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Hi, Regarding HEC, your GMAT meets their average; you have a bit less than average years of work experience (5.9), which makes sense because you are a few years younger than average (30). One excellent thing and rather unique at HEC is that they offer you an initial evaluation of your profile and chances, before you submit, so you really can't lose there. They'll give you a good sense if it's worth applying.

Regarding Rotterdam, this relatively small program starts in January. They prefer an international orientation and put an emphasis on social and environmental issues, which seems very fitting for your experience in CSR. As well, your GMAT is above average there, and average age is 29.

Good luck!!

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
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Yes - absolutely!!! That's exactly the thing to do, look everywhere to see where you can find leadership. Officer role in Toastmaster's is great. Any project you led is also good; training and mentoring; it doesn't need to be an official leadership role, can also be something you simply rose to do, decisionmaking skills, strategic mindset, etc. and your recommenders can also speak to your leadership potential, as exhibited by X and Y.

All the best,

Joy
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Hi Joy,

I really appreciate your help. I'm in the moment you have to decide. And I owe you a big thanks.

Thanks a lot!!!

Aishwarya

Truly my pleasure Good luck with everything,

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
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Hi

Please provide a critical feedback on my profile.

Work experience: 2.5 years(till date)

1 year work experience as a business analyst/developer with HCL.

drastically changed my area of work to business development and marketing.

1.5 year in an export firm
working in an export firm as an international marketing executive handling most of the customer relationship and market development.


GMAT: 670 (Q:50, V:29) AWA: 4.5, IR: 5, TOEFL: 108

Education: B.E.in electronics from RV college of Engineering, Bangalore CGPA : 3.0


Extra curricular/Achievements: state level basketball player
French language certifications DELF A1 & A2
android developer/tester ... have helped in ROM development for different android phones.
Final year electronics project selected for exhibition at ISRO.


Target schools are: Kelley,UCLA , ISB , NUS, NTU

I am quite concerned about the college selection as my work experience is low when compared to the average work ex. of these schools.
Please suggest some target schools based on my profile.

Thanks
Xeon

Hi Xeon,

Some schools you might consider, where you would be competitive in addition to Kelley and UCLA, are: USC, Emory, Austin, Babson, Maryland (Smith), Rice (Jones), Michigan State (Broad). I don't know much about the Asian schools you mentioned, so I can't comment on them.

Regarding your profile, I suggest you try and emphasize any time in your history where you have shown leadership and/or initiative, and see if you can dig up any other extracurricular activities - even non organized ones. Yours are a bit minimal compared with other Indian candidates.

Good luck!

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
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Hi Joy,
Please give me some suggestion on choosing schools and career goal.
Originally from China
GMAT 700(Q49,V35), IR 7, AWA5.5
BU, major Economics and Math, minor Business GPA 3.34 May,2012

Work 2yr till matriculation
May,2012-Jan2013 Executive Assistant, NY, Recommender = boss/ Columbia visiting scholar
Jan2013-present Owner of a business, China, Recommender = General Manager of a listed company/I'm his district distributor

A long list of Extracurricular plus founder of a magazine/website since college

Do I have a chance to make to any of the Dream6?
Thank you very much!

Hi please evaluate my chances at the universities mentioned,

Stats
GMAT 710 (Q49/V39); 92 (83%/88%)
Nationality :Indian

Engineering:Production engineering (operations and Supply chain) from a Top government College .

GPA: 8 on scale of 10

Work Experience: Total - 4 years
1 st 2.5 years:Major Machine Design and Factory automation firm

0.5 years experience in vendor management.
1 year shop floor supervisor. handled a group of technicians for machine building and commissioning.
1 year design of machine and assembly lines for product assembly( responsible for whole project from initial discussion to commissioning) .

Next 1.5 years: Major automobile firm from Europe.

1 year : Design of assembly lines for automobile components (includes shop floor coordination and supplier interactions) onsite engineer in India .
0.5 years :supply chain and purchase and design of fixtures for assembly components .


Extra Curricular
Volunteer at government school to teach kids mathematics and cricket.
Part of company CSR team.
National/State level cricket player.
Captain university team in the final year.
Part of company cricket team.
Member of organizing committee for cultural as well as technical fests at college.
Internship at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore as assistant to prof. on writing a operations management book for 2 months.

Certifications:
1) Green Belt six sigma.
2) German( if that helps).


Why MBA?

The main focus is Operations Management and supply chain.
short term:To gain more experience and exposure in any of major operations or supply chain companies
long term: To take over family business ( not that big) of import and export of heavy machinery( related to operations and supply chain).

Target Schools

Tepper, Ross,cornell and Duke (Fuqua).

Thanks in advance.

Hi Guys,

Which bschools should i apply to? I am targeting US bschools beyond top 30.

Age/location- 26 Male/India

Education- Graduate in commerce. (Grade below average 44 on a scale of 100 but the topper got 62%)from University of delhi(Top ranked university)

Work experience- 24 months(Official)

1 year- In a fitness clinic (Sales)
6 months- WNS(Cutomer service)
6 months- Cabin crew in a leading airline.

Work ex- 36 months (Un official)

2 years- Did some Theater stage performances
1 year- Faamily garment store.

Certificates-

Gallileo from Edexcel
Fideleo from edexcel
English from BBC UK
First Aider
Theater Acting
Certified Cabin crew

Target program- MBA Finance or a Dual degree focus on Finance. Fall 2014 Round 2.

Gmat Date taken - 12/05/2013

Gmat practice score- Gmat prep2 (580) if i take my highest quant and verbal score from other gmat prep exams then i do cross 600.

Doing every possible bit to cross 600 atleast. With a gmat score between 580-600 what all universities should i target? I have shortlisted some universities, kindly advice.

Univ of Arizona
Purdue univ krannert
Univ of california,irvine
Babson college
Univ of pittsburg
Univ of okhlahoma
Univ of tennesse
Iowa state univ
Univ of buffalo,suny
Fordham univ
Univ of colorado,boulder
North carolina state univ
Univ of Tampa
Univ of kansas
Penn state univ

Some strech schools

George washington
Wake forest
Tulane
Indiana kelly
Terry
Babson olin
Ohio fisher
Arizona state carey
Univ of texas austin
Univ of iowa tippie
Emory
Univ of wisconsin madison

Kindly help me shortlist 5-7 schools, i need to submit my scores on the exam day.Also you can suggest some other schools.

Thank you.

Hi, it's a bit difficult to give you precise answers based on what you've written. Regarding career goals, the only relevant experience you seem to have is owning your own business; but I don't know what the nature of that business is or size. Are you thinking of entrepreneurship? Then you could focus in on schools that specialize in that. Are you planning to apply next year? Or this year, round 2/3?
If you want to check your chances on your own, you can use the free calculator below, which measures different parameters in your profile and gives you a number that can help you get a sense of how you stack up.

Let me know if I can be of further help.

All the best,

Joy

Senior Application Consultant
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Hi, I think you do have a chance at the schools you mentioned. It's not clear to me if any of the jobs you had were at the family business or not; or if your goals are to come back straight after school or get US experience first. It makes more sense to me that you would want to work for a large firm in the US, gain the skills/experience/knowledge needed to come back to the family business.

Now you say your family business is not large; so I think you should consider the plan to come back and grow it into a gigantic international company - otherwise it doesn't make much sense that you are investing in this expensive, international MBA. But if you are thinking big, then it sounds like a good plan to me.

Let me know if you have other questions,

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
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Hi,
Of the schools you have mentioned, there are only a few I have any knowledge or experience of, so I can tell you a bit about them.
Babson I know mainly as a school for entrepreneurship, but that doesn't seem to be your area of interest. Kelly might be a good option - Their median GMAT is 664, and the mid 80% range is 590-730. McCombs would be a good choice - you'd want to get your GMAT up more, their mid-range starts at 620, and Emory's starts at 610. However - you have to consider the rest of your profile; people who are chosen with relatively low GMAT scores for a school, usually have superb credentials in other parts of their application.

I don't see any connection yet between your history and your goals; it's okay to make a career change, but there needs to be some logic behind it. What do you want to do? Why do you want a degree in Finance? The theatre certainly makes you stand out, but you need to find what you've done in the past that will help you to succeed in what you plan to do.

Regarding your GPA - see if you can find your ranking; make sure they know that your GPA is better than it looks at first glance.

Good luck!

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
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Hi Joy, I was hoping you could give me feedback on my profile. I'm considering applying to UW Foster, UM Ross, CM Tepper, Duke Fuqua, UV Darden. I'm starting to doubt whether I have a shot at any of those schools.

nationality - asian/white
age - 30
undergrad - University of Washington
degree - chemical engineering
gpa - 3.5

Gmat 720

Work experience:
4 years as a process engineer for SNC-Lavalin (Canada's largest engineering firm, one year in Toronto office, 3 years in Seattle office).

Here's where things get tricky. I quit my job 4 years ago to play professional poker. I paid my way through college with poker winnings, continued to play after graduation and was making a higher hourly rate playing poker on the side while woking as an engineer and decided to make the leap as a pro. Online play was eventually shut down in the US. Tried to wait it out for online to come back by playing poker "live" in casinos, but decided I didnt enjoy the lifestyle. The long term goal however was always to get back into the workforce via an mba and pursue a career on the business side of things, and I plan to have my essays reflect that.

I'm targeting the consulting industry post-mba.

Questions:
How bad does the poker playing look? I've received mix feedback from non experts. Some have told me it actually looks good, others have told me I need to lower my expectations (as well as my target schools).

Do I have a shot at the schools listed? Should I retake my gmat to overcompensate for other weaknesses in my profile?

thank you for any and all feedback.

Hi GilLevi,

Can you please help me in identifying the schools that I should target based on my profile and career goals? I plan to start my MBA in Fall 2014 and will be applying in the second round for most schools.

Profile
Gender - Male
Age - 26
Nationality - Indian

Educational Qualification
Bachelor's of Commerce (Banking & Insurance), University of Mumbai
Year of Graduation: 2008
Results: 78.50% on 100 (Have not converted to GPA because India does not have a standardized result format)

CFA Charter holder
CFA Institute, USA
Was awarded the charter in September 2013

Work Experience
Total Work Experience: 5 years 11 months
Full time: 4 years 6 months
Part time: 1 year 5 months

Overview
• Over 4 years of full-time experience in equities & interest rates trading and investment banking
• Focused on trading assets & derivatives with an inclination towards technical analysis
• Efficient in trade execution, tracking economic data and risk management

My first two and half years (part-time + full-time) were with a boutique investment banking firm focused on Private Equity and debt syndication and placement of funds. My job involved preparation of information memorandums & financial models for clients and presentation of these opportunities to investors. After that I moved to mid-sized broking firm to pursue security trading. I worked as a Trader in their capital markets division focusing on intra-day jobbing and arbitrage. My last job was with a multinational bank as an Assistant Trader on their Interest Rate Derivatives trading desk for two and half years.

Extra-curricular Activities
• Long distance runner. Ran Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (21 kms) 2007-2013
• Elected class representative for a year during my undergraduate degree
• Participated in a number of debates and entrepreneurship related inter-college events
• Motorbike enthusiast. Been a part of motorbiking expeditions to the mountainous terrains of North India
• Trekking, travelling, reading, yoga & music

GMAT
Total Score: 700 (89%ile)
Quant: 49 (81%ile)
Verbal: 36 (80%ile)

Post MBA goals
Short term: Consulting (Financial Services division of a top tier firm)
Long term: Entrepreneurial

I have already applied to INSEAD (France / Singapore) and ISB (India). Please suggest other schools in Asia and United States that I could apply to. Are schools like INSEAD, LBS, Harvard and Stanford within my reach?

Do let me know if you need any further information to evaluate my profile.

Thank you for your support.

Hi, dwalker,
I've personally never worked with anyone who played poker beyond a hobby, but I'm checking with my colleagues to see if any worked with a client whose profile is similar to yours.

Will let you know what I turn up.

All the best,

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
Aringo.com

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Hi,
Thanks for writing in to us. A few things I notice about your profile. So far I don't see any strong leadership or teamwork there. It might be hidden and you would definitely want to do what you can to bring it out - through resume, essays and recommendations. Stanford and HBS are two of the hardest schools to get into - also neither one is particularly strong in Finance. You might be better off, if you are looking to apply to top schools, to focus on ones that specialize in finance - like Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, LBS and NYU Stern.

Your GMAT is decent, but if you think you can improve it, I'd try - it will give you a boost for sure.

Your long term goal of entrepreneurship needs to be believable. What do you think you will do? How serious and in-depth were these activities you did at university? Usually a strong application that includes entrepreneurship includes some sort of attempt or attempts in the past to create a startup or run a business - even if it failed, the person now has that history from which they have learned, and from which they have a true home for the knowledge the school is offering.

If you are going for consulting, you will also want to try and tweak your resume to show the consulting/advising/etc. experience you have had in the past - in whatever form - so that we see you have an inclination for this kind of work.

Hope that helps!!

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
Aringo.com

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Hi again,
I did a bit of research for you, and came up with some interesting things.
1 - I heard about a Wharton alumnus who wrote about his passion for gambling, and how it taught him about managing risks and high pressure situations. He used this to go into a career in sales.
2 - You should consider legitimizing the poker by talking about all the important qualities that lay behind it (disciplined practice, experience in dealing with pressure, whether from in front of crowds at tournaments or high stakes), talk about how you went from engineering to poker, find other insights from the game that will be of benefit to you later as a consultant (what did poker teach you or how did it develop you - decisionmaking, reading other people, etc.).
3 - if you can be insightful about the experience, it can actually help you stand out above the crowd.
4 - you will also need to explain why consulting rather than poker - not as a fall back, but what makes you truly passionate about consulting.
5 - I definitely wouldn't apologize for the poker - embrace it.
6 - Here's a link someone found for you, that might interest you, about a poker-playing MBA...https://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... galen-hall


Hope that all helps!

Joy
Senior Application Consultant
Aringo.com

Free, detailed MBA chances calculator
Admission tips and scholarship info per school
Plan your application content (free online tool)
Get an initial assessment