Ask Personal MBA Coach

Hello!

I am considering applying to ISB via the Early Entry Option this year and would be grateful if you could spare some time to evaluate my profile and offer some feedback.

The basics:
Indian female, non-IT (I am a graphic designer), 23 years old

Education:
10th ICSE- 91.25% from one of Bangalore's reputed schools
12th (ISC Arts)- 96.25% from the same school, school topper
Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication and Strategic Branding from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology CGPA- 8.42/10

GRE: 312 in first attempt (Q 150- 38% and V 162- 87%)
I haven't studied Math in 7 years now, hence the poor Quant score.
Currently enrolled in GRE Coaching and working towards a better score.

Work Experience and Industry Exposure:
2 college internships at communications/creative agencies. Both in Mumbai. Worked on Dabur, Viber Film Festival, Mahindra Auto, Loreal at the first.
Second internship I was hired to work exclusively on the HUL account for their fashion and lifestyle products. If I remember correctly, this account was the largest retainer in the industry at the time.

Have freelanced consistently right from the first year of college, working for small/medium sized companies designing for social media, branding and marketing communications. Clients have been from a range of industries- a legal firm, content writers, home automation services, Japanese product design magazine, etc.

Presently have 11 months of work ex under my belt working in design and brand management at a small/medium sized executive education services company. Secured a promotion within 9 months of being here. Was promoted to leading Communications for the Data Science domain. Have led small teams, and worked across functions right from the start. Have successfully organized 2 events for 200+ people each. Tried my hand at Sales and realized I was decent at it. Have regularly interviewed senior managers, technical managers at Fortune 500s and interacted with leading CxOs while on the job. Worked with the press and media and basic PR exercises.

Leadership:
- Was Research, Marketing and Communications Student Head for a leading college project that received prominent media and press coverage
- History of leadership in School: School Cultural Secretary (12th grade), House Vice Captain, Sr. Prefect, Jr. Prefect
- Girl Guides (in School): Company Leader, and Asst. Company Leader and Patrol Leader before that

Extra Curriculars:
- Presently digital volunteer for CRY (Communications Design)
- Passionate about working with children: Recently co-conducted a civic awareness walk for 15 international school students, volunteered as teaching assistant at Spastic Society of Karnataka for one month last year
- Consistently been a part of the college's PR, Marketing and Logistics teams for a range of key annual events
- Pro Bono Design Projects in the past for NGOs and non profits (right through college): AIESEC, Nehru Bal Sangh, Storybook Me (encouraging reading among children in rural India), Project Pragati (transgender community emancipation)
- Well travelled, having visited a number of countries and leading cities
- Fitness and Yoga enthusiast
- Caricatures and Cartooning
- Fine Arts (charcoal portraits and watercolour nature studies) and Tanjore Painting
- Girl Guides (active member and leader for 6 years, from grade 7 to 12 in school)
- Member of the School Editorial Committee, House Council, House Props Committee (Head)

Achievements:
- School topper (ISC Arts)- secured 10 academic awards including special annual awards sponsored by alumni.
- Rashtrapati Girl Guide- National Award, the highest level of girl guiding attainable in the country and awarded by the President of India
- Participated in State Level Girl Guiding events, led the troupe in their march past at the Annual Republic Day Celebrations and received the salute from the then Chief Minister of Karnataka
- Recipient the School's first ever Best Girl Guide Award
- Co-organized the School's first MUN
- Organized several large scale School events

Strengths- Excellent command over English and very strong oral and written communication skills.

Post MBA- Brand Management, ideally FMCG. Ultimately want to hold a senior Marketing position

Hi Personal MBA Coach,

I'm considering applying in round 1 this year for full-time MBA programs enrolling fall 2019 and would love to get a profile evaluation and general thoughts on my potential career path. Any evaluation or advice you could give me would be much appreciated. Also curious if I'd gain anything from waiting another year, getting some more experience in my current role and getting some more community involvement.

White male, 26 years old

Education:
"Southern Ivy" (Duke, Emory, Vandy, etc.), graduated in 2014, Mathematics and Economics BA, GPA: 3.25 (started out pre-med which did not go well. Started to do better when I switched to math and econ, but suffered family tragedy fall of senior year which hurt my grades and recruiting as well)

GMAT:
770 (50Q/46V/8IR/5AWA)

Work (all at private, family-owned diversified holding company with $20B+ revenue):
-1 year as a business analyst in the Operational Excellence department in the automotive division. Acted as a liaison between business operations and IT development for the development of enterprise mobile applications, completed heavily statistical analysis to complete the business cases for these applications as well as justify a multi-million dollar acquisition, created operational tools for field use and trained several GMs on their use.
-2 years as a manager in the Financial Planning and Analysis department in the same division. Promoted to manager 3 years ahead of schedule for being recognized as a top performer. Managed a contractor and intern. Currently in charge of budgets and forecasts for several smaller portfolio businesses and on the leadership team of these businesses to provide insights that drive strategic decision-making.
-2 years (at matriculation) as a senior analyst in an elite corporate strategy & development group at the holding company level responsible for portfolio management, M&A, diversification strategy. So far led primary due diligence for several minority investments as well as played an integral role developing a strategy for the Company's extension into the clean technology industry (renewable energy, food and agriculture, water conservation, etc.). Interface regularly with C-level leaders, board members and external parties (banks, PE firms, Consultants, VCs)

Extracurriculars:
-Pro Bono consultant at an eCommerce retail store, creating the business plan, social media marketing strategy, and pricing methodology
-Half marathon participant in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training program. Raised $2000 for cancer research
-Finalist in my company's internal StartUp business plan event
-Mentor at Big Brothers/Big Sisters Atlanta

Post-MBA Goals:
Ultimately I want to become the CFO of a well-funded start-up in my current industries of expertise (Cleantech, Auto). To get there, I want to work in Finance at one of the external parties I regularly interface with (PE or VC if possible) unless the opportunity presents itself to be a finance leader at a start-up right out of my MBA. I think working in M&A at a particularly flexible, family-owned Strategic provides a different, interesting perspective.

Schools under consideration:
I have two routes I'm considering, since I actually really like my current job:
-Shoot for the stars (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago) where I think the the value would justify leaving my current role and paying the tuition
-Go to the one year MBA at my local university (Emory, where I think I can get close to a full scholarship), continue working part-time or take 1 year off and come back to my current role.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Thank you for your detailed post. Overall I think your profile would make a nice addition to ISB as long as we can improve the test score. When are you thinking of applying? I think the EEO is a great option for you. The extra-curricular involvement is strong, so our job will be to reduce it to the most meaningful leadership roles so that we can tell a story. Sometimes less is more here.

Congratulations on the promotion in under a year! I would love to learn more about the company. Would you be able to send your resume? scott@personalmbacoach.com

Best,
Scott

Best,
Scott

Thank you for your detailed post. I will give you my thoughts based on what I see, but I would love to know more. In order to advise you best, perhaps you can let me know your specific school and company. You can email the resume to scott@personalmbacoach.com if you don't want to provide it here.


Below are my thoughts...
-Shoot for the stars (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago) where I think the the value would justify leaving my current role and paying the tuition
I think the best chances would be Wharton and Chicago Booth, with the real shooting for the stars being H/S. I could see it working out there if you play your cards right as we get applicants with similar profiles into these schools.
-Go to the one year MBA at my local university (Emory, where I think I can get close to a full scholarship), continue working part-time or take 1 year off and come back to my current role.
If you approach the application well with the right support then you should get a full ride or a significant scholarship at a school like Emory, but if you are focused on staying with your company then have you considered a Part-Time MBA? Chicago Booth, for instance, has a weekend program that would allow you to keep working (thus the ROI changes). There is also some flexibility to go between PT and FT when it comes to recruiting and other opportunities. In fact this year we had an applicant apply to the PT program. After getting accepted, we worked with them to help them ultimately move into FT before even starting the program, not that this is guaranteed by any means. If you are targeting a top school, I would consider extension courses online so that you can try to offset the lower GPA. The GMAT is great, but beyond that the schools want to see you get As in analytically challenging courses. I could point you in the right direction there as well.

Best,
Scott

How did things turn out for you? Did you end up applying last year?

Best,
Scott

Hello,

I would like to know what your thoughts are while i ramp up to apply for school come Fall 2019. Specifically, what i should be doing to improve my application as the deadline closes in. Should i take quant courses, improve gmat, etc.

Education:
UCSD - B.S. in Management science (biz-econ type major with some engineering math)
Overall GPA 2.5
Upper division GPA 2.66

Academics was not my top priority during the time. planning to highlight this in the optional essay to explain the low GPA

UCLA Certificate of Accounting
took the first course under the certificate and got an A+
Took this while employed at the real estate company in 2015

Work Experience: going to leverage my ability to finish things from beginning to end regarding the concepts i helped build in my first job and coming full circle with the corporate acquisition in my current job

Sell-side boutique investment firm - 21 months
created all investment materials from business plan to financial model. Closed out 2 deals while i was there - 1 for exportation of products to the BVI for about 50k annually and a 500k investment in a sports product business. Also worked on a bunch of other concepts that never got funded.

Real estate - 3 months -
multi-family real estate company as financial analyst underwriting deals but nothing closed while i was there

Public accounting - 4 months -
Audit and tax intern at top 50 public accounting firm

Tech firm (firm acquired by below company) - 8 months
typical FP&A tasks for financial analysts. main driving point - brought on for acquisitions purposes. Sold for ~100 million. was heavily involved in the creation of the investment materials and financial models

One of the largest Tech firms (top 25 on forbes) - 18 months (current)
typical corporate FP&A tasks. handle everything from AP to AR to forecasting and budgeting etc. Lots of control on creating models to make business decisions (hiring, firing, product price points, etc.).
Have total control of the general ledger and how it is structured. Learned the Oracle system in and out with little help.

GMAT
610 - 31V 42Q AWA 5 IR 2
first time taking it
690 - 38V Q46 AWA 3 IR 6
choked at the very end - thought i did terribly so i faltered on the AWA - regretted it so much. studied while working and was extremely miserable. would like to not take it again but will if i really must.


Target schools - all FT
USC - full time preferred but am looking at part time as well
UC Davis
UW Foster
CMU Tepper
Duke
Cornell

Appreciate it!!!

Thank you for your detailed post! It is great that you took a certificate course to start to offset the lower GPA. I would not stop there! It is important to take a few more graduate level classes and get As in them to show the admissions teams that you are able to handle the rigor of the coursework. I would also focus on the GMAT to try to improve the score.

Additionally, you should start to think about your career story, since you have more than a few jobs on the resume. It will be important to tell the right story and be able to explain the transitions from one to the other.

Reach out if you would like further help or test preparation support!

Good luck!

Best,
Scott

I know I posted once before, but I didn't have a GMAT score at the time. Just took the exam today so wanted to see realistically where I could end up.

Work experience: Big Four Advisory primarily dealing with largest tech 'relationship' clients (FANGU). I work on their home grown platforms from a compliance/data integrity standpoint, so essentially helping them lock down their tech stack from a financial risk perspective (e.g SOX compliance but more in-depth). Lots of collaborative work between finance, business application owners, and engineering teams. 2 Years to senior, and looking to promo to manager in Sept 2019 if I don't leave for b-school before then! High performer, developed my own training curriculum for 25+ new hires and facilitated a few trainings.

Extra curriculars: I mentor 1-2 UC Berkeley undergrads/ semester, basically helping them get into the professional services industry. All but 1 are employed at graduation. During college, I helped manage the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program which delivered 1,000+ tax returns to lower income families and students.

Undergrad school/major: California State University (Ranked ~#300 US, so pretty bad) in Business Admin: Accounting. 3.9 Overall GPA and Major GPA (Top 2% Graduating Class), and received the honor of being the College of Business's Accounting honoree (I'm basically Accounting Department's 2014 MVP). Also have my CPA. President of a organization to help students with soft skills/professionalism, primarily focused on professional services industries (e.g Big Four). Also held part-time jobs during this time teaching kids Math and English.

Other education/coursework: CPA licensed

Race/nationality: Asian, but born in America. Mainly Chinese, some South East Asian in me.

Sex: Yes. I mean Male

Stats

GMAT Score (include breakdown!): 710 (Q47, V41) IR 8. Planning to retake one more time sometime mid-July as my 'last effort' to increasing this.

Undergrad GPA: 3.90 Overall and Major

I should have a good letter of rec, though not from an MBA alum. This person is a Senior Manager who's a key player in the Tech industry at the Big Four.

MBA Info

Goal of MBA: I work a lot with engineers when it comes to compliance work. Being able to collaborate with world-class engineers has really opened my eyes on how structured and precise their work can be, and how creative their solutions are when it comes to something rigid like compliance. That said, I want to be able to continue this trend, but more towards a front-facing product that affects the top-line. Ultimately, I want to transition myself from being labeled a 'Compliance' person to a Product Manager that can actually work with these engineers to build something meaningful, whether that's the new Amazon product, Microsoft software, etc, and not just compliance. Alternatively, because I'm a a key 'face' in maintaining client relationships, I feel that going into Management Consulting would be a good transition to take my experience to the next level, though I would prefer my work to be in the tech industry.

Target schools:

Reach: Wharton, Booth, MIT, Columbia, Haas

Target: UCLA, Stern, Fuqua

That being said, am I just a dreamer at this point for my reach schools? If I can get into a Reach school without scholarship, I'll definitely take it, but I'm quite poor, so I would love for a school to offer even just the slightest scholarship. I understand I'll need AT LEAST a 720 or 730, but wanted to see if a 710 with my background will help at all (with admins or $$).

I would greatly appreciate any insight or your personal experiences when it comes to admissions - thank you!

Hello,

I wanted to get some suggestions on the choice of recommendations.

A brief career snapshot:
Graduated in 2011
Worked for a Big 4: mid 2011-mid 2014
Diploma in management: Mid 2014-mid 2016
Working for a boutique consulting firm: Mid 2016-present

I have zeroed down to the following potential recommenders and am looking for some advice on who should be my top 2 or top 3 choices.
1. My current reporting manager under whom I am working for the past 1.5 yrs
Designation: Associate Director. (3 levels above me)
Qualification: Diploma in management from SP Jain Dubai.
An issue here is that I will be up for a review for promotion December. Hence I'm not very keen to let him know about my MBA plans as that might jeopardize my promotion chances.

2. A project manager I worked under for 5 months from early 2018 to mid 2018
Designation: Principal Consultant (2 levels above me)
Qualification: MBA from NUS

3. A project manager I worked under for 6 months from mid-2017 to end 2017
Designation: Senior Consultant (1 level above me)
Qualification: Masters from Imperial College London

4. A director under whom I have worked on 2 projects over a 1 year period (2017-2018)
Designation: Director (4 levels above me)
Qualification: MBA from NUS

5. Supervisor from previous organization (big 4) under whom I worked for 2 years (mid 2012 to mid 2014)
Current Designation: Director at the same big4
Qualification: Chartered Accountant

6. A member of a Middle eastern client with whom I worked in previous organization for 6 months (early 2014 to mid 2014)
Current Designation: Finance Director
Qualification: MBA from Cardiff University

Now for most cases current manager would be an obvious choice, but I have an issue there as mentioned. In such a case, who should I ideally go for?
I would ideally want to opt for one person each from my tenure in the two organizations, but for number 5 and 6, I had last worked with them in 2014. Will the fact that it was 4 years back weaken the recommendation? Will it be better to opt for both recommendations from my current organization?

For the sake of argument, we can assume that each can give LORs with the same level of impact.

Target schools (intend to apply in R1): INSEAD, Kellogg (1-yr), Cambridge Judge, IE Business School

Thank you for your detailed post and I hope you are well! I think you have a good range of schools here. To safely target the reach schools you want to add 30+ points to the score ideally, just given the competitive set, but your stats look good for the target schools even at current levels or 720 ish. I would double down and try one more time. Once you add a bit to the profile, you will have the different pieces of the puzzle.

Reach out for further guidance!

Best,
Scott

Thank you for your post. Advice on recommendation options tends to come as part of the packages when we work with clients. This is a bit detailed guidance so not usually provided here online as I don't know your complete story, essay strategy, personal story etc. If you wish further guidance, I am happy to explore working together.

However things to think about when choosing a recommender:

- How long they worked with you
- Your rating/reviews while working together
- Whether they wrote letters before
- How good of a writer they are
- How "on time" they are

Title does not really matter here. Think about how they can compare you to others though!

Best,
Scott

I'm super keen on applying to B-School, with my top choice by far being HBS. I'm also applying to MIT Sloan, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Wharton, and at least one school abroad in Europe. HBS is by far my first choice, however, and I'm definitely looking to partner with an admissions consultant ASAP to help with my application for this specific school ASAP. I'll make a choice based on the initial evaluations I get, and decide based on who has the best advice/insight into my profile.

My main concern is my low GPA and jumpy career history (circling around the sales/PR/marketing drain, and switching industries from toys to SaaS (tech), before settling in Sales/SaaS 3-4 years ago). I've accomplished a lot at the companies I've worked for, received 5 promotions and held leadership roles for the last 3 years, but it's still not very impressive.

During undergrad, I was seriously ill, once homeless, and worked full-time while studying, so I'm hoping this will shine a brighter light on my dim academics and inconsistent profile. I want my themes to be 1. failing, and then picking myself back up again to show tenacity, and 2. overcoming obstacles, and now wanting to start my own company to make the world a better place.

Academics:
- 3.29 GPA, social sciences
- 730 GMAT (RETAKING aiming for a 780)
- Completing HBX CORe (Harvard business 'prep' course) soon with a goal of an A (4.0) average
- Undergrad was at Harvard Extension School (I'm not sure how this is regarded at HBS? It's part of Harvard University, but obviously much less impressive than Harvard College or any other Ivy League college)

Work Experience:
- American, 3 years of international experience (Germany - working language proficiency)
- 8 years of professional experience, 4 years in people management/leadership roles
- Managed 15 people at maximum, now managing around 5 people (switched companies, and now growing the team from 0 to 5)
- 5 promotions, from intern >associate > senior associate > team lead > senior manager > head of sales
- Starting my own company, in the very early stages

Life Background:
- Aged 30
- Experienced a life-threatening illness and homeless during undergrad - hence the low GPA
- Also worked full-time during all of undergrad, taking classes at night
- Decent amount of volunteering experience
- "Theme" of my application is overcoming hardship/life threatening illness/and homelessness, and now wanting to start my own company and make the world a better place

Thank you for your detailed post and apologies for the delay as there was a delay in notification of this post. I actually really like your profile and without revealing too much, I have had success with applicants who were homeless at some point. While this doesn't get you in alone, it can be a powerful part of the story. I do not think your GPA is so low and if you can offset it with a high GMAT score, this looks like it could be a great strategy.

Harvard extension classes are only somewhat helpful to be honest, so I wouldn't put a lot of weight into it. That said, managing 15 and growing a team to 5 is impressive. Why don't we get on the phone to chat. I am confident we will each get a lot from the call and then we can determine what is best for you!

Email me to set that up: scott@personalmbacoach.com

Best,
Scott

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.

Sachin,

Thank you for your very detailed profile analysis. We work with a lot of entrepreneurs and I have to say kudos! $150K revenue in India is pretty good, and hopefully still growing from there. As of now I would say you should target a range of schools. Some within top 10 but then some top 20-30 as well. Schools like Duke, Cornell, McCombs, etc. The GMAT is low for your competitive set and the GPA is low. Both of those combined will cause some concern. Are you considering retaking the GMAT? How about taking some graduate level extension courses?

I think your profile is really interesting and I would be happy to explore it further. Check out our packages and email me if you want to work together.

Cheers,
Scott

Hello,

Please find a brief of my profile below. I thank you in anticipation for your help!

Age – 30 years Male, Nationality – Indian, planning to apply for Canadian citizenship if I end up in a good MBA program so that I can avoid H1B circus post graduation (applying only for US universities)

Education: B.Tech & M.Tech in Mechanical Engineering/Energy Technology from one of the top 5 IITs in India (GPA – 3.6/4 as per WES assessment), MSc in Mechanical Engineering from one of the top 5 Canadian University (GPA – 3.8/4)

GMAT – 690 (Q51, V31, IR6), planning to apply only for safe schools during R1 2018, need to retake GMAT to cross 730 to be able to apply for target schools during R2.

WE: Total 5 years by next year (4 years in Canada and 1 year in India - 2.5 years in a top energy management consultancy firm which runs energy efficiency programs in North America, 1.5 years in other energy audit firms, and 1 year in a big oil)

Internships: 2 research interns during undergrad – 3 months in an European university and 3 months in SIEMENS in its energy research group)

Publications – Couple of publications in reputed journals (Electrochimica Acta, Journal of The Electrochemical Society)

Scholarships – 1 during undergrad, 3 during grad school (2 of them are pretty reputed)

Extra curricular – Organized few tech events, member of choreography and light music team (as an acoustic guitarist) during undergrad, volunteered for a program during grad school that was meant to spread cultural awareness of my home country through presentations in schools, currently volunteering as a mentor and registration presenter for an engineering regulatory body of a Canadian province

Post MBA Goal – Energy Consultancy/Trading/IB

I will be applying for MBA programs and universities that are reputed for energy. On that note, I will appreciate if somebody can please suggest few safe as well as target schools I could pursue based on my profile. I am targeting to matriculate by Fall 2019.

Thank you for the profile overview. While it would be good to see the final GMAT score, looking at the actual CGPA is important as well. I don't convert GPAs and most schools also do not convert so kindly post your score and I will know what that means (a lot of clients from IITs).

Currently you would be looking at 10-20 rank schools mostly because of the GMAT. However happy to give more specifics if I had more info. For instance what school? What company? These are important details.

Good luck and reach out for further guidance! Email me if you want to chat live as I will be near you in a couple weeks. scott@personalmbacoach.com

Best,
Scott