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How to Categorize Your Business School List

Deciding which business schools to apply to is more of an art than a science; that is why it is imperative that you research the MBA programs to determine which ones will help you attain your goals and are the right fit.

However, as you think about your school list, it is important to apply to a range of schools so that you maximize your chances of admission. How should you think about that range of schools? The best way is by grouping them into buckets that reflect the likelihood of acceptance: Stretch/Reach, Target, and Safety. The schools that fall into each of these buckets will vary according to a candidate's profile.

Stretch/Reach schools

These are the schools that will be the toughest for you to gain admittance. For example, Harvard Business School and Stanford will always fall into this bucket (yes, even if you have a very competitive profile)! In general, if a school's median/average GPA and GMAT/GRE scores are higher than yours, then I would consider those schools to be stretch/reach. However, the reality is that we never know what the entire pool of candidates looks like, so you should apply to 1-2 dream schools (because you just never know)! However, this should be balanced with target and safety schools, which should comprise a majority of the schools on your list.

Read more here.

Applying in the near future? Contact us at https://www.ivygroupe.com/contact or info@ivygroupe.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation with our Founder, an HBS grad and MBA admissions expert!

Education
- Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology
Work Experience:
Have been working in the US for the past 6 Years in a Fortune 100 company

- My role is a unique blend of business and technology. I've tried to focus on solving complex business problems using my technical abilities, part of the reason for quick promotions. So even though the profile looks technical, my role does require a deep understanding of business operations and strategy.
- Managed off shore teams in India (5 people) and Australia for product development and was a a product manager for over a year for a product that is widely used by over 10K people all over the world.
- Strong experience working with and training teams located in Australia, India, and Germany.
- My current team has folks from 10+ nationalities (therefore, very strong experience working in a diverse group of people)


Extracurriculars
Post-MBA Goal
I plan to transition from a data science/analytics role to a corporate strategy/consulting role. I have gained a lot of technical experience working with the data to solve complex business problems. Now I wish to be on the other side and use the power of data to create business strategy. My short term plan is to get into a top tier consulting firm and the long term vision is to open up a management consulting firm tailored towards helping local businesses, using the power of data science and artificial intelligence.

Hi sdlife,

Thanks for your message and sharing your background - on your questions:

1. With respect to your chances at the schools, given that you come from an oversubscribed demographic (Indian male), I see Booth/Wharton/Kellogg as Stretch schools, Tuck/Yale SOM as in between a Stretch/Target, and the others that you have listed as Target schools.

2. I'm on the fence here, but given that you did well in college and in your Master's program and that you are hitting the quant threshold that business schools like to see (Q49), I think you should be okay with your score. It looks like the verbal score is pulling down your score a bit.

3. Other schools that you may want to consider would be Haas (known to be innovative) and Columbia/NYU (given their location).

4. What will really be important is emphasizing your professional accomplishments and your contributions to the community to distinguish yourself within the competitive Indian male pool of candidates.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Shaifali

Hi IvyGroupeCEO,

Thank you very much for taking the time to provide your inputs. I just have one question - what's your take on R1 vs R2? Does applying in R2 really impacts your odds? I've spoken to students in some of my target schools and it seems that almost everyone said R2 is very tough for Indian male applicants?

Thanks again!

Hi sdlife,

See my blog post here to get my thoughts on Round 1 vs Round 2. As an Indian male applicant, Round 1 does tend to be better, but that is assuming that your profile is as strong as it can be and you are ready to put together the strongest applications possible at that point.

Best,
Shaifali

Hi!

I am applying to top MBA programs this year and wanted to know how my profile holds up. I am feeling a bit insecure.

I am an African American female and graduated from a top 10 university in 2015. Majored in Politics Science with an economics minor.

GPA: 3.4

GRE Exam Results:
158 V / 156 Q
160 V / 154 Q
160 V / 151 Q - (I'll probably only send the first two)

WE:
3 years in media/entertainment
-For two years, I worked at one of the top three (i.e ABC/CBS/NBC) media companies in research and strategy. I was promoted after 1 year.
-Within the last year, I worked at a major talent agency (i.e CAA/WME/ICM/UTA) in talent department as an agent assistant. I now work at a production company headed by a showrunner with two series on air. I am tasked with reading scripts (to see if it might be something my boss wants to develop) and understanding the current content landscape as well as developing a company strategy. It has a start uppy feel
-In addition, I am the executive director of a local scholarship fund (in charge of reading materials and selecting scholarship recipients)
-For two years, while working in media, I was a researcher for the head of entrepreneurship/econ development for a city that experienced bankruptcy in 2015 (sorry for the vague language. trying to remain somewhat anonymous on here).

What are my chances? I would like to raise my math score but am unsure if I want to retake the test again when I need to focus on my applications. I was thinking of doing that online math course to show that I have mathematical ability.

I would apply Round 1:
Columbia - may do ED
Yale
Wharton
HBS
Tuck

Hi mba2018pls,

Thanks for sharing your background - I would view the schools that you have listed as stretch/reach schools given your slightly lower GPA and GRE scores that are below the median/average. I would suggest adding some more schools to broaden that range. I would also recommend that you retake the GRE again, if you can, and enroll in an online math course. It sounds like you are taking on some really impactful roles in your extracurricular activities, which is great. As you work on your applications, you'll also want to make sure that you point to the impact you've had professionally as well.

I hope this is helpful - good luck with everything!

Best,
Shaifali

Hi!

I'd be grateful if you can evaluate my profile.

26 M, Indian. Looking to get into a top US business school.
5 years WE
GMAT - 720, 48Q/41V
Expecting 110+ on the TOEFL
Undergrad: 3.0 GPA in Engineering from a not-so-popular Indian university.

Very passionate about startups and entrepreneurship.
Battled my way through severe anxiety and depression.
(would be) First in the family to study abroad.

Work Experience:

Current:
Ø Entrepreneur. Bootstrapped an ed-tech startup from scratch to a $150,000 ARR business in 3 years. Still running it with positive cashflow. I know $150k might not sound that impressive to US adcoms, but the company is based in India, it's in a small niche, and it is growing y-o-y.
Ø Grew the business from 0 - 10,000 paying customers from over 150 countries.
Ø Singlehandedly built and grew the company's blog from 0 to 2 million annual readers without spending a dime on ads. The site is currently ranked very highly in the test prep niche.
Ø Helped over 1000 students improve their test scores, through one-on-one personal interaction and mentorship.

Previous:
Ø Director of Support for 2 years. First hire at a SaaS startup company funded by top global VC firms.
Ø Helped scale the company's online support system from 0-10,000 B2B customers.
Ø Worked with the CEO and the engineering teams to improve customer experience.

Previously, I also co-founded an offline test prep company straight out of undergrad. It did really well for a year or so, and we gave the major players (the likes of Princeton Review and Manhattan Review) a run for their money, but had to shut it down due to lack of funding (needed to expand operations). Used this experience to pivot the service into an online platform (the aforementioned ed-tech startup).

Extra-curricular:

Startup Festival - 3 years
Ø Organized the first ever startup festival in my home state (which is also one of India's largest entrepreneurship events) with over 2500 delegates attending from across the country.
Ø Led a team of 20 managers and 60 volunteers, and played a key role in raising funds, partnering with the state government, and managing over 100 speakers, startups, corporate, sponsors, and partner companies.
Ø The event kickstarted innovation and tech in our state.
Ø Not sure how relevant it is to my application, but I have a letter of recommendation from our State Minister for IT & Entrepreneurship (similar to Secretary of State), as I worked closely with the state government on building a startup ecosystem.

President and Regional Head at a major national level non-profit - 3 years
Ø Built and lead the city chapter of one of India's largest non-profits (on the lines of Teach for India) from scratch to the city's largest and the fastest growing non-profit org.
Ø Recruited, trained, and mentored over 250 young volunteers to teach, train, and mentor over 300 underprivileged children across 5 shelter homes in my city.
Ø Helped the organization expand to two new cities in South India. Recruited, trained, and managed over 30 young leaders and over 300 young volunteers, who in-turn impacted more than 500 underprivileged children in 10 shelter homes across the region.
Ø Although this was a few years ago, it wasn't just another community service activity. I actually worked 10-15 hours a week for 3 years straight.

Other details:
Ø Was a founding member of my university's student magazine.
Ø Was also a member of a couple of clubs in college (entrepreneurship, speaking).

Hobbies:
I'm a fitness enthusiast. Have done freelance modeling, and was also a Mr. India 2016 quarter-finalist.
Also an avid reader and debater.

LORs:
Can get strong letters of recommendation from my supervisors.

Cons:
Ø No recent community service experience.
Ø No international exposure.
Ø Although I've built a successful business, I haven't worked for big brand corporate companies.
Ø Indian male. Although I'm not in the IT sector.
Ø Low GPA?

Post MBA Goals:

Long term goal is to build a global business (ed-tech SaaS company). I plan to use the business acumen and the vast network from my MBA to achieve this. To get there, I believe I need experience in the SaaS domain. My immediate post MBA goal, therefore, is to join a growing SaaS company in the US. Over the past couple of years, I've had a growing interest in the SaaS revolution in the US, and I very much want to be a part of it.

Can you please evaluate my profile? Since I have a relatively unique background (and experience), I'm having a hard time understanding how competitive my profile would be at a top school. I'm also looking for schools where my profile would be very competitive, so I can secure a handsome scholarship (half-ride, or GA). I'm planning to apply in Early or Round 1 this year.

Please suggest what schools I would be a good contender at. Whether they would be among the Top 10 (Haas, MIT, Ross), Top 30 (Duke, UCLA, Cornell), or Top 50 (Indiana, UT-Austin, Carlson), etc. Thank you very much.

Hi SachinKaundinya,

Thanks for sharing your background. Given that you come from a tough demographic (Indian male), your GPA and GMAT score are on the lower side. However, you have interesting and impactful work experience as an entrepreneur and strong prior extracurricular involvement (although I’d like to see more current involvement as well). As a result, I see schools ranked in the 20-40 range as more target schools for you. The most important thing will be to clearly articulate your story and why you are seeking an MBA at this point in time.

I hope this helps – please feel free to sign up for our emails at https://www.ivygroupe.com to get more tips/updates or to reach out to us at info@ivygroupe.com if you would like to explore further.

Best,
Shaifali

Contributor to Forbes: “What The World Cup Can Teach Us About Success”

At Ivy Groupe, we are passionate about authenticity, leadership, success, and impact – these are important to demonstrate not only in your MBA applications, but also throughout your career. As I watched the recent World Cup, I was struck with what we can learn from this tournament as it pertains to success.

As a result, I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to contribute to Forbes by writing this article, “What The World Cup Can Teach Us About Success,” which can be accessed here. In the article, I focus on six lessons about success that I came away with as the competition unfolded.

Note: This post first appeared on Ivy Groupe's blog

Whom Should You Choose As Your Recommenders?

In the MBA application process, recommenders play an extremely important role in supporting your candidacy. By pointing to your qualities, achievements, and areas of development, they add more color, breadth, and depth to the picture that you are painting of yourself throughout the application.

So, whom should you choose as your recommenders? Practically every business school requires two recommendation letters, of which one should be from a current, direct supervisor. I also suggest that the second letter be from someone who has managed you in a professional capacity (from your current or a prior employer). In some rare circumstances, it may make sense to ask someone who has supervised you in an extracurricular activity to write the recommendation letter, but this needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis. If you are applying to a deferred program, such as at Harvard Business School, Stanford, or Yale, professors, college personnel who have managed you through an extracurricular activity, or supervisors from internships are typically all fair game (but as always, check the requirements of each school).

As you think about which recommenders to choose, here are three things to keep in mind.

Your recommenders should know you well

I often get the question as to whether the title of a recommender matters, and the short answer is no. It is much more important that your recommenders have supervised you in some capacity, have worked directly with you, and can comment on your work and qualities through the interaction they have had with you; in other words, they should know you very well. So, having the CEO of your company or a well known Managing Director write your recommendation letter can actually backfire if they have not directly supervised you.

Read more here.

Applying in the near future? Contact us at https://www.ivygroupe.com/contact or info@ivygroupe.com to schedule a free 20-minute consultation with our Founder, an HBS grad and MBA admissions expert!

Dear admissions experts,

I would like to share my profile with you so that I could get some insight about the next step of my application process.

Overview- I am an arab who has studied in the UK but has since moved back to work in the middle east.

My educational background:

I graduated from Durham University in the UK (top tier university in case you don’t know the UK education system), with an Upper-Second Class Bachelors in Modern Languages and Cultures.

First attempt GMAT (August 2016): 680 *can’t remember quant and verbal as I cancelled my score, but it was somewhere in the region of 46 Q 37 V

Work experience:

At university I set up my own music promotion business. (sold my stake in it to move back to the middle east)

Since graduating, I have spent 3 years running my family retail business in Kuwait and Iraq.

I have taken the business as far as I can and in two months I am joining one of the MBB consulting firms as an associate out of one of their middle east offices.

I have two questions I would really appreciate help with.

1) Main question is, considering my profile, how badly do I need to take the GMAT again in order to score a 730, which is my target score. My target school is HBS, but I am also interested in Wharton, Stanford and Columbia.

My second question is, if I do need a higher test score, whether I should take the GMAT or the GRE. I am currently prepping for another attempt at the GMAT, and have got myself back to the 680 range in my practice test. I have also just taken a GRE practice test and score a 163 Q and 157 V (I made some silly mistakes in the verbal format and didn’t realise you had to choose two answers for some questions). I find the GRE more suitable to my skills, and was wondering with my profile which exam you think would be better, if there is a difference at all that is.

Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Kind regards,


Yousef

Hi yousefa,

Thanks for sharing your background - with respect to your questions, I would suggest taking the exam where you feel you can perform the strongest (and from your comments, that looks like the GRE). In particular, you should be aiming above an 80th percentile on both the quant and verbal sections. While the GMAT quant section is known to be more rigorous than the GRE quant section, I am seeing that schools are becoming more indifferent between the two exams. I hope that helps!

Best,
Shaifali

I lost a civil court case- will it be an issue for a background check? (it was over a rent dispute)

Hi yamato - the best thing to do would be to consult a lawyer to see if it would be an issue!

Hello,

A little background: I applied to business school last year with a 700 (Q45 V41) on the GMAT and got rejected at 4 top 20 (think 10-20) programs. Most of the feedback I received from admissions consultants and an admissions committee member was centered around, “Everything seems to be pretty good besides your GMAT score and your quant score is low”. My GPA wasn't great but that wasn't brought up in my feedback session with one of the schools. South Asian descent with US citizenship (Not India). The average GMAT at two of the schools I applied to was around 700 and the other 2 were around 715-720. I got waitlisted at 2 and outright denied at the other two. I was told to consider the GRE instead because schools want to protect their GMAT average as much as possible. So I took the GRE this past weekend and scored 164V and 161Q. Should I retake the test or is this considered to be a good score? Will this put the quant issue to bed? The quant is not amazing but I don’t think it’s bad either? I've seen some data on B school websites about GRE averages but then again, I figured the 700 would've been enough to secure admissions so who knows.

If anyone has any feedback or anecdotes about GRE+B school admissions that they could share, that would be great.

Thanks

Hi DTW123,

Thanks for your message - if both your quant and verbal scores are above an 80th percentile, then in my view, your GRE score is fine (if your quant score is not above an 80th percentile, then I would suggest retaking it). I have worked with clients who have been admitted to the schools of their choice with the GRE, and I am seeing more that schools are becoming indifferent between the two exams (GMAT and GRE). Hope this helps.

Best,
Shaifali