Ask Fortuna Admissions

Hi Jacques,

Glad to hear you are talking to INSEAD. It sounds like you are taking all the opportunities to get yourself ready.
INSEAD does not release any stats on their application pool, but the school has noted a substantial increase (probably around 20-30%) over the past year.
As for talking with us, we are more than happy to speak with you now to discuss some initial planning, and we would be prepared to speak again later on as well. That's not a problem for us.
We hope to hear from you. You can use our online system, which I mentioned in the last post, or you can always email us at info@fortunaadmissions.com.

-Hayley

Hi! I have a question. Here I've found MBA class profile of Stern-2018: https://www.stern.nyu.edu/programs-admis ... ss-profile

But I was confused - why 2018? Does it mean, that if I will apply at October 2017, I will start my MBA in 2019?

Hi,

Please review my profile:

GMAT-670(Q47,V35,IR6), AWA awaited
10th- 88.8%
12th-88.8%
B.Tech(B.I.T. Sindri)-85.3%

Indian Female

Work Experience:
5.5 years(Currently Unemployed)
-Worked for Cognizant technologies Solutions, Infosys Technologies
-Automation Testing
-Reviewed the framework developed by other vendor of the client.(Some of the suggestions were accepted and implemented)
-Took technical interviews for the selection of candidates for the organisation(Cognizant).
-Gave training to project managers regarding the new tools.

Extra Curricular:
-Won debate competition in Hindi and Sanskrit at School level
-Won various prizes for mantra recitation
-Member of NCC(National Cadet Corps-A certificate) till school.
-Member of Eco club in college(Treasurer).
-Organised cultural event for college.
-Taught poor students under the club -Prayas India(in college)

Hobbies:
-Cooking,Reading(Anything I get)


Target:
LBS,ISB,HEC Paris

Extra information:
1)What are the other schools I can apply on this score?
2)Chances of Scholarship in LBS

Thanks!

Hello Expert,

GMAT - 710( QA 49 VA 36 IR - 7/8 AWA 6/6 )

Ethnicity- Indian
Male , 25 years old
Btech (Mechanical) - 2013 - 69% [ Under grad]
12th - 2009 -87%
10th (ICSE) - 2007 - 75%

Work Experience - 43 months as on Date will reach 48 months by August ( At the time of applying will have around 49-50 months work experience)

I am currently working as a business development executive at a startup and have worked with a government agency to design some training programs for their employees to effectively use social media for better E-Governance and have worked on building an android application along with successful launching of a online platform designed for certain companies. ( working for about 2 years here).Working alongside here , My father owns an advertising agency in which i play a role too because it is a family business and i need to look after when he is away and have helped create logos for the Government of Telangana. I am from Hyderabad , India and Telangana is the State. So i do not know how to leverage this work because in my own personal opinion I think it is great to have worked on a few government projects and design logos for it. The logo is evident on their websites and posters and all over the city . So i think i can give me some edge but any opinion regarding this will be considered. Prior to this i worked with Google for a year via a third party. I worked there as a business analyst.

EC

Sports - Swimming, basket ball , kabbadi , table tennis and badminton , Boxing .
Won the 1st Place in basketball at College (team event) .
Participated in multiple university and state level competitions . (table tennis)
Participated in a national level debate and Adjourned best speaker in a debate at a college level event.
Winner of an Extempore at a national level technical fest
Participated in multiple public speaking events and debates
The president of a Student Body in college for 2 years until the end of graduation undertaking lot of responsibilities and conducting multiple events
Organiser of the Sports Fest for 3 years along with a team under me and successfully organised multiple events. Along with Organizing as a sports player had to participate thus managing both organizing and playing.

I was the anchor for the Annual Day for 2 years and conducted the event in a splendid fashion
Class representative and event organiser for the college Fest for 4 years
Musical instruments learned - Keyboard , Guitar
Performed in the annual day and formed an own band during the college days and participated in college events.
learnt Classical singing for over 11 years and still learning
An active member of NSS during college and couple with the other activities i had , went on to form events to distribute food , books , clothes to the needy and have taught maths and physics to the needy .
Associated with an NGO as well , hope this help in application process


Academic Projects and Achievements

Always in the reckoning of the class - top 5%
95th percentile in CAT ( Management Exam in India) a neccesity to get in the reputed IIM’s ( Indian Institute of Management) and 90th percentile in XAT ( Management Exam for XLRI - Xavier School of Management)
Multiple projects in Robotics and designed various prototypes using basic principles of robotics and have done an internship in a PSU regarding steam engines

Final project in College related to Robotics – 6 degree Stewart Gough Platform
I have been to multiple industries such as steel pant , iron ore plant and a couple of thermodynamic industries to see the functioning of machines and an automobile industry as well to see the understanding of manufacture of components.
Softwares learned - CAD/CAM , Catia , Solid Works , Pro-E , Ansys (taught during academic rigour ) along with the normal C , C++ , Blue Java , MS office etc.




Q) Do you have a specific Company to work for? - I do not have a specific company to work for. My areas of interest are marketing and consulting . Of course every aspirant desires to be in the best of the best companies. Rather than working for a company would love to have company of my own down the line

Q) what do i want from my MBA? - I want my MBA to provide the knowledge n specific skills to run a business. It comes with experience i am sure but an MBA adds value and can make one think better in terms of the business. I would like to start a company of my own. My father has his own business and i want to diversify its services . A marketing related MBA would help me to make my company more reachable to cater to the needs of clients. At this stage my answer isn't clear and might be vague but i still haven't put a thought to it . Mostly like i wish MBA helps me better to run a business

Q) Mba full time/part time - I would want to do an MBA full time (2/1 year is fine) . I turned 25 last week so at the moment thinking i could use 2 years for an MBA unless a one year MBA suits me more. I am willing to relocate and looking for schools in India , US , UK , Singapore

Areas of Interest - Marketing / Consulting
Dream School – Kellog (Marketing)

What schools would you suggest to apply to based on this Profile assuming i still score a 710 in my retake . Targeting R1 this year , want to join a school in 2018

Other schools on my mind - Yale , Oxford , NUS , NTU , ISB . Also do i stand a chance at Harvard/ Stanford / Haas ( the elite ) if not what can i do to solidify my application for applying to these schools. I would like to apply to 6 schools One in India (ISB) , 3 In the United States , 1 in UK , 1 in Singapore , i haven't given much of a thought but any advice here would help

Target Score for Retake - 740 (QA 50 VA 40) , owing to my poor academics , i thought of giving the exam another shot and I represent a demography of very high scores

Regards,
HK


P.S - sorry for keeping it long , i might have missed out anything , feel free to ask something if it is missing

Hi Terabyte,

Class of 2018 means the class that will graduate in 2018 and so who entered the school in fall 2016.
If the candidate applies in fall 2017, they could potentially get admitted in fall 2018, and would therefore be part of the class of 2020.
Hope this helps!

Hayley

Hi aeroswez
Its always difficult to review a profile on line. We would love to talk in person so feel free to schedule a free consultation with us. In the meantime, after reading your profile, we would give this advice: if you doesn’t have any international experience, you are unlikely to gain admission to the international schools mentioned, so either you should target the Indian programs such as ISB (which is on your list), or look to gain some international experience before applying. After 5.5 years of work, the schools would also be looking for some leadership/management experience.
Hopefully this helps a bit. Hope to speak with you. Schedule a time at www.fortunaadmissions.com/free-consultation

Hayley

Hello,

I would appreciate any and all feedback regarding my profile and candidacy. I spoke with Caroline Diarte Edwards a few years ago when I was first considering pursuing an MBA. She was wonderfully patient and insightful and now that I am much closer to applying would love for Fortuna to offer their assessment of my profile.

740 GMAT (46Q, 46V); Previous score was a 690 (43Q, 41V)
3.2 undergraduate GPA / 4.0 Expected graduate GPA

B.A. in sociology and public health from a Southern Ivy (think Vanderbilt, Duke)
M.S. in Applied Clinical Informatics from one of the country’s top biomedical informatics programs. (Expected graduation in May 2019)

Work experience includes 1.5 years as a business analyst at a major health IT company, marketing analyst at a nationally recognized healthcare marketing firm, 1.5 years as a project manager for a venture-backed telemedicine company, currently the marketing analytics manager for a premier regional health system. Also spent a summer as an AmeriCorps VISTA member conducting food stamp outreach and worked part-time as a research analyst for a biomedical informatics research lab.

Consulting projects include advising a bootstrapped behavioral health artificial intelligence company led by serial entrepreneurs and providing market analysis and recommendations for a large behavioral healthcare provider questioning how to launch a telehealth initiative.

Community service post-graduation includes launching a street psychiatry program at a major regional health system with a med school professor and consult psychiatrist that has treated over 1,000 patients, reduced avoidable costs by over $1M, and earned over $500K in Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement and volunteering as a founding mentor at accelerator for high school students who want to create social enterprises.

Short-Term Goal: Transition into corporate strategy at MBB or a major healthcare company.

Long-Term Goal: Work with VC firm/Corporate Innovation Center to invest in and commercialize new research and breakthroughs in digital healthcare.

26-year-old Latino male (28 at matriculation)

Target Schools:
Stanford/Harvard
MIT
Northwestern
Duke
Tuck
UCLA

Hello,

I hope you are well.

Would you be able to spend some time evaluating my profile and recommending some top schools that I should focus on?

GPA: 3.5 (from a business school in Hong Kong; majored in Finance; graduated in 2012)
Citizenship: India but have been living in Hong Kong for ~9 years now
Work: 6 Years (by the time I enroll) of institutional business development for a top investment bank (MS/GS/JP)
GMAT: 710 (Q48/V38/IR3/AW5); this is my biggest worry.

Other points to note:
- Have shown a 'habit of leadership' throughout life (high school, university, and work); see below.
- School Captain
- Overall Student Life Award at university for leadership and community integration
- Officially recognized as one of the most promising juniors in Asia (elected to sit on multiple leadership committees)
- Became responsible to cover the largest institutional clients in Asia just after 2 years at work (based on performance); our coverage even got recognized with a "best client service" award by the client directly.
- Specially selected by our international CEO of our business to lead a project based out of Asia
- Have gone through exceptional circumstances back home to reach where I am (none of my parents are educated, extremely poor background but went to one of the best high schools in Delhi, Dad passed away at an early age)
- Worked part time during university to support myself
- Don't have exceptional community service but actively mentor students at my secondary school back home and juniors at university)
- Trained for and ran a marathon
- LGBTQ
Would appreciate your thoughts on (apologies, in advance, for the long list of questions):
1) I have taken the GMAT multiple times but I am unable to do better under time constraints (and historically, this has been the case too). Is there a way I could address this? I am confident that I have the intellectual horsepower (at least for business school) when time is not a constraint.
2) What would be the ideal short-term goal for me to highlight? I am afraid that my real goal is too...different from what my current background would permit. Should I stick to a goal in the investment management industry alone? I understand that AdComs think carefully about whether a candidate will be able to achieve their immediate goal.
3) Given the Indian citizenship (Hong Kong resident for 9 years) and a relatively low GMAT, should I even target the top 10 schools? Ideally, I would really like to make it to a top 10 school - don't want to spend USD 250k(!!) anywhere else, really - but I am conscious of the competition from Indian male candidates.
4) Should I have one recommender from London and one from Hong Kong? Or do you think it would be better to have both from Hong Kong (since AdComs prefer to have people working close to you)?
5) Any 10-20 school that you would recommend for someone who wants to return to Asia? I don't want to work in the US.

Thank you your thoughts, in advance!

Hi Fortuna,

I wanted to see if your website is down? I have been trying to get in to do more research but am unable to. Can you please confirm.

Thank you in advance!

Hello swadpat18,
We always recommend talking to us in one of our consultations, as you will get a lot more detailed info, and we can ask you the proper questions to offer better advice. So please do sign up, as its free: https://www.fortunaadmissions.com/free-consultation
In the mean time, here are just a few comments:
You have good international experience, sounds like you have a very strong professional track record. Some good extra curriculars, but might want to reinforce your profile in this dimension before applying.
GMAT is below average especially for Indian students at top business schools; if you can’t retake, you should really focus on the value of your professional and extra curricular profile.
Re career goals: difficult to comment without knowing what your real goals are. Would need to discuss this to offer more detail.
Re recommenders: most important is whether they know you very well, and how highly they are going to speak of you. Having said that, having some diversity in your recommendations can be a positive.
Given his goal to come back to Asia - we would suggest you look at INSEAD, which is very strong in Asia, due to the Singapore campus; otherwise all of the top US schools also carry weight with employers in Asia, and have a reasonable network (bear in mind that bigger programs have bigger alumni communities and therefore often more alumni across a broader range of countries). LBS would also likely appreciate your profile. His international experience will carry more weight in the evaluation process at INSEAD & LBS than it will at the US schools.
We truly look forward to hearing from you and talking more about your goals. You can also email us directly at info@fortunaadmissions.com

Sincerely, The Fortuna Team

Hello! The site is definitely not down, but we are sorry you are having trouble.
You can reach us directly at info@fortunaadmissions.com or try again at www.fortunaadmissions.com/free-consultation

The Fortuna Team

Hello!
Could you evaluate my profile?
I am a re-applicant having first applied in 2017. I will re-apply in 2018.
I will be 28 years old in 2018.
730 GMAT; 50 Quant, 40 Verbal, 5.5 AWA, 5 (52%) Integrated Reasoning
3.9 GPA in Masters from a Top 5 engineering schools in the US
8.x/10 GPA from a Top 10 engineering school in India
5 years Work Experience as an engineer: 4 years at a Tier-II company like Walmart/Etsy/eBay, and currently at a Tier-I: Microsoft
Volunteer Teacher ( 10 + hrs/week the past 4 years)
Yet another Brown Male
Future Goals: Transition into a Product Management role at one of the tech companies.

A) Do I stand any chance at the M-7(HBS, GSB, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, Sloan)?
B) Should I re-take the GMAT?730 seems to be the norm these days and that 5 on IR isn't too helpful.
C) Anything else I can and should do to increase my chances

Thanks very much!

Hi,
Izul here from Malaysia. Would appreciate an assessment on my profile for a chance to get admitted into a top 10 business school. I personally am looking at Wharton, Booth, Berkeley and MIT. I know it is quite a stretch for my GMAT score, it would be useful if there are suggestions for other schools that fit my persona and aspiration and whether I should retake my GMAT to push towards 720+ given limited time.

This would be quite long. Thanks in advance.

Name: Izulman Telimik, CFA
Age: 29
University: The University of Sydney
Degree: Bc of Commerce ( Accounting & Finance), Distinction average - 76.4% (Top 10%)
Accomplishment: Ranked #1 in Management Accounting; Ranked #2 in Auditing & Assurance

GMAT 1: 570 (Q44, V25)
GMAT 2: 700 (Q47, V40)

Personal profile:
14 siblings with one deaf brother, from underprivileged family, gained full government scholarship to study overseas. My corporate life has brought me to places within South East Asia (SEA) including a small village at the foothill of Mount Kinabalu, rural Vietnam at Mekong delta and also Battambang Cambodia where pipe water remains a luxury. Aspire to advance SEA and emerging markets through digital innovation.

Work Experience
Total of 6 years working experience

Axiata Group Berhad
. One of Asia's largest telecommunication
companies, regional footprint across 10
countries, approx. 320 mil customers and
250, 000 employees.

. 3 promotions within 5 years
Youngest recipient of Axiata Champion
Award at age 26, top 50 of the 250,000
Axiata Group employees.

. Spearheaded stake acquisition in a
remittance Co, 3 years later managed the
RM1 bil IPO process with expected IRR
return of over 165%

. JVCo execution (with SK Telecom) of
Malaysia's latest e-mall, 11street.my
including one year secondment, within one
year became no.2 in the market

. Set foundation for digital payment business
leading to the setup of Boost, Malaysia's
new digital micro payment wallet for
everyday lifestyle purchase

. Liaison officer for Axiata Digital Funds
(ADIF), established synergy roadmap and
execution plans with 10 local startups
under Axiata Digital Funds

. Dynamic analyses on the RM25 bil
industry, built model and led merger
scenario and evaluation on convergence
for OpCo in Malaysia given saturated
industry and flat growth for long term
action plans

Co-curricular involvement
. Mentor for CFA candidates under Peneraju
Education programme, a government
initiative to increase CFA charter holders in
the country

. Mentor for Axiata Young CEO
Development programme, a nationwide
CSR to groom young professionals (<25)
to be the future leaders of the country

Other Achievements:
. CFA charter, straight pass, full scholarship
from Peneraju Edu foundation - first to
have earned charter in the scholarship
programme

. Axiata War Game 2014, Best Analyst Team

. The Graduan Apprentice 2013, grand
winner for digital media

. Malaysia government overseas full
scholarship award 2006

. Tengku Idris Shah Royal Award 2005, best
high school certificate student (state
level), SPM - 12As

Thanks again in advance, any feedback is really appreciated.

Posted from my mobile device

Hello izulman

Apologies for the delay in our response, but we have had a chance now to look at your profile. One of our founders took a look at what you posted and says that you have a very interesting profile, and that perhaps you may have a chance of acceptance with your current GMAT scores. She would really encourage you to give us a call to discuss this, as she recognized some good potential in what you wrote. The call is free, and there are no strings attached, so its' well worth your while. We hope to hear from you.

Please fill out a consult form or feel free to email us directly at info@fortunaadmissions.com
www.fortunaadmissions.com/free-consultation


Hayley, from the Fortuna Team

Hi there,

I recently took the GMAT and am hoping to gain some insight regarding my candidate profile for FT MBA Programs (ideal matriculation in 2018).
With that in mind, please see the details of my current situation below:

Undergrad - UC Davis (2013)
Major - Economics
GPA - 3.61
GMAT - 710 (44Q 41V 8IR)
Age at Enrollment - 28
Designations - CFA Charterholder, CAIA Charterholder
Extracurriculars - Current: Local CFA Society Mentor, Local CAIA Society Member, University Finance Club Mentor, Corporate Mentor Program. Previous: University Boxing Club Member, University Financial Club Member, Local Middle School Reading Partners Club Tutor, Golden Key Honor Society Member. Additionally, I worked during my entire senior year for a major wirehouse in their PWM department.

I am currently an associate at a boutique investment bank, and prior to that I worked in the wealth management industry within two of the most well-known wirehouses (think ML, JPM, GS, CITI) for approximately three years. I am aiming to work in investment banking post-MBA, but within a technology vertical of a bulge bracket bank (looking to hop industries and level-up in terms of scale).

My major concern is that before UCD I spent four years at city college. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do (was 17 years old), and even considered attempting to become a professional boxer. It wasn't until my third year that I saw the light and began to seriously pursue a finance path (finished with a 3.07 GPA).

I am planning on applying to: Anderson, Haas, Tuck, Stern, Fuqua, Johnson, and Kellogg. To my hopeful audience....what're my chances with these programs?

Thank you in advance for any and all responses!!!

Hi Beanz33

You have some great extra curricular and work experience, and we would love to have a call with you to discuss. It's always difficult to do a full profile analysis on a forum post. So we invite you to set up a time to speak. We offer 30-minute consults with no strings attached (really), so we encourage you to get in contact.
www.fortunaadmissions.com/free-consultation or email us at info@fortunaadmissions.com

Hope to hear from you!

Hayley on the Fortuna Team

Hi Melissa, can you please evaluate my profile:

Background and nationality - Indian
Undergrad Information - B. Technology, electronics and communication, Non IIT/NIT, 69%
GMAT: 730

Work experience and leadership - More than 5 years in total.
Electrical engineer incharge in offshore industry with experience on vessels and in shipyard. During my training period, I was recommended to be promoted to an independent role before the actual time period. Was first one in my company to get promoted that soon. As an electrical engineer I was incharge of everything electrical and electronic with a small assisting team. Job included operational management, maintenance, installation and repair of electrical systems. Was a part of major offshore operations such as rig towing, platform service/support, underwater oil pipeline inspections with help of underwater robotic vehicles for different clients such as Exxon-mobil, GSPC, Reliance, ONGC etc. Was electrical supervisor/inspector for construction and commissioning of multimillion dollar platform support vessel from a Chinese shipyard to Nigeria. Passed numerous classification surveys by independent bodies such as DNV, ABS etc. Never had a single electrical downtime in my career. Have taught and supervised interns, and reported their performance.

Last year I quit to join an IT startup to get hands on business experience. Joined as an intern and got promoted to product strategy role after 3 months. Company is very fast growing and has over 15million users now. Managing product strategy now. It's been one year here

Community and others - Coordinator in a local NGO dealing in awareness campaigns and free medications in rural areas. Coordinator of college youth fest fund raising team. Won and participated in several art competitions during schools and college days. Won annual inter-school quiz competitions twice in a row.

Have completed 2 coursera courses by UPenn in Marketing and financial accounting.


International experience(if any) - Areas of work include: India(2yrs), China(6 months) and Nigeria(15months). However, for few months was in involved in projects in Singapore, Cape town as well.

Post MBA goals - Work in a consulting/ strategy (in sustainability if possible)

I relate everything thing to creativity. I am an art buff since childhood and have participated, won several art competitions during college and school days. Be it my learning process or troubleshooting methods I try to find different ways to do so. However, lack of time has slowed me down. I don't devote much time to art now. Still, last October I organised an art exhibition with a theme of Human emotions. It was covered by local media. I am not sure how relevant this hobby, still i will write it here to get some feedback.

My concern- I am not able to relate my past with present and present to future. My experience and qualification in electrical sets me up to understand major sustainable technologies, but I can't vividly think of how to lay that out on paper. energy/power--IT business role--sustainability. I don't want to risk my admission because of lack of clarity in goals, so even if you suggest me something about altering my goals a bit I'm all ears.

I am targeting top 5-15 US b-schools or Insead. Or please give your suggestions.