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Due to the lengthy details provided in the profiles it is not possible to answer quickly and that is why i requesting again and again to be specific and short so we can be able to entertain maximum members.

If our expert need 10 minutes to read one profile and then 10 more minutes to write his/her response then i don’t think we can cover more than 5-6 evaluations. So for the next time please avoid unnecessary subjective details and be on target. Only this way we can cover the maximum members.

Profile #7

Hi,
You are definitely a good candidate for a top school, especially if you manage the get the GMAT score you are targetting. There will never be a guarantee but Darden would really be worth applying to and Wharton is anyway a Dream school.
Focus on the promotions, the international exposure, and the customer handling experience. Post MBA goals are aligned. Just focus on the GMAT and the essays post that. All the best!

We have around 10 more minutes left in this chat session

Hi UtkarshAnand, Tough to comment on your chances without a GMAT score; nonetheless, a high score becomes even more crucial considering your low undergrad GPA. While your public sector experience would be valuable, a lot will depend on how well your thread your work in myriad sectors, coherently. This is an extremely aggressive portfolio to be applying to and we would strongly recommend adding some more feasible options to bring in greater balance. All the best!

We are also doing profile evaluations on YouTube during MBA Spotlight. If you are interested, sign up here! redirect.php?id=unphw78cx9

ExpertsGlobal, please also take some time to tell us about ExpertsGlobal and the best way for the audience to reach out to you later if they have more questions

Thanks, Nikhil. Every 10th Indian studying in the US top 50 schools happens to be our student Should the audience have more questions, please feel free to drop your detailed query on the "Profile Evaluation by Experts Page" on GMAT Club. Alternately, you can drop in a personal message in case you wish to avail a free profile evaluation session.

We are closing this chat session. Thank you Experts Global for your time and inputs. This was really a good session, We greatly appreciate it.

Thank you everyone for joining us, This chat is officially over

27 year old, Indian Male, applying Fall 2022 intake
GMAT: 740 Q50 V41
Academics:
-MS in Mechanical Engineering from a T10 Public US university (GPA: 3.96)
-B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (GPA 7.96/10)
Work Experience: (4 years at matriculation)
--3 Years in top Diesel Engine mfg firm(auto industry) –
Started as Test Engineer, moved to Field Test Engineering and now working as a Test Operations Manager. Promoted twice in 2.5 years. Leading a group of 14 technicians.
--Have impact at work. Involved with Technician apprenticeship restructure at the company. Also tutored them Math and Physics for over 2 years
Involved in Tutoring at Adult Education Center for over 6 months weekly.(Teach English to Foreign nationals in the community).
--- Undergrad Captain of a 25 member team at an Automotive Design competition. Ended in top 1/3rd of competition.
Was elected as Gen Sec for a department of 350 students. Organized college events.
Involved in some intramural sport tournaments.

Goals:
-Short term: Thinking of moving into consulting to get breadth of business experience and then move to Strategy roles within industry.

Targets: Harvard, Kellogg, Booth, Duke, Darden, Tuck, INSEAD

1) Looking to apply R1. Would like to get strength of my application for the mentioned schools.
2) How can I better explain a difficult situation in my life for the applications?

Asian Male- 32
Gmat- 730(2nd test, am planning to take more)

Education-
Mechanical Engineereing, Georgia Tech, GPA: 2.6

Work experience-
8+ years of work in eSports Industry
- I had chance to work as player, media influencer, head coach, and then General manager.
Due to the industry environment, I’ve moved around teams every other year and boosted media exposure and competitive results by at least 300% in each team for past 5 teams while being scouted or promoted 3 times.

Extra curricular-
- started my own business while in undergrad
- played discus, shot-put, and wrestling
- am in 4 different focus groups including MENSA(which I am not sure if it’s beneficial to reveal)

Target Schools- INSEAD, Columbia, Berkley, MIT, Harvard.

Is it reasonable to target these schools with such a low GPA/etc?

Thanks, Sajjad & Nikhil for having us here!

Indian Seafarer , Work Ex – 10 years – 2nd in Command of a Merchant Ship ( LPG Tanker) since 2017 till Nov 2020.
Steady promotion form 3rd officer to 2nd officer to Chief Officer ( 2nd in Command)
Since last 6 months – Working with a Non profit that has projects on Natural Resource Management, Rural skill development, Health and Sanitation.
Working as a Business Development Manager optimising internal and external processes to mange current clients better and to bring in new corporate clients , also overseeing the development of the organization’s new website and managing the social media image – Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram of the whole organizations.
Age : 32 , Married , Family – Wife and a 1 yr old kid.
GMAT – 760 – Q49//V44 IR-4/8
Programs – 1 year – IMD , HEC Paris , Ivey Canada, RSM, AGSM Australia, IIM A and B , ISB. Oxford Said, Cambridge Judge
No blue-chip company experience.
Significant community service experience in the last 5 years.
Others : Certified BMW Mottorrad Adventure rider – Have gone on long bike trips with fellow bikers. Last trip pre-covid – solo bike ride of 2 weeks trekked the UNESCO Heritage site – Valley of Flowers in India and visited the last village along INDO-China Border.
Post MBA Career Goal : Operations and strategic roles in Supply chain such as Amazon , Unilever etc… to learn optimizing supply chains and apply my past operations and ship management experience as well as MBA business knowledge to increase the safety and efficiency of operations.
Long term Career Goal : Helping business integrated ESG matters in their business models and aligning the business models to UNSDGs. – bringing development to all stakeholders – Corporations, suppliers, community and environment.

Would be grateful for your advice on how to highlight my strengths – Leadership, Community involvement and international exposure and reduce the weakness of lack of blue-chip experience in my profile. And I am a reapplicant to IMD – got a DING , for rest of the schools, I shall be applying the first time.
What are my chances at IMD , HEC , OXFORD and Cambridge?

background: indian female

undergrad and gmat: 8.5-9.2 from top10 commerce and management colleges in india, gmat to be taken (aiming for 750)

internships: 1st one was as a summer intern or a networking solutions company. i was in the accounting dept where i handled the books of accounts
2nd - content writer for a digital marketing company, worked as a team leader for teh content writing interns. worked on many projects as the lead from teh content team.
3rd - human resource intern for a consulting startup firm. ended up becoming a team leader for the hr interns as well. was in charge of diversity and inclusion and worked on recruitment and talent solutions
4th- research intern for the department of promotion of industry and internal trade, ministry of commerce, government of india. internship not yet completed.

ec's: national level swimmer
college basketball team
treasurer of the college's debating society
lead guitarist for the college rock band
trekker (completed 4 high altitude (15000ft+) treks and many adventure sports) volunteer for children's summer adventure camp

community service: 60 hours community service through college
social volunteer for an ngo centered around women safety and empowerment
volunteered for a student run organization to help covid struck families during the second wave

post mba goals: return to work for the financial services industry in big4/8 for a few years and then start my own hedge fund. hoping to network with alumni and fellow students during mba to help me gather knowledge and experience to achieve this goal

will be applying in 2022 to: hbs 2+2, cbs, wharton, booth, kellogg, mit and darden

do you think i stand a chance ? im not even sure if i should bother applying. do the lack of brands in my internship harm my applications and will receiving and accepting an offer from big 4/8 before application submission help me in that regard?

thank you so so much in advance

Posted from my mobile device

I have sent PM for help with the information. Thanks.

Hey,

I had applied to top bschools a couple of years ago (R1 & R2 for Sep '20 intake) and had received only rejects and waitlists which did not convert to acceptances. The Covid situation also did not help and I had decided to defer the application process.

Now that the pandemic situation is a little better, and I had an opportunity to reevaluate my profile and build it in the past year and half, looking to reapply to universities for 2023 intake (Jan & Sep). I would love to get your feedback on my chances and what more I can do to build my profile before/while applying.

Here are the details:
Age/Sex/Nationality - Will be 28/29 when I matriculate/M/Indian
Secondary School - 86.2 %
Higher Secondary School - 92.4 %
Graduation - 5 Year Integrated M.Tech - Communication Systems from Tier 2 college (SASTRA University) - CGPA 8.49/10
GMAT - 720 (Q50/V37) - Planning to retake GMAT since I was able to score 770/780 in the mocks consistently
TOEFL - 116/120 (Expired, have to retake)
Full Time Work Experience:

• 2 Years in MNC (Software Engg)- International Exposure for 6 months with peers in Singapore
• 2 Years in Startup (Sr. Software Engg)- End to end visibility of process, customer interactions and engagement, technical mentorship and product ownership
• 1 Year entrepreneurship - Scaling product to 100 customers, engaging with VCs for funding, Real Time Delivery and Grievance Resolution, Quick pivoting based on market validations, leading a team of 10
  Realized that entrepreneurship is where I enjoy working the most, but also found that I need more experience in managing the project, rapid upscaling, understanding lead management and effective usage of sales & marketing channels, and rapid networking opportunities
• Currently working as a PM for a rapidly upscaling startup - Managing FinTech clients and leading a team of 12, managing internal stakeholders as well as banking clients - Will have at least 1.5 years experience when I matriculate

I will have a total of 6.5 - 7 years experience during matriculation

Why MBA - To fill in the gaps in my profile as mentioned above, and also gain exposure to financial processes and international markets to build my startup accordingly. My main aspect for picking BSchools is networking opportunities and imbibed entrepreneurship culture, but also having a strong foothold in sales/marketing network. I am looking to strengthen my understanding by having a short-term (3 year) goal of working and applying the concepts as a Sales & Delivery Manager, and then move to restarting my startup as a 5 year goal.

Languages -

• English - Fluent
• Hindi - Fluent
• Tamil - Fluent
• French - A1

Extracurriculars -

• Music - Head of the Music Team in college
• Philanthropy - Funded the education of an underprivileged child

Target Schools:

Europe:

• INSEAD
• LBS
• HEC Paris
• Oxford Said Business School
• Cambridge Judge School
• IMD Switzerland
  
  USA:
• Dartmouth Tuck
• CMU Tepper
  
  Asia:
• NUS

Since last applying, I have started my company to find out the chinks in my armor, and am working towards building my competency as an overall rounded and holistic leader.
Any and all feedback is appreciated. Please feel free to be as critical as you wish in evaluating my candidacy.

A couple of questions that I had that, I would be very grateful if they can be answered as well:
1. Should I look at M7?
2. I don't have any certifications, and while I understand financial concepts, I would like to get certified in the same as well. Is CFA L1 useful here?
3. If INSEAD is a viable option, I would prefer the Jan intake, since it has an internship as part of the course - is there any practical advantage of the Sep intake over the Jan intake?
4. Is there any merit to looking at Canada/Australia for my profile?

Thank you

Hi anirudhb216

Thanks for your query.

Congratulations on all the good work you have done and with a set of essays that focus on your strengths, we can surely build a compelling case. 

A few things...

-The 3 job shifts in 5 years are a bit of a concern. However, good reasoning in the Optional Essay will help to a large extent.-We are not completely convinced about the career goals; ideally, the plan should be to come back to this start-up after the MBA especially since it appears that the start-up is already functioning (unless, of course, you have a solid plan to keep it going without your intervention for the next 5 years). However, even if you do have a plan, considering all the job shifts, it is now all the more important to consolidate things in your profile.Please understand that there is nothing wrong with keeping things on pause for the next 5 years but it may not be the most logical thing to do because plans may change in the long term.

Coming to your specific questions:
1. You must look at M7 if you can take your score above a 760. Indians are expected to showcase a spike in their GMAT score owing to the fact that they belong to an over-represented pool of applicants.
2. CFA as certification would add value if you have goals in the domain of finance. Else, do not bother much about certifications if you do not have them. It is, instead, time to consolidate what you already have.
3. No advantage as such except that applying in an earlier round for any intake is advantageous. The internship is a good idea.
4. Your experience would be on the higher side for the 2-year Canadian programs. Australia is not recommended, either. You must focus on a few geographies rather than look at applying everywhere. USA and Europe work best in your case.

Hope this helps.

All the best!

Hi Experts,

Appreciate if you can provide some feedback.

Age/Gender/Nationality: 25 (Male-Indian)
X/XII - 92.4% / 96%
Undergraduate - 82% - Btech in Petroleum Engineering (Tier 2 university)

GMAT - 770 (Q50 / V44/ IR6/ AWA4)

Work experience:

• 4 years in energy supermajor (Fortune Top 20)
• Fastrack promotion in two years.
• Currently working as a Business Analyst and Data Visualization expert.
• Lead business analyst, in a team of 10 developers and analysts, in developing and sustaining a group financial reporting process, the results of which are relevant to the company EC board and country chairs of 20 countries on q monthly basis. Generated efficiency savings of $2m.
• Frequent interactions with Financial managers of 20 countries on a regular basis.
• International stint in company HQ - 4 months
• Lead BI developer for dashboards that have already generated $1.5m savings.
• Developed multiple other small scale internal efficiency driven BI dashboards.

Other notable activities

• Additionally, served as lead for one employee network for 3000 employees regularly interacting with HR teams and senior leaders. Act as sounding board for GM and HR Manager of the branch.
• Initiated Reverse Mentoring program for middle managers and senior managers, in three different countries, with the support of two VPs for the qualitative upskilling of managers (bagged facetime with the CFO)
• Multiple VP awards with special recommendation for running a Prevention of Sexual Harassment campaign for the staff (used my skills as a theatre artist for the same) with the support of HR.

University Extra-curricular:

• Lead actor, official theatre group of the University.
• Organising committee member of university fest + MUN
• Publicity head for student run SPE chapter.

Volunteering:
I'm not sure how to convey this but I've done multiple social outreaches on a personal level but due to its nature, it's not something I can back up on paper. It's not something I could ever show on a certificate etc.

Miscellaneous:
• Passed CFA L1
• IIBA certified business analyst
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

Why MBA:

The fields that interest me are renewable energy and the social impact sectors. I believe I have the unique combination of background and skills to help build sustainable solutions, but an MBA is needed to open up opportunities and more importantly bring a structure to tie my skills together. I am open to either take the consulting route, finance route or even the analytics / product management route as I understand the fields I'd like to see myself are quite niche at the moment.

(Need to get this all properly together, I understand it's quite disjointed)

Recommenders:

• Project Manager based out of London.
• Branch HR ER/IR focal who has closely worked with me on activities I've mentioned above.

Questions I'm hoping to get an advice on bar my profile review.

I am in the process of commencing my application-process but I'm confused as to which schools to target. I'm unsure which schools are realistic, stretch and unrealistic.

I had previously scored 710 on my GMAT and I felt NUS, NTU, ISB, Rotman, ESADE, McGill, Manchester and HEC were achievable/ambitious if I got my story together.

With a better GMAT score, I wonder if I could be bolder now and target the likes of Insead, LBS or US colleges like Cornell, Tepper etc.? ISB R2 would still remain a priority.

Thank you kind sir / ma'am in advance.

Regards,
Vivek

Posted from my mobile device

Thank you for your feedback. Indeed, I've been thinking over it and will be targetting universities that accomodate careers in energy, clean tech and social impact.

For example, though Fuqua, Berkeley etc. are in the ambitious (or very ambitious) range, I'll be including McCombs etc as well as per your suggestion.

Anyway, I digress. Appreciate your feedback.