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Profile building for second MBA after IIM: M7 (Kellogg) admit with scholarship

Second MBA is a uniquely Indian phenomenon in many ways. Every year, we work with a handful of such aspirants who are already doing pretty well in their careers, thanks to their Indian MBA programs. Ever so often though, many feel that the experience wasn't full and it also does not provide them a say in the world beyond India.

Garimaya was one such candidate who realized this early and came to us well in time. We worked with him to systematically build the profile over a year. The results; he got into his dream school Kellogg with scholarship!

Want to know more? Read here

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INSEAD MBA diversity scholarship with an average GMAT score of 700 in Round 2

After delighting several movie celebrities through her creative, hand-painted artworks, Megha set herself the task of acing the MBA world. Despite a top undergrad and grad pedigree, her profile had several, apparently disconnected parts - HR Consultant, Entrepreneur, Recruitment Consulting and more. We present the story of how she weaved these together, and despite a non-STEM background, made it to INSEAD (as well as ISB) with a double scholarship to boot.

Want to know more? Read here

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Utkarsh had everything going for him - IIT brand, strong GMAT score, international experience. One would think that a top international MBA would be a cakewalk for such a candidate.

Why then did he decide to work with an MBA Admissions Consultant?

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Demographics (nationality, gender,age): Indian, Male,23

· Education (undergraduate institution, GPA, major - high school/entrance exams not needed): VBIT, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (6.4/9, Electronics and Communication Engineering)


· GMAT or GRE (include section breakdown): Aiming for 740+

· Work experience (highlight amount of work experience, industries, roles, promotions, special accomplishments, international exposure):
1.Co-Founder and Director of an AR/VR Startup in Real estate & Architecture founded in 2017 during graduation (Registered in 2019).
2.Our Startup idea was originated at the ISB -TEP program. We have developed our product using Design Thinking, and This is the first time I have come across product management.
3.One of the Top 16 teams across the World Invited to the Global Demo Day(2018) by Angel Hack.
4.Presented at Angel Hack’s Global Demo Day(2018) in San Francisco, CA.
5.Top 30 startup teams in India by AICTE.
6.We are at present incubated at T-Hub ( Hyderabad).
7. 3d Model and a VFX artist by hobby and have done multiple projects as a freelancer.

Projects worked on
1. Virtual tour for Devi seafood(Seafood exports company)
2. Virtual Tours created for T-Hub Phase 1 and Phase 2 (In progress)
3. Augmented Reality walkthrough for CRPF

Teaching :
1. Technology Facilitator at ISB - TEP.
2. Training Engineering Students in Entrepreneurship and Product Development for the past two years.

· Extracurricular activities (highlight notable undergraduate and post-undergraduate ones):
1. Vice-chairperson for Robotics Club VBIT.
2. Conducted Workshops and Summer Training sessions on Animation, Video Editing, Home Automation and IoT.
3.Organiser of Cultural Fest - VIBHA at college.
4. Involved in helping Aditya Mehta Foundation(helping Para Athletes) raise funds for their new facility by creating a 3d model and animated walkthrough for that facility.

· Post-MBA goals:
Short term goal is to become a product manager in an AR/VR division of a Tech Company.
During my early days at ISB, I came across product management, which caught my interest and made me continue as a product manager in my startup and pushed me to mentor multiple students teams in Ideation and during the Product design of their projects.

Long Term Goals: To head the Product Management vertical of a company.

· Target schools:
ISB, Duke Fuqua, NYU Stern, NUS, Tepper

· Other information relevant to your profile:

· Any specific questions you would like answered by our team:
1.What are my chances to get into my dream B schools?
2.How much my low undergrad scores affect my application? Anything that I can do to compensate for it?
3.How does work experience as an entrepreneur will be rated during the evaluation?
4.Does the Entrepreneur work experience of an engineering student considered a Diverse profile or a regular profile?

hemanthreddynaini wrote:

Demographics (nationality, gender,age): Indian, Male,23

· Education (undergraduate institution, GPA, major - high school/entrance exams not needed): VBIT, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (6.4/9, Electronics and Communication Engineering)

· GMAT or GRE (include section breakdown): Aiming for 740+

· Work experience (highlight amount of work experience, industries, roles, promotions, special accomplishments, international exposure):
1.Co-Founder and Director of an AR/VR Startup in Real estate & Architecture founded in 2017 during graduation (Registered in 2019).

<<snip>>

4.Does the Entrepreneur work experience of an engineering student considered a Diverse profile or a regular profile?

hemanthreddynaini, thanks for posting on our thread. A few thoughts on your profile evaluation:

1. On the academic arc, JNTU has a decent pedigree but the low GPA will be a drag for sure. Push really hard on the GMAT front and also look for any additional coursework, especially in case there are any fail grades.
2. The professional profile looks quite interesting and entrepreneurial accomplishments make for a fantastic story always. While adcoms love such stories, they are also very skeptical due to the potential lack of scale/professionalism and brand association. If you can address those elements, things should be good. Your post-MBA plan makes sense but could be a bit too niche.
3. Your ECs during college time sound good. Anything after that though?
4. For reasons mentioned here, we don't speculate on school selection or chances. While you've not mentioned it, but I think you graduated in 2019. While you incubated the startup earlier, your experience count starts after undergrad which will be very low compared to the 4-5 years average at most schools. This can put you at quite a disadvantage and it may make sense to give yourself at least another year for profile building.

Let us know if this helps.

Case competitions for students: Benefits and preparation tips

If you are headed to the business school, chances are, you'd have head about case study method. A fast-paced version of this is the case competitions. A chance to try out your wits against others in a time bound manner.

It can also be a good preparation for your consulting case interviews.

In this article, we cover the history, benefits, and various types of case competitions, including list of top competitions worldwide as well as an insider (read bschool) view on it.

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Why second MBA abroad after entertainment and media job

Did you MBA too soon? That's a question many from India increasingly seem to ponder. In this blog, we present the story of a candidate who did her MBA right after undergrad. Even after working with a top MNC, she wanted to explore the world beyond India.

Eventually, she made it to top European programs with hefty scholarships.

Want to know more? Read here

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Request if someone could help in reviewing my profile My details are as placed below-



Personal Info
 Indian Male, 30 years.
Serving as an officer in Indian Navy 


GMAT Score
740 (Q49 V41)

Work History –

2019 – 2021
Inventory Manager
Single handedly undertook management and streamlined a large and fast moving inventory of over 10.8 lack weapon equipment.

2016 – 2019
Technical HoD – Corvette class of Warship
Headed the technical department of a warship and effectively led a
team of 130 men.

Efficiently led the team into border patrolling post pulwama incident in
2018
Was awarded Commendation by the Chief of Naval Staff for excellent
performance onboard the Ship

2012-2016
Weapon Officer – Destroyer class of warship
Efficiently led a team of 75 men to ensure optimal maintenance of
weapons onboard a destroyer class of ship
Was awarded Commendation by the Chief of Naval Staff for excellent
performance onboard the Ship

Education –
B.Tech – Computer Science 71%
XII - 64%
X - 79%

Skill –
Operational management
Human Resource management
Inventory management

Accomplishments -
Undertook flood relief operations in Mumbai floods in 2018
Participated in intra state table tennis championship

Interest
Long Distance running

Post mba want to work for a firm as an operation manager for some 5 years to gain an understanding of the corporate sector. As a long term goal want to get into entrepreneur role.

Posted from my mobile device

pranav7673, thanks for sharing your profile details here and for your service to the country.

A few thoughts on your profile evaluation:

1. The academic arc looks ok - does your undergrad school have a sound pedigree? The relatively modest GPA will be propped up to some extent with your GMAT score. What schools are you targeting?
2. Your professional profile shows quite a lot of promise since it's not only in a combat profile. The experience in inventory management and such will make you quite an attractive candidate for future recruiters. Are you currently on a break though? The post-MBA plan makes sense overall though the longer term plan will have to be thought through and reasoned well. See here for top MBA programs around SCM/ops.
3. Top schools value ECs a lot as well. Have you had a chance to do this as part of navy's or personal initiatives apart from the flood relief effort?
4. While MBA after 30 can be tricky, this is usually not an issue for those from armed forces background.

Hope this helps some. Feel free to reach out directly for more.

Cheers,

MiM after BCom: How I got into London Business School, ESSEC and ESADE with 690 GMAT

What do you do when you have a not-so-awesome GMAT or an impressive brand backing you (read family business)? Do you lower your expectations or still reach for the start?

In this blog, we present the story of Mridul who had these dilemmas. He shares how he navigated these to come up with a winning streak.

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IIM Calcutta MBA for Executives MBAEx: Fees, eligibility, placements, application experience

In this post, we take a look at one of the most reputed full-time one year MBA programs in India, the IIMC MBAEx.

Not only that, we also present the story of a 35-year old seasoned technology professional who waded through challenges such as age, modest GMAT score and more.

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15 Best Tech MBA programs for high-paying salaries and careers in technology, IT

Technology has been ubiquitous for a while now. No wonder then that candidates with a technology/IT background form a large pool applying to top MBA programs as well.

While some seek industry change, many are happy to ride the technology wave, albeit in a more business focused role.

In this post, we check out the top programs offering best career options in the technology/IT industry including insights from Tepper's Career Center.

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How I improved my profile for MBA in India, USA and Canada with scholarships

Do you really need an admissions consultant if you have an awesome vocabulary and have published your own novel? The answer, as you would know already, is a resounding yes!

We present the story of Aakash, who despite being the above, also knew the competition he was up against, given he was an Indian IT male engineer. Aakash came to us early and worked with us to first build the profile, a year in advance of his applications. He worked on our plan methodically and the results were awesome - ISB, Foster and Rotman. With scholarship to boot!

Want to know more? Read here

Hello,

I am a 29-year-old female from India. I took GMAT a few days ago and scored a disappointing 580 (Q44, V25), while on the mocks I have scored an average of 680.

Undergrad : Completed Bachelors in Business Administration in 2013 from Panjab University, Chandigarh. I graduated with 79.4% (Absolute scoring, First class with distinction, ranked 7th in the university). Not sure about the GPA equivalent.

Work-ex : I have 8 years of work experience in Entrepreneurship and Business. I have been involved in my family business of footwear retail and manufacturing, and was responsible individually for the expansion into new footwear segments. I have international work experience, having worked at Manz Fortuna GmbH, Germany which is a 120 year old company, where I was involved with the sales and customer experience team.

Other Certifications/ Activities –
o Completed Telc C1 German Language certificate from Germany (72%).
o National Level Tennis Player
o Diploma in Classical Music
o Reasonable community service – mainly in the form of donations and assisting in ancillary activities like coordinating classes, events and meetings in a school for blind children.

My short term goal is to work in Strategy (either in an organization or in management consulting) and the long term goal is setting up an extension of the current business in USA/ Canada.

Schools - Keeping in mind my age and work experience duration, which universities would you recommend for me - that may look favorably upon family business background?
My order of preference would be Canada, USA and Europe. The universities I have shortlisted in Canada are –
(i) Smith School of Business (Queens University)
(ii) Alberta School of Business (University of Alberta)
(iii) John Molson School of Business (Concordia University)
(iv) HEC Montreal
(v) Ted Rogers MBA (Ryerson University)
(vi) Lazaridis School (Waterloo University)

I realise that I would need to retake the GMAT. Considering that I want to apply to the schools above, and of course other schools that you suggest, what should be my target GMAT score?

When would be the best time to apply to these schools?

I would really appreciate if you could evaluate my profile and give some pointers. I hope the details provided are enough for the evaluation.

paul30 wrote:

Hello,

I am a 29-year-old female from India. I took GMAT a few days ago and scored a disappointing 580 (Q44, V25), while on the mocks I have scored an average of 680.

Undergrad : Completed Bachelors in Business Administration in 2013 from Panjab University, Chandigarh. I graduated with 79.4% (Absolute scoring, First class

<<snip>>

When would be the best time to apply to these schools?

I would really appreciate if you could evaluate my profile and give some pointers. I hope the details provided are enough for the evaluation.

paul30, thanks for posting on our thread.

A few thoughts on your profile evaluation and queries:

1. The academic arc is just about alright. While the GPA is fine, the pedigree of your college may not be well known at top schools. That, together with the GMAT can make things tough. There is no magic/min GMAT number. That being said, one can usually add 20-30 points to a given school's average to get a sense of the Indian GMAT average.
2. The professional profile sounds promising though the actual impact has to be elaborated in a far more impactful manner. While family business experience is quite rich, it also makes adcoms highly skeptical owing to the lack of brand/credibility/scale - areas to focus explicitly on in your applications. The international experience will help - not planning German/European programs?
3. Your ECs arc may be alright. Focus on the activities, not financial assistance aspects.
4. The post-MBA plan will have to be thought through and defended well. Consulting companies are also btw known to value a high GMAT score. From a timeline perspective, given your experience level, sooner (this year) will be better.
5. For reasons mentioned here, we don't speculate on school selection or chances. That being said, if the GMAT score doesn't improve, you may want to focus on schools that accept low scores.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Top MBA in USA, Canada, Europe with GMAT GRE waiver

The 2020 application cycle saw a new trend. With the world reeling under Covid-19, a lot of GMAT/GRE test centers shut down. While GMAC and ETS adapted to online, it took some time and by then, bschools started making GMAT/GRE optional or giving out waivers. Understandably, this led to unprecedented jump in applications.

The trend has continued in the currently application cycle too. In this article, we present a list of schools offering waivers as well as share some tips on how to go about requesting for one.

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