Ask Fortuna Admissions

28 year old, Indian Male, for Fall 2022 intake
GMAT: Yet to take. Expecting around 730
GRE (taken in 2017): 328 - 168Q, 160V
Academics:
-MS in Construction Management from a T10 US university (GPA: 3.9)
Led mentorship of underprivileged HS students (black/brown/immigrant communities).
Work Experience: (4 years at matriculation)
--3 Years in Engineering Consulting – Infrastructure project manager(PMP). Promoted twice in 3 years. Leading a group of 10 engineers and technicians.
--Led a steering committee SOP and presented to Board of Dirs approval. Multiple leadership positions in local societies/chapeters.
Gap:
-- Worked 2 years after UG as a Research Assistant owing to family separation issues. Became a better person because of that and lead to an interest in mentoring underpriviliged students during MS. Plan on explaining this in the Optional Essay.
Goals:
-Short term: Pivot to management consulting or look for roles in general management (failsafe). Long term: Clean energy/environmental sustainability stream.

Targets: Emory, Fuqua, Cornell, UNC, McCombs

1) Looking at the profile, what would be a weakness that I should work on before applying for Round 2?
2) How can I better explain a difficult situation in my life for the applications?

Name: Rohith

Extracurricular:
1. chairperson for my dance crew. Under my leadership, the crew has won many accolades, also a core committee member for the annual dance competition. Responsibilities involve fundraising, organizing, hospitality, procurement of materials, security, and also dancing with my team.
2. Hosted annual fests in my college and company as well. Responsibilities include planning, fundraising, social media marketing, procurement, performing, and liaison with local police.
3. Lead a team of 24 members in my first year of undergraduate to build a working two-seater car. We were able to achieve a top speed of 50kmph with having two passengers onboard. Our car got featured in Deccan Chronicle, a leading newspaper company in India. Got sponsored with half of the total budget. Appreciated by industry leaders, and college board members.
4. Voluntary services include:
a. provided 100,800 meals in 3months for Covid affected areas.
b. pooled in our salaries to buy face masks, sanitizers, gloves, meals, medicines, testing kits, oxygen cylinders
c. Conducted a campaign to find people in Manikonda who do not have any knowledge about computers, collected their details, and booked vaccination slots for them.
d. Collected unused medicines from recovered patients, packaged and distributed them to people who couldn’t afford to buy such expensive medicines.
e. Made an online survey to find Covid recovered patients and asked them to donate plasmas for needy people.
5. Played Cricket, volleyball and chess in various Interschool, Intercollege tournaments.
Target: HBS, Wharton, Columbia, Stanford GSB, Kellogg, NYU, Ross

Name : Abhishek Gupta GMAT: not yet taken
Nationality: Indian male
Age: 26 years
Undergrad Information: B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering
GPA: 7.73 CGPA
Work experience: 4.5 yrs in Tata Consultancy Services... Also worked as a lead for my team...Got early promotion as well
Function: Automation tester and java developer role
Graduation: 7.73 CGPA; 12th: 83.4%; 10th: 9.4 cgpa

Extracurricular: National cadet corps( NCC ) C certificate holder...
Hosted annual fests for my account in my company...
Worked in NGO and member of Maitree club in my company who serves in NGOs and organize cultural events
Played Cricket, Basketball and Badminton in various Interschool, Intercollege and corporate tournaments
Target: ISB, IIMs

Question - How much score do i need to get into my selected clgs...
Is my profile suitable enough to get into these colleges

That’s great you have lots of extra curriculars but any leadership roles in any of them? With your gmat and gpa, if you don’t re-write I’m afraid it will be tough for any top US school. Any in’tl experience?

with the Marathon i came in as a volunteer the first year but was charged with leading a group of volunteers as we had been working with the team a little longer. i was then called back the following year to work as part of the productions team and lead two groups of volunteers then, on barrier set up and the other on the final table step and medal awarding to finishers. the team leader role at AIESEC involved leading a unit of 3 other members of the organization. On international exp, we did have clients based in South Africa, Kenya, London and Dubai, only worked in Botswana though

Ok that’s awesome. So they offered a leadership role which demonstrates to me you are a natural leader. A good story and is unique about the productions team. Good to mention then your mixed client base to show you have worked with diverse teams/clients

Thanks. Yes, sustainability and mentorship have been a continuing thread of experiences. The ERG I am involved with is a sustainability ERG. Also, I volunteer as a recycling advisor/facilitator for construction firms in my city. Have stories/xp to speak of in that regard. Similarly deep experiences with mentorship, and have stories to explain in my apps. My only concern is the 2 years I spent as a Research Assistant and how to explain that. Also, I don’t work for a F500 company. Just a senior position in a T25 construction firm in the US.

Kelley School of Business, NUS, Warwick-What about these schools?

Name - Himanshu
Indian, Male,31
GMAT- 760
Education- Bachelor of Engineering in IT
GPA- 66.2 % out of 100. But everyone was in range 20-80.
Work-experience- 4 years as a Business Analyst.(I have a career gap of 3 years.)
3 years at Accenture as a Business Analyst. My role was to serve as a bridge between Client and project
team, communicating with client and conveying the business needs to development team. So I guess, though my education is
that of an IT guy, but my work-experience has a business role, and that differetiates my from other IT guys.(Right?) Got
1 promotion at Accenture. Worked for 1 year at a start-up in a similar role.
Post MBA goal: Strategy Consulting at Big 4
No international work experience, but visited 7 countries.
Target colleges- Not sure.
Personal Story- I had to fight severe OCD, while all alone in Mumbai.Due to it, I had to take a break in my career.
It started right from the college and affected my GPA too. I alright now, but that has made me a fighter from within.
So, want to narrate my story around it.
Extra-curriculars: Done a lot of voluteer work at Art of Living(founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar). I joined it back in 2012
So, few questions:

1- Is my age going to be a negative factor as my work experience is 4 years only?
2- Which range of colleges should I target- top 10 or 10-20 or 20-30?

Hi there,
Very interesting background - this will definitely set you apart within the indian male applicant pool. Sounds like you hold a leadership role as well at a young age so that’s amazing and will be impressive for ad coms. I’m a bit concerned about your gmat and gpa though if you are aiming for a top school. Will you be re-writing? I would suggest to do so if possible. If you can get a very high gmat, Kellogg is well known in marketing and branding. Wharton too. Where do you want to be? US or europe or other?

Name: Vinayak Ray, 28, Male
Education: Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering, GPA: 7.95/10
Note: Not from a Top Tier University in India
Research Publications in Tech: 5 (Should I mention them on the resume?)
GMAT: 740
Extracurriculars during college: Part of the Theatre Society, Core Organization committee member of Technical and Cultural Festivals at our campus (Should I mention them on the resume?)
Work Experience: 6 years of Work Experience as a Software Development Engineer at a French Telecom Company, Orange (1 year as a Web Developer, 2 years as a Mobile App Developer, 3 years as a Machine Learning Engineer).
Note: Since the past 1 year, I am also having responsibilities to lead the product and manage the other developers working on the product. However, I have not yet had a promotion. Will that be detrimental to my application?
Awards: 3rd Prize in the Most Transformative Project over all domains for the year 2020-21, Regional award for Contribution in 2017 (Should I add these in my resume?)
Extracurricular during work: Lead singer in our Corporate band, Editor of newsletters internal to Orange, Part of the Orange CSR team, Have been a part of 6 Productions in plays with several theatre Groups (Should I add these in my resume too as these are not specifically in my domain)
Why MBA?
After being in tech development for so long, I now want to understand how to shape, structure and sell a product, be the brain behind whether a product will be successful, whether customers would use it, etc. All in all I want to be at the driver’s seat to lead a product to its success. I feel an academic setting that would teach me about all the facets from a business point of view.
Short term goal: A product manager
Long term goal: Towards entrepreneurship
Target School: M7, Haas, Tepper, Tuck, NYU Stern
Do you think my application is strong enough? What can I do in the next few months to strengthen my application?