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Hello,

FutureWorks Consulting provides personalized admission consulting services to applicants to leading undergraduate and postgraduate programs abroad.We also deliver workshops to help parents and applicants gain an overview of key aspects of the application process.

About Kavita Singh:

Kavita is an alumnus of Oxford University and then Columbia Business School.At Columbia Business School, Kavita was on the Dean’s List and graduated as a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Society, an International Honors Society, honouring high academic achievement in the study of business.She has over 13 years of marketing strategy consulting, brand management and sales experience.

She has been involved in the admissions process and career consulting services since 2003 - from interviewing applicants for Columbia Business School to being an MBA admissions consultant helping applicants get into leading MBA programs. She is Columbia Business School Ambassador and an Alumni Adviser (coaching MBA students through the program).Kavita is also a certified Myers Briggs Practitioner. Further, she has been involved in developing and leading training programs since 2000. Kavita writes regularly on the topic of studying abroad for a variety of publications including The Hindustan Times and also holds workshops at leading schools and colleges in India.

If you have any questions about the admission process post away on our thread!

FutureWorks · Answer

Few samples of queries addressed by FutureWorks Consulting on thegmatclub:

FutureWorks · Answer

Query by Cool08.jpg Our Suggestion To Cool 08 Hello, Let me answer your queries one by one : 1)Yes you can take time to shape up your ECA(extra curricular activities). Activity would depend on your unique interest and background-there is no such one activity they look for. 2)If you are aiming for top schools then a score above 700 is what you should aim for. Looking at the 2012 class profile at Harvard the students scored between 550-790 in their GMAT and the median GMAT score was 730. Similarly at Wharton’s MBA class of 2012 the students scored between 650-770 in their GMAT and the median GMAT score being 720.Hence a score above 700 is desirable if you wish to be part of top schools. 3)As long as you take the GMAT before the application deadline, it should be fine. 4)We feel that your certifications are unlikely to make a major difference in your admission process. 5)Generally most of the applicants are from an engineering background with a good 4-5 years of work experience. Plus it is not just the work experience that counts but also what you did there such as -what were your achievements, what initiative you took, what changes you drove in your workplace etc.So you should aim for colleges based on your GMAT score and make sure your profile is differentiated from the rest. 6)Round 1 is the best time to apply assuming you application in round 1 would be as strong as your application in round 2. 7)Recommendation letters are vital part of your application process when planning to study abroad. For an MBA application you would not submit recommendations from college professors – instead you would submit work recommendation letters which play an important role in highlighting you and your skills as a working professional. It is much better if you got the letter from your superior but if not do explain in your application why you couldn’t get it. Other alternatives to cope for this could be getting recommendation letter from other people you might have worked closely with. These could be your clients or the senior personnel that you worked with in other associations outside work. Hope this helps!

Marquis · Answer

Hi Kavita,

I'll give a brief overview of my profile and then shoot the queries.

Class 10th: 95%, Class 12th: 94% (Ranked among the top 5 in the state in both exams)
Undergrad: Engineering, GPA: expected 8/10 (absolute scale, 2nd rank in class) 
College: IT-BHU (IIT brand & No. 1 ranked university in India) 
Strong leadership experiences ( student secretary and coordinators in various student bodies and clubs) and good ECs
International Experience: EGIDE (INRIA) Scholar, France. Few other research projects and an internship at an NGO in India. 
Work Experience: will start working from June 2011 as a business analyst in an analytics firm.
GMAT/GRE: not ye taken but quite confident of getting high scores.

Now, I find myself in a huge dilemma because I am interested in the field of management consulting and I guess it pretty much aligns with both the options I have:

Option 1: to continue with my current job/switch and gain work experience for next 3-4 years and then target some of the top MBA programs like Tuck, Booth, Kellogg etc.

Option 2: to work for one year and then join any of the top Masters in Management (MIM) programs in Europe (ESCP, HEC) or Master in Engineering Management (MEM) in US (stanford, dartmouth, duke). 
 
 Now the question is , I'm still unsure if these MIM and MEM programs are worth giving a shot or its better to go with the traditional approach. On the other hand, these programs are capable of providing me an international career which will further diversify my profile and also help me to get into a better MBA program if required at a later stage of my career.

The other question is , do you think my profile is strong enough to get admission in MEM program at the top univs like Stanford, Dartmouth or Duke?

Please excuse me for such a long post but I feet it is necessary to explain the case in detail for a suitable response. Thanks for your comments.

FutureWorks · Answer

Hello Marquis,

Firstly I would like to clarify that the MIM program is different from an MBA program. If MBA is something you want to do than an MIM cannot replace it. So it is your decision to choose what you want to go for. You wouldn’t want to do both, are there would be too much overlap in those programs.

If you view the curriculum of the Master in Management and MBA programs you will see the overlap.Both offer general management courses, integrated team work, case studies, and a practical oriented approach.

Generally MIM focuses more on the theoretical side of the management field and MBA programs emphasize more the practical side – not surprisingly since the MIM program is for applicants with little or no experience. Given this, the MEM could be better option if you want to do an MBA after this. Your profile is strong enough to aim at these top universities.
 
If you want to do an MBA then you would require more work experience to build your profile. Generally most of the applicants from India are from engineering background with good 4-5 years of work experience. Plus it is not just the work experience that counts but also what you did there like-what were your achievements, what initiative you took, what changes you drove in your workplace etc. So do ensure that your profile is differentiated and your activities at work and beyond are highlighted in the best possible way.

Hope this helps!

Marquis · Answer

Hi Kavita,

Thanks for your response. Your suggestions are certainly quite valuable to plan my career from here and to get admits from my dream schools. I think I'll work for some time before taking a decision for an MEM but I'm quite sure that I really need an MBA to develop a much better understanding of the integration of Business and Technology.

Since I have enough time to build my profile so I would like to micro-analyse every aspect of it to increase my chances of getting into my dream schools. I would really appreciate to have your views on some smaller issues also.

The very first issue which I need to address is my undergrad GPA. I finally have 8/10 on absolute scale with overall rank second/third (final results awaited) but my math grades in freshman and sophomore years were a complete disaster (reason: few distractions and ECs). Although I did extremely well during the subsequent years to make it up but Adcom is certainly going to notice my poor performance in basic math courses. Do you think AdCom can be convinced that I can handle the academic rigour of the program, if I highlight following points in my application:

1. IIT-JEE qualified so capable of handling the quantitative rigour of the program.
2. high score in the quant section of GMAT (certainly not a problem)
3. masters project (dual degree) was based on stochastic and probabilistic modeling coupled with an international internship.
4. working in business analytics field which itself is a math intensive profile.

It would be great to have some additional pointers on this, like some additional courses if available in India, e.g. Business Mathematics, to cover it up. One more thing, when should I take GMAT, i.e. now or 2-3 years later?

Please excuse me for writing a long post for a relatively minuscule problem but I really want everything to be perfect when I send my applications (little irrational to say but still )

Thanks

FutureWorks · Answer

Hello,

Yes,As long as you indicate the positive result and the steps you undertook to overcome the distractions you should be fine. Make sure you follow the ‘show rather than tell’ principle so that the admissions committee could really understand your strengths and differentiating factors.”

This article might help you addressing your queries related to the role of academics: https://futureworks.co.in/knowledgecente ... cation.htm.

Generally most of the MBA applicants have good 4-5 years of work experience.Along with your work experience your achievements,extra curricular activities also counts.

To analyse your profile accurately we would require more details from you.
Why don't you take our free assessment test : https://futureworks.co.in/assessments and we will get back to you with the best possible guidance.

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