Profile Evaluation! Please Help!

Hi there,

Thanks for your post. Overall I feel you have a fairly strong profile for business school. The strengths of your profile based on the info you posted include:

-720 GMAT (at or above average at the schools on your list)
-5 solid years of work experience, with financial services and analysis/strategy experiences
-start-up experience
-some community involvement/NGO work

Unknowns:
-your essays/recs/interview
-details of the experiences you've had during your work experience-- examples of leadership, teamwork, making an impact, going above and beyond, communication skills, results achieved, and so on-- if you can pull out some of these key experiences it will really help your application/profile
-more detail about your goals.... do you have shorter and longer term career goals? You'll definitely want to answer the question WHY you'd like to move into management consulting as well. While consulting is a popular post-MBA field and very valid, you'll do better in the application process if you can articulate the rationale behind your career change decision and what about consulting appeals to you, and how you'll use the experiences you have from the past in that future role!

Definitely don't underestimate the importance and power of those essays-- lots of opportunity there to show who you are, what you'll contribute, and what you'll do with the degree after b-school!!

As for schools, I would think you'd have a chance at all of the schools on your list, IF you put together a strong application with very compelling essays, good recommendations, etc. A lot depends on those factors, once you have some solid experience and a good GMAT score. I wouldn't worry about not having worked at a large firm btw; while a well-known firm can be a small plus, generally the quality of your experience is what's most important so be sure to showcase that. It is a long school list, certainly. It's hard to advise which to cut without knowing more about the WHY you are interested in each of the programs on your list, though. LBS and INSEAD are of course great for international diversity (and check this link out for a comparison write-up between the two, https://www.topmba.com/europe/london-bus ... -vs-insead). You might want to pick your top 3-4 to apply to initially and then possibly one more outside your top 4 choices for a bit more of a safety school. I'd continue to research the programs as much as you can, talk to students/alum, read blogs from actual students, ask to get put in touch with them (admissions offices will usually do so), etc.

Let us know if we can help more. Good luck to you!

In general