAD, LBS

Could you also give me your opinion on how much helpful an early admission application will be in schools like Tuck, Duke or Columbia?
Any other helpful advice is also welcomed.

Thanks a lot!

Dear Allin19,

I will need more information from you regarding your career goals post graduation. if you are planning to stay in technology, broadly speaking Northern California is a great place for technology consulting and product management. UC Berkeley comes to mind immediately. Andersen and marshall are other good programs for the west coast.

In terms of other schools on the list, I would say you would consider improving your GMAT score as the competition of Indian, male, IT applicants is super cut throat...

For admissions applications, you should apply when you feel that your application is most ready (the only exception is to avoid applying in the last round where competition is usually tougher).

Hope this was of help.

Cheers,

Hi,

I would really appreciate it if you can give evaluate my profile and provide me with an idea of what schools you suggest I apply to..

Age: 26 yrs. and 27 yrs. old by Fall 2015
Gender: Male
Undergraduate: Berkeley (Walter A. Haas School of Business), University of California
GPA: Overall 3.646
Undergraduate: Diablo Valley College
GPA: 4.0
GMAT: 720 (96th) Q: 81nd V: 97th AWA: 6.0
Undergraduate Extracurricular Activities: Student Government, Econ Tutor, Volunteer at Hospital in marketing and MD services department, Started investment club. Started my own event production business during my senior year promoting parties at San Francisco Nightclubs (lost all my money:)
Current Extracurricular Activities: East Bay Haas Alumni Network (board member), Unofficial mentor at a Ministry to young Chinese immigrants at community college, Managing director of my grandmother's foundation (working on opening a thrift store someday).

Work Experience:
After graduation, I started off working a janitor in a renowned night club and then moved onto becoming a resident DJ. I did this job really successfully for about a year and then a couple of years back I started my business; a financial advisory firm. It took a while to take off with absolutely no business in the first year. The last year, tough, I made $350K in gross income and expect to make the same sort of income the coming year. So, I feel my business will do well for these next two years.

WHY: My current specialty is in selling investment product but with my business expanding, I am also starting to have assets for management. Currently I’m outsourcing all the asset and portfolio management work but someday I will like to run a larger firm where everything is done in house. I hold sufficient amount of hard skills but I’d like to enhance and expand them along with developing some soft skills too.

Kindly provide me with a brief profile evaluation. I am looking to target five schools and so I would really appreciate your opinion about which schools I should select to apply to. It would mean a great deal to me.
Cheers!

You have a very interesting profile; Adcoms will love your DJ story, given your storytelling is right You will stand out. Given your goals in Fiannce, I would suggest the following schools--

Wharton, Booth, Columbia, Stern, Yale, MIT, UCLA, Berkeley

Please take this list as a starting point only. Do some research by yourself and tweak it accoridng to your findings.

Hey,
It would be greatly welcomed if you could provide feedback on my profile:
26 year old, male,
GPA: 3.6 in Electrical Engineering (BYU)
GMAT Score: 730 (49 Q 41 V)
Work Experience: 2 years in a top-tier economic consulting firm
Extra-Curricular/Volunteer work: Served as Head Math instructor of a prison education outreach program, also served a two year mission for my church (led and trained groups of more than 15 other missionaries for almost 7 months)
Post-MBA goal: My Goal is to get into the management at any of the world’s best tech companies (Microsoft, Google etc.)
I have the following question, if you could kindly answer:
- How good are my chances at the M7 schools?
- What should be my profile strategy, what should I highlight more?
- Other than the M7, what other top 10 schools should I apply to?
I will sincerely appreciate any help.

Your profile is competitive. good GPA and GMAT score. Solid good extra curriculars (church) what seems to be good work experience.

Your chances for M7 are bright. beyind M7, you can consider INSEAD, LBS (schools comparable to M7) . UC Berkeley would fit your needs as well because of its location.

Let me know if you have any further queries

Hello!

I’ll be more than thankful if you could, kindly, evaluate my profile and guide me regarding the chances I might have for a full time MBA at schools that are; GSB (Chicago), INSEAD, Cornell, Kellogg and Oxford.
Background: 28 year old female, from Singapore, Indian origin, presently working in the US (thus studied and worked in 3 countries).
GMAT: 720 (Quant: 95%, Verbal: 85%)
Education:
Studied in Singapore on full scholarship plus stipend.
Undergrad: Electrical Engineering with a GPA of 3.3/4 (according to my conversion)
Postgrad: Part time MSc in Electrical and Computer engineering with a GPA of 4.45/5
Community Involvement/Volunteer work:
1. Member of BPW (Business and Professional Women), USA. Technology Chairperson of the local BPW chapter.
2. Volunteer at Donors Choose. Help screen and approve grant proposals submitted by the public school teachers.
3. Volunteer tutor at a children's home.
Work Experience
Total Work Experience: 6.5 years
Lead engineer in Automotive Telematics Industry. With all the others technical responsibilities, I am also responsible as a team lead to supervise, train and mentor engineers in India, Singapore and the US.
Post MBA Goals
Interested in Strategy and Business development. Preferably in Telecommunication industry.

Thanks in advance!

Your profile is solid. You have decent chances at all the schools that you mentioned. My only feedback would be to work on you leadership profile a little bit more. By leadership profile, I mean an experience of leading group either at work or in some extra-curricular setting. I would recommend you to mix your top choice schools with some low ranked schools as well in order to be safe. The list for low ranked schools wold be Cornell, Duke, Darden, CMU, Michigan, UNC, etc.

Good Luck

Hi,
Profile evaluation requested please.

GMAT score: Taken last year and got 680 (V 35, Q 48)
My GPA is 4.78/5 (Topped in my class).
I Speak 4 languages
I also studied Music, my first major (I am a professional composer and classical guitar performer). After completing my graduation, I started making investments in stock and along with that I did my second major in International Business. I’ve completed my graduation this year and hence do not have much of an experience after that apart from the investing that I carried on alongside m studies. I also hold a 6-months’ internship that I did at Robert Bosch (Germany). Currently I am working at an insurance company in Colombia.
How do you see my chances of getting into a top 25 school? I’m thinking about re-taking GMAT, should I do it?

Hi Thood,

I think you should wait a couple of years to gain some work experience. Your profile is great for european schools such as INSEAD and LBS as they value international exposure and multi-linugualism. However, they prefer some work experience.

If your investing was like any ordinary day trading, I wouldn't count it as real experience.

From a long term career perspective, I think you should aim higher. But you should wait to accumulate some experience before it.

Hi,
I’m looking to apply for MBA. It would be such a help is you could kindly evaluate my profile. The details are as given below:

Age- 26
GMAT Score- 720 (Quantitative 51 , Verbal 35)
Current Profession- Merchant navy officer (sailor/seafarer)
Graduate- Nautical Technology
GPA- I haven’t converted the percentage into GPA yet. I scored 76%
Community/Extracurricular Participation- Unfortunately I’m not that active in community service. Although I was very active in sports back in school and college. I was on Football teams as well as cricket teams.

Viewing my profile, which schools would be most suited for me to apply to. I am most interested in INSEAD, Indian school of Business, NUS, HBS and LBS.

I shall be eagerly looking forward to your response.

Kindly evaluate my profile given below:

1) 5 yrs of full time work ex till now.
2.5 yrs experience in “marketing analytics”. Key responsibilities including advising pharma companies of UK and US in sales force effectiveness solutions, promotion response modeling etc. (Including 6 months of leadership experience)
2.5 yrs experience in quant finance in derivatives and risk domain. (Including 1 year of leadership experience)
2) GMAT Score: 760(Q50,V42)
3) Academic Background: IIT Delhi, BTech+MTech, Maths & Computing. Low GPA
4) Active in co & extra-curricular activities. Active member of drama society & Event organizing committee. Also did some volunteer work at a local NGO.
5) CFA (Level 3 candidate), FRM
6) I wish to apply in:
Booth(R2) & Kellogg(R2),
Stern (R1) & Tuck(EA/R1) ,
Cornell (R2) & Darden(R1)
7) Post MBA objective: Primary - I would like to start off after MBA as a research analyst in any top of the list investment house and then move on to become a Portfolio Manager in companies like Fidelity, ING,BlackRock and PIMCO.
Secondary - General management/Rotational development programs in the Industry. Work in Corporate Strategy or Corp Finance postions for some time to develop knowledge about the sector and then try to move onto an Investment Management role.

Please guide me regarding my prospects in Fall 2016.

Hi Ankit,

Here are your strengths:
1. Good GMAT
2. Perfect age to apply at an MBA program
3. Unique professional experience

Weaknesses:
1. Extra-curricular
2. Missing wow factor (I am unsure about it as it is not clear from the brief description that you provided)


I think it will be "wow factor" (differentiation from other candidates) that would help you getting into your target business school. if you don't have this wow factor, HBS would be a stretch. You might still have a chance because of your international exposure.

Regards,

Hi Ancel,

You have very good profile. I would recommend you to add Columbia and LBS as well. If you apply to your list of schools, I am confident that you will get into at least one of them.

make sure that your essays are thoughtful and reflect your profile properly.

Hi,

Can you please suggest me programs based on my profile mentioned below and also let me know way to address lacking’s in my profile.

Profile:
Age 24 Years
Indian male with professional work experience of almost 3 years in one of the leading Financial Modeling Firm in Mumbai India.
10th Standard: 78%
12th Standard: Commerce with 85.5 %
GMAT Score 720 (Quant 50, Verbal 40)
Undergraduate in Finance (BS) = 2.75 CGPA

I want you to consider following while doing evaluation:
1: I haven’t much involved in extracurricular activities
2: Average performance in Undergraduate

Looking forward to your Response!

Dear Reir,

Thanks for your post. Other than GMAT score, I don't see any strong aspect in your profile to be competitive in top business schools. I would recommend you to apply to school ranked between 20 and 50.

Age - 34 yrs.

Working as Assistant General Manager in UK for one of the big firm. I have professional work experience of 8years so far. Moreover I have also been part to many social welfare and event projects during my university tenure.

GMAT 670 (Q45 V40) AWA 5.5

GPA: 3.7 Bachelors in CS

Extra Curricular: Actively participated in many College events and Alumni association.

Though, initially I was searching for MBA 2yrz program (full-time), but then I realize that provide my background with years of experience and considering age group, now I thought that executive MBA from any of top 20 schools will be good option to consider. I want your suggestion on it.
Also want to know about your opinion on GMAT? Should I need to retake it, provided my interest in top 20 schools like Kellogg, Tuck, and UC Berkeley etc.


I am interested in Strategic Management, and looking forward to Executive Management in my Career, as far as my career orientation is concerned after completing my MBA.

I would like you to suggest me Programs and what I can do to perform better in GMAT, application and other aspects

Thank You!