Ask ARINGO MBA Admissions Consulting

First of all, you have a really good selection of schools there, even though they are all a bit borderline for you in some way (would rate McComb as the hardest to get into) but not by a lot. That means that with a great application your chances would be pretty good. So no need for any huge changes here but would recommend you really give your essays your all as that will be what seals the deal here.

Feel free to be in touch if you want to know more about how ARINGO can help you with that part and good luck!

Hello there!

Just finished my GMAT, it went horrible with a score of 640, I was wondering if you have any recommendation or school that I can apply with that score. Thinking in University of Toronto or any Singaporean university?

Dear Gil,

Please have a look at my profile below, would love to know your thoughts

Profile:

Nationality: Chinese

Age: 28 (10 years in Hong Kong , 8 years UK, 5 years Singapore, 5 years China)

Undergraduate Studies: London School of Economics- History and International Relations, upper second class honors

GMAT: 700 (Q49, V35) - although I would like to note that this score does not accurately reflect my quant and verbal skills, I avoided maths and engaged in literature subjects as much as I can since high school

Work Experience:

1. 2009-2014: 5 years at a large physical commodity trading company in Singapore
- 2 years operations and logistics for China department
- 3 years managing FOB key accounts and East Asia market, daily production management and position hedging

2. 2014-2016: Arts and design centre in Beijing
a) Assistant project manager for a government initiated urban regeneration program in the old town of Beijing, facilitating between 9 large international architect firms and local government authorities
- 2014-15 large scale exhibition on concepts and theories for gentrification, exhibits coming from 9 top global architect firms
- 2015-16 physical translation and implementation of exhibited theories of a road within the old town area

b) part of a 5-person team that set up a fine dining restaurant in Beijing that was subsequently ranked top 3 by food&wine magazine, and vote best new restaurant by several prestigious magazines. Responsibilities included everything from setting up kitchen and front of house to the hiring and training of staff.

Hobbies and extra-curricular
- High degree of interest in F&B and culinary culture, spent 4 months between Singapore and Beijing travelling and taking cooking courses. Volunteered to participate in the restaurant project and was able to put my passion to good use.
- Part time English editor for local magazines in Beijing, freelance translator (also why I’m appalled by my GMAT verbal score)

Target schools: Standard, Harvard, CBS, HAAS

Goals after MBA-
- engage in entrepreneurial projects related to the consumer sector, but working with a global mindset
- foster international collaborations and opportunities between China and the world
- continue to engage in meaningful and intellectually engaging contemporary issues

Thank you

Sorry to hear about the disappointing GMAT score. But since you were originally targeting top 10 schools, are you sure you don’t want to try again? I am thinking there is room for improvement as you were expecting over 700 so there must have been a reason for that?

Now, recommending schools is always a bit tricky as I don’t know what you value in a school, what you are looking for exactly etc. but some suggestions, based on that GMAT score alone, that could be of interest for you are Babson Olin, Texas A&M, National University of Singapore, ESMT, McGill, Toronto and Bocconi. Or, if you are interested in a school with a healthcare speciality, look at Emory and Kenan-Flagler, even if they might not be the most obvious choices due to that GMAT score, but I believe your convincing reasons to go into the healthcare industry could get you in there if your essays are done right.

But again: I would recommend you consider a retake if you are at all up for it as that might enable you to go for the schools you were originally thinking of.

First of all: you have a very interesting profile so I do think you could get admitted to a top school. That said, your GMAT score is lower than average for all your target schools, so have you considered any other schools at all?

Additionally, I think your post-MBA goals need some work and fine tuning. They are just a bit too general and not unique enough as it is now. So work on that, along with your essays a lot.

You should apply to some of the schools you’ve mentioned but would highly recommend adding some safety schools to the list as well.

Good luck!

Good afternoon,

I'd appreciate a review of my profile with respect to my business school goals and targets. I'm thinking my profile and career path are rather uncommon and I'm hoping that works in my favor and that the positives are enough to overcome a low undergraduate GPA. I know I would be on the older side of an MBA cohort, but in real estate so many people come from different parts of the industry and that, in my research, people with that focus tend to be older. Thanks!

Age: 35

Sex: Male

Work experience: 5 years as a hydrogeologist and private sector environmental consultant. Worked primarily on brownfield redevelopment (generally contaminated industrial redevelopment) and other real estate development projects and wore many hats. Approximately 3 years as a city planner (current), overseeing tens of millions in real estate development in my community, crafting affordable housing policy, developing and implementing community plans, performing urban design, project management, dealing with legal contracts, zoning, etc. Also have one year right of experience out of undergrad as a cartographer (map designer)/assistant for an appraisal firm specializing in large tracts of agricultural land.

Extra-curriculars: Musician for multiple professional sports teams, middle- and high-school school music education, involved in local sustainability-focused groups, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Undergrad school/major: Geology & Geophysics, Physical Geography (Upper Big Ten)

Other education/coursework: Masters degree in Urban Planning; Real estate development specialization

Race/nationality: White/Hispanic, USA

GMAT Score: 710 (48Q/40V, 6 IR, waiting for AWA results)

Undergrad GPA: 2.3. Very turbulent period in my life, including a young family member with cancer, and me having to take time away from school to donate bone marrow twice. Also had to delay graduation due to medical obligations and his eventual passing. Nevertheless, I was very involved in academic clubs, a community service club, and won a university award for map design.

Graduate GPA: 4.0. Finished at top of graduate class and won prestigious awards for work, including some from American Planning Association. Served as TA for graduate students, teaching classes on research methods and data analysis/statistics. School facilitated paid consulting work with local community development organizations. Also organized a great study abroad trip to Havana, Cuba.

Goal of MBA: Transition into private sector real estate development, with preferred emphasis on brownfield redevelopment and affordable housing projects. Real estate involves so many disciplines and I've often been on the "other side of the table" from developers. As a city planner and environmental consultant, I think I would have offer tremendous experience and perspective to a program, and an MBA will afford me a stronger base in some of the financial aspects of land development, such as land valuation, real estate finance, and negotiation.

Target schools: Wisconsin, Emory, Kenan-Flagler, USC-Marshall.

Reach Schools: Cornell, Tuck

That is a rather uncommon profile with unique experience (that is likely to be of interest to business schools, I might add) indeed! Generally, that is a good thing but it also means you will need to explain your career path in more detail than others with a more common career path in your essays. I think your age and GPA should not be deal breakers if the schools in question are chosen wisely and I think you have done an excellent job on your school selection so I am optimistic. The only thing I would advise you to do it to explain your undergrad GPA in an optional essay. That’s exactly what they are for, after all.

So I like your profile a lot, the essays and bringing it all together in them will be your biggest challenge as I see it. If you can do that, I would rate your chances of admission as good.
Good luck!

Team,

Could you please evaluate my profile.

Age: 26

Sex: Male

Country: India

Work experience: 4.5 years as product developer with a software product company listed in the US. Got promoted once. I work for a B2B product that helps optimising ad spends for huge online advertisers, bringing in good digital marketing expertise from the other side of the table.

I am also the co founder of a tech startup that I have been moonlighting on, for 3 years now. This one is into analytics for small businesses and we now have a suite of products, some free and some with customers paying recurring revenue. Although we are cash positive and are a team of 6 (all except for one, moonlighting), we have not been able to scale this business for a while now. Have been involved in almost all functions relating to the business.

Extra-curriculars: Headed publicity department for the college's tech fest. Have participated and chaired in MUNs, won prizes in multiple technical and marketing events.

Education: Integrated Masters in Science (MSc.) from a private institution (among Top 5 private institutions in the Country)

Race/nationality: Asian / Indian

GMAT Score: 710 (50Q/35V, 6 IR, waiting for AWA results)

Undergrad GPA: 8.6/10 ( Did not convert to the 4 point scale )

Goal of MBA: For the short term, to transition to product management within Tech. This should help me understand what sells and what doesn't rather than being at the implementation end. Have done some bit of this in my startup and I have enjoyed doing this. Over time, this should help me get to my own product that has the right market fit.

Target schools: HaaS, ISB, Ross

Could you help me understand my chances with my target schools here and suggest any schools where I would fit in better? I hardly have a month to go (had to retake GMAT) for R2 and hence want to limit the number of schools I target.

Thanks for reaching out!

The good news is that due to your profile, I believe there are a lot of schools that would be a good fit for you. I would maybe recommend something startup/entrepreneurship oriented as it sounds like you do want to go back to that at some point. So Olin/Babson and Darden come to mind. Are you only considering US schools and ISB? If not, there could be some interesting options in Europe and say Hong Kong as well.

All in all, your profile is competitive for all the schools both you and I mentioned, but dare I say it is not very unique? And you have to keep in mind that the schools expect a lot from Indian applicants. So you need to make sure you get your message about what sets you apart across really well in your application in order to have a fighting chance. I hope you have good letters of recommendation etc. as well?

Thanks.

Hi Aringo,

Please evaluate my profile as an international applicant for the one year / two year MBA program at top 5 colleges in USA or Non US colleges such as INSEAD , LBS or IE Business School.

Nationality: Indian
Age: 34

1.Undergraduate Qualification: Bachelor in Commerce (3 year course from St Xavier,s College, second best college in the country for Bcom course )-
UGPA grades A overall

2.Graduate Qualification: Post graduate diploma in management (2 year full time residential course equivalent to MBA from ITM Business School ,
(GPA was : 2.71)

3.GMAT: 720 Q50 V37

4.Work experience: 10 years-Of the 10 years, First year right after undergraduate did odd jobs such as teaching maths , working in printing press , sales in exhibitions and selling newspaper etc. after which I joined MBA at ITM Mumbai , Post MBA , worked for 4 years were in BFSI and then another 4 years as an entrepreneur co founded a venture mainly into- chinese fast food chain. unfortunately did not grow as expected . Last one year with socio political organisation in new delhi. primarily in election campaign and scholarship programs for students in Jammu and kashmir India .

5. Won many medals at school level in table tennis but could not pursue further . Won many accolades at school level . Unfortunately cud not do much at college level because of work and had to provide financial support at home. Also stood first in board exams at high schools.
Member of ramkrishna mission ashram last 6 years , mainly into yoga and upliftment of poor section of the society.

Recommendations: Wont be a problem.

Do you think I stand a realistic chance and it's worth applying in the Round 3 + scholarship .
I am looking forward for a career in IB / Finance.

Thanks in advance
Liu

Hi and thanks for reaching out!

The first thing that pops into my head when I read your profile is the question: why an MBA and not an EMBA? I think an EMBA might be a better fit for you for several reasons (your age, your working experience, the fact that you already have a degree similar to an MBA etc.). So my initial thought is to direct you in that direction.

That said, you do have some interesting things going on in your profile so you being admitted to a regular MBA program is not impossible but it would be really tough. So if you do decide to go for it I really recommend getting professional help with a strategy for your applications. Feel free to be in touch if you’d like to know what ARINGO can offer you when it comes to that and good luck!

Hey ARINGO Please evaluate my profile

Introduction:
I am a 36 year old Indian male working in UK for last 5 years in a top tier aerospace company. I intend to apply to top 10 schools for MBA in USA/UK/Canada/Singapore.

GMAT Score:
Planning to take GMAT May-2017

Education:
X th: 81% out of 100%
XII th: 90% out of 100%

- UG GPA: 82% out of 100% (top 10%); Bachelor's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering; Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai, India

- Master's GPA: 4.6 out of 5 on CGPA scale; Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering (Thesis based), 2 publications.
- Moscow Aviation Institute, Moscow, Russia.

Work Experience:
Total 10 Years professional experience as Engineer (5 years in India & 5 years in UK). At the minute working with Aircraft Interiors Manufacturing company in UK as Structural analysis Engineer.
No managerial experience. No promotions.
Strong International Exposure
- Lived, Studied, Worked and travelled to multiple countries.
- Worked in International teams and leading a team of Engineers (located in UK, USA, France and Germany) to develop next set of methodologies that will save the company a lot of money once implemented.
Extracurriculars
Learnt Violin for 5 years and Interested in Music – Classical & Carnatic; 3 stage performances at Chennai
Learnt Hindi and French
Was a member of College Cricket team in UG and was a member of University Badminton team in Master’s.
Was a good runner. Won prizes for running during school days
Won prize at debate competition during school.

MBA (interested):
Interested in MBA (1 year programs) or Executive MBA with scholarships.
Please advise what are my chances?
Post-MBA Goal:
I plan to transition from Engineering based role to a management / strategy role in manufacturing/technology. I wish to leverage my experience of leading diverse teams and apply the vast knowledge, exposure and experience I have gained in managing different product portfolios in manufacturing /technology.
Interested in General management & product management (both middle level and senior level post MBA)

Hi Jon,

Thanks in advance for the profile review.

Age: 30, Indian Male
GMAT: 700
School: USC, GPA: 3.3, Major: Finance
Grad School: MSF@ WUSTL Olin, GPA: 3.6

Work Experience:

8 months of Internal Strategy Consulting at an Insurance giant in Chicago
3.5 yrs (Analyst to Principal) at a hybrid operational accelerator/Venture Capital firm at Hong Kong focussed on digital media companies.
4 deals concluded during my time. Total capital invested USD20M
3 operational secondments from the firm within portfolio companies at Venture Business Builder roles for 3-4 months each. In these roles, a lot business development and operational responsibilities and also strategic business building side to it.
1.5 yrs as Assistant GM (#2 in APAC) for a Silicon Valley Series C funded tech firm. Directly reporting to the MD APAC, who in turn reported to COO of the firm. I was in charge of building out the business in APAC. Successfully executed strategy and generated USD4.5M revenue in the first year of ops. Managed a team of 10 people which includes sales, operations and tech personnel.

No extracurriculars after college tbh.

Strictly looking for a 1yr MBA program. Cannot afford to do a 2 yr MBA at this point.

Schools interested: INSEAD, LBS, Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia J-term Kellogg, Cornell, IESE business school (1yr options in the American schools)

Goals post-MBA: 1) Start-up tech gig within a larger organization like Uber, Airbnb etc doing corporate development/strategy
2) Venture fund looking at digital/media investments
3) Corporate Development/Strategy roles in media companies

Would like to know my chances, if possible. Appreciate your help.

Also, any insight or thoughts on which schools other than INSEAD, LBS, Columbia and Kellogg carry the best reputation in APAC would be very helpful. I am looking to start my career post-MBA in Singapore.

Your profile is definitely very interesting but you have one negative and that is of course the lack of promotions and the lack of managerial experience. Is there any particular reason for this, that could be addressed in essays for example?

Second of all, while your profile is definitely very promising, as an Indian applicant your final GMAT score will be very important and will pretty much decide what schools would be relevant. So I would really suggest that you get back to us for a new evaluation when you have that.

However, if your essays are done well I am sure you will be able to find something suitable so I would not worry too much at this stage as you can always get help with the essays etc. But how high you can go really does depend largely on your final GMAT score.

Your profile really looks impressive and well rounded. Therefore, I would say your chances of admission are good at all schools, possibly with the exception of Kellogg. Since you are Indian, however, you should not take anything for granted but you really need to bring your A game to the essays and recommendations in order to increase your chances.

In order to narrow down a few more schools I would take a look at the lists here: https://aringo.com/mba-1y-one-year-programs/

Hello Aringo! I want to apply to MBA next year (and actually start the MBA Fall 2017 or Spring 2018) and would highly appreciate review of my profile.

My Profile

Nationality: Latvian
Age: 33 years
Gender: Female / married 2 children
GMAT score: 670 (Q45 V37), IR 6.0, AWA 4.0

Work experience: 10+ years (incl two maternity leaves)
Industry: FMCG, marketing

I have 10+ years of marketing experience within FMCG sector.incl lead of New Product Development. My carrier started from go-to-market marketing/category management roles in top international beauty companies in the Baltics (3 countries, 8 mil. consumers). After c. 6 years of this experience I moved to nr1 local Dairy producer. So, last 4 years have been dedicated to dairy industry in the Baltics and Russia, both NPD and go-to-market responsibilities.


Education:
Master of science in Mathematical Economics. With honors. avg grade 8.9 out of 10
Bachelor in Analytical Economics, avg grade 8.5 out of 10
Summer courses from Saint Martins School in London
Certificate in Category Management
10+ international company internal trainings / different countries


Extracurricular activities:
• Sports: crossfit, jogging (incl. marathon competitions), swimming
•Coding for children (studying the course targeting to educate children in the community)
• passion for traveling (United States (incl 4 mnth of living), Canada, Venezuela, China, over 10 countries in Europe and many places in Russia)

Languages: Russian (native), English and Latvian (fluent), German (modest)

Short-term career goal: Move to other country and get a position in business development or marketing management infashion/beauty industry. Preferably, the role related to product development.
Long-term career goal (more than 5 years post MBA): own business, most probably marketing consulting

Target schools: INSEAD (top choice), HEC, Essec, I.E. Madrid, IMD

Thank you in advance!