Hey Alex,

I sent you an email and you told me to post it here.

Currently

I am an IT consultant and developer. I also have a product in pipeline that was conceived, designed and implemented by me.

My GMAT score: 730 (96%ile) - 50 Q 39 V, AWA: 5.0 & IR: 8 (94%ile).

I am looking for admits in these schools. - Booth, Stern, Ross, Duke, Cornell, UCLA, Kenan Flager and UT Austin.

Why MBA?

I have been investing for over five years and what started as curiosity, developed into passion over time. I have used my software skills to create DCF calculating programs and stock
selection programs. I leverage my knowledge to select leading technology companies. So, I love handling and researching technology stocks.

I blog on stock investing –midasreturns.wordpress.com. Couple of my articles were published on seekingalpha.com.

I put together a website that educates people about mutual funds – mutualfundsforfuture.com. Infact I created an investment club to mentor people about investing.

I manage the 401Ks and IRAs of my colleagues and the list continues to expand. I manage $400K worth of funds. The return of my stock portfolio is around 25% YTD.

Recently, I initiated a project to utilize my company’s existing health care product to create a new product that analyzes equities using fundamental and technical analysis. This product will help people who have the knowledge of
equity research but lack the software skills to write program to analyze stocks.

I want to manage investments or do equity research. So I decided to embark on the MBA journey. I also plan on taking CFA level I exam in June 2013 prior to start of the MBA program.

Problem and questions

I have a MS from Wayne State University with GPA 3.2. I did my undergrad from run of a mill school in India, even though I had scholarship there. I have 6 years of work ex in IT.

But now, I am looking for a career switch from IT to buy side or sell side equity analyst.i.e. investment management and/or equity research.

My the main concern is my age - 31.

So how difficult is it to switch from IT to Equity research at this age. Is this goal feasible and will any of the schools listed above give me a chance?
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Thanks
Sumeet
www.midasreturns.wordpress.com

When you get outside the US, you've basically covered it. The other Euro schools like IE, ESADE, IESE, HEC, etc. probably won't do you much good as they seem to be more Euro focused than the UK ones. As for UK, you've pretty much covered it as those are the top schools. In terms of Asia, it's pretty limited - for India it's ISB and IIM, and others like HKUST, CEIBS, Nanyang, etc. are more *ahem* Chinese focused even if they don't explicitly say so (not necessarily "China" focused but "ethnic Chinese" centric in terms of the culture and the career opportunities - whether it's in China, HK, Singapore, SE Asia, Taiwan, etc).
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Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
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Stop wasting your time retaking the GMAT and focus on the written applications. Whether your score is 730, 760 or even 800 isn't really what matters (it's about thresholds: once your score is above a certain threshold - and for top schools its 720 -- it won't have a meaningful difference).
_________________

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
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Readjust your expectations. H/S/W are long shots (Indian engineers like yourself don't really have a shot - if you apply, consider them lottery tickets). Focus on Kellogg, Sloan, Booth, Columbia, Tuck or Haas as stretches (choose 2-3), and then schools like Ross, Duke, Darden, Stern, Cornell, Yale and UCLA as sweet spots (choose 2-3). LBS and INSEAD are stretches, and only apply there if you're reasonably certain you want to be based in Europe or the Middle East post-MBA.

Given that you want to work in consulting, I'd focus on Kellogg, Sloan, Ross, Duke and Darden -- and if you're interested in Europe, then add in LBS and INSEAD.
_________________

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
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Hi Alex,

What would be a good way to find volunteer organizations (to build ECs in my interest area) and what type of roles to target so it also helps the bschool app?

Do these volunteer orgs offer such roles in a formal manner?

My work is in engineering and leaves little time for ECs.

thanks in advance.

Dear Alex,

Please evaluate my profile.

Nationality: Indian Female
Age: 28
GMAT: 670 (Quantitative: 49, Verbal: 33)

As I already took GMAT four times, I have decided not to take GMAT again.

Educational Background:
Bachelor of Engineering in Information Science from Visveswaraiah Technological University, Karnataka, India. – First Class with Distinction

Professional Background: Experience: 6.5 years (as of August-2012)

1) 2006 To 2010: Associate Consultant at Oracle, India

I worked on Supply Chain Management to solve the purchasing problems of Oracle customer, Alcoa. I had extensive contacts with customers located in Asia, Australia and US.

2) 2011 To Current: IT Consultant at Shell Asset Management Company (a subsidiary of Shell Oil Company), The Netherlands

I provide software solutions and services to customers located in Asia and Europe.
I don’t have any budget responsibility and don’t have any direct reports.

Extra-Curricular Activities:

From 2011 To Current: Coordinator of Amnesty International Group in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

I coordinated fund raising in 2011 and 2012. I led many actions for women’s right in Saudi Arabia, Gays right in Turkey and Arms Trade Treaty. I coordinated Amnesty benefit concert in 2012.

Languages known: Tamil, English, Hindi, Kannada

International Exposure: Since 2011, I have been working in the Netherlands (20 months)

Reason for doing an MBA: Career Progress
After MBA, I like to work as Senior Consultant for an IT company such as Oracle or IBM located in Europe/Asia.

Area of interest: Technology/IT Consultancy

Target Schools: INSEAD, IMD, LBS, Oxford, Cambridge, HEC
I like to do my MBA in Europe. I already visited HEC, IE and RSM and am going to visit INSEAD, LBS and Oxford in September 2012.

My partner got into INSEAD and will be beginning his MBA in January-2013.

I request you to evaluate my profile and let me know the schools I have good chances at.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Amnesty

That's something you have to figure out, as it's very local - I don't know where you live, so I can't tell you what is out there for you. Part of the learning process is for YOU to spend that time to discover it yourself.

And no, volunteer orgs are not in the business to just hand out formal roles to people looking to pad their resume. They are too busy trying to fulfill their mission in helping out those they set to help out. That may be harsh, but if you're looking to pad your resume, don't bother. These orgs don't want you either because you're not there to help - you're simply there for yourself and most people will see through it (and won't give you much responsibility anyhow).

If you don't have time, then don't try and window dress your resume - because everyone will see through it.
_________________

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
http://www.mbaapply.com
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Alex, Thank you very much for your honest opinion.

Hi Alex
any views on courses by MBAMath.com?? some testimonials claim students wid low gpa were accepted after sending in a transcript. Actually that makes much more sense than an alternative transcript because they teach quant pertinent to what a prospective student is gonna learn in B-school. I am not questioning sensibility of adcom but why make a guy do a course in pure microeconomis when you can make him do a course in subjects that are exactly going to be taught in class. Wouldn't such classes boost up the academic ability of the class?? Tuck ad Cornell seem to agree and a lot of schools buy subscription to MBAMath.com
More specifically What do you think is HBS adcom's take on this??

Hi Alex ,


Here is a brief of my profile :

Educational Background:
Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications - GPA 3.3
GMAT 680 (Q49,V33)

Professional Background: Experience: 5 years (as of August-2012)
1) Senior Analyst 2010 - present: Credit Risk Analytic at a Boutique Consulting
Currently working with the largest retail bank in UK to develop strategies and insights to advise clients on the following :

Customer acquisition ,Customer retention,Loss Minimization on High Credit Limit accounts,Collection strategies to minimize loss on delinquent accounts etc.
Strategies to minimize Loss Given Default (LGD) and Probability of Default(PD) of high risk segments within a time period. The LGD has a direct impact on the Balance sheet of the Bank and as such the strategies mentioned above have saved the bank in millions


2) 2007-2010: Business Analyst at a Major IT MNC
Started as trainee for the learning Infrastructure development team , was promoted to the level of lead in 4 months , took
the responsibilites of handling the entire offshore delievery management, was awarded for the same by the client.

Continued to work in the same domain for another client and developed my skills further to get into the business side of the domain ,
I was specifically asked to handle the pre-sales activities, I trained around 4-5 associates at my workplace during the
same time as we tried aggressively to get a $1,000,000 project for our team , The project was in a open bid state and 2
other vendors were asked to send proposals etc.


Extra-Curricular Activities:

NGO experience - Worked for an NGO from within the organization to help the underprivileged children, of Denotified tribal area , in accessing a continuous stream of education. Involved in speaking to small fund donors and gathering volunteers.

Rock Band in Undergraduate Institute - Performed Live and backstage at various competitive events across State.

Head of Cultural Committee in Undergraduate Institute - Funds collections , marketing events for the various year round activities

Member of Core marketting committee in Undergraduate Institute - Marketing spotlight events across state, inviting high budget sponsors for event sponsorship

Languages known: English , Hindi , German(Speaking)

Reason for doing an MBA: Career Progress
I would want to leverage my Credit Risk Analytic experience and work post MBA for a Big 4 in their Risk Advisory domain, or leverage the same experience to work for a large lending Institution in their Credit risk vertical.

Area of interest: Consulting

Target Schools:

Ambitious - Ross , Duke, Cornell , Darden
Safe - UTMccombs , Tepper , HKUST , USC, NUS


I want to know whether I should apply with this kind of profile (specifically GMAT) to my safe schools in R1 or should take all the schools in R2 with a better GMAT score
Thanks in advance for your help.
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