Darden Profile Evaluation Thread - Post all Profile Eval Requests Here

Hi all,

I would appreciate any feedback you could provide on my profile.

- 26-year-old American white female
- 720 GMAT (46Q/44V)
- 3.71 GPA from small liberal arts college in mid-atlantic region (Tier 1 but not a top 50 school); double major in Econ and English
- Work experience at time of application includes 4 years at three different firms: 1 year at a consulting firm, 2 years at a strategic research group of a PR firm, where I worked primarily on branding engagements and I was promoted after one year, ahead of schedule, 1 year at current firm, a boutique strategy consulting firm (work is very market research-heavy). Each job has equipped me with increasing responsibilities (not to mention more money)
- Goal: Work at a top brand consultancy or specialize in branding/marketing consulting at a broader consulting firm; I am especially interested in strengthening my quant skills to ensure brand strategy is truly data-driven
- Extracurriculars: Not going to lie, this feels like a weak spot to me as I have moved around quite a bit geographically but: Pro-bono consulting from Jan 2017 to present, freelance market research gigs, recruitment for current company as well as informal mentoring of potential candidates outside of work, organizer of book/movie club from March 2017 to present; I also lead onboarding at my firm and have re-vamped the program (I have some other random ECs from before I moved to my current city but not very significant)


Thank you in advance!

Hey,

So
GMAT : 710
GPA : 3.0 (Graduate in Commerce)
I am a Chartered Accountant & a CFA Charterholder
Location : India
Experience
3 Years Internship in a top international audit firm (Audit)
3 Years Experience in a top US Investment bank (Product Controller for Structured Products)
Currently employed with a top US bank (Treasury Risk - Structural Interest Rate Risk Management)

I am planning to apply for 2021, by the time will have 2 years experience in my current role

Extra Curricular :
NGO Activities
1 Year in a Rotaract Club
Currently part of an NGO that engages in Education for the underprivileged kids (working as a teacher & Center head)

Can someone give me an evaluation and whether I should do something more to better my profile.

Thanks

Hi

I'm a 27 year old Indian male.
GMAT 700
Engineer from India's best private university
Liberal arts diploma (selected to a cohort of 200 with an acceptance rate of 5%)
2 years workex at Oracle
2 years working at a leading manufacturing firm in business operations and development handling change management projects alongside senior management. I am self-managing myself and involved in upward and downward delegation of work. Played a role in improving PAT of my company by 10% in FY17.

Extra Co: gave free football coaching classes to underprivileged kids. Represented school, college at district and national level in football. Keyboard, drums and recorder player.

Is Darden worth a shot?

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

Hi schitijk,

I don't see your GPA listed, and that's an important academic factor too; also not sure of your GMAT breakdown, but hopefully it's a good balanced score.

Your workex sounds very strong -- the exposure to senior management and independence is great.

I think schools in the 10-25 range are going to be your sweet spot; so Darden is right on the edge. I think it's worth a shot if you've got strong recommendations and essays, and have engaged with the school to demonstrate your interest and learn more about the program.

Good luck!
Kate


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Nationality- Indian
Gender- Male
Xth- 67.7%
XIIth - 65%
Undergrad- B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering with 54.4%
TOEFL- Yet to take
GMAT- 750 ( Q-50, V-41, AWA-4.5, IR-5)

Work Exp :
1. Have worked for 9 years in Telecom Industry and am currently VAS Manager for 23 circles of Airtel India Operations. Have previously worked with Nokia, Mahindra Comviva. Also have worked in UK for 6 months.
- Have received awards for my work at Airtel and previous organisations
- I have done in house courses in Airtel for Leadership,Security as well as technology


Volunteer Experience :
1. Involved in education of economically deprived kids, conducting fundraisers with an NGO "SOCH"
2. During flood disaster in MP in 2016 I was part of the team that setup communications to emergency and disaster helplines for people affected by the natural calamity
3. Sarva Seva Sankalp Samiti – NGO from Burhanpur for Deaddiction centers, Vaccination Drives, Reforestation, Awareness
programs for Crimes against women.Participated in workshops near Indore and Burhanpur for Vaccination drives, Awareness Camps and planting of saplings for green drive.
4.Mentored students at GS Institute of Management for development of soft skills


Extra Curricular:
1. Head of student placement committee and President of club "Peregrination" in College
2. Designed college website for "Peregrination"
3.Paper Presentation on Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic at national level at Concours 2006 at KIT, Andhra Pradesh
4.Presented Paper on Mobile and Wireless Communication in Techvinox 2005.
5.Paper Presentation on MRI Scan Application of Fuzzy Logic in PIONEER 2K5 at College of Engineering ,Kolhapur
6.Second prize in "Wrocketry" organized at KIT Andhra Pradesh
7.Won HTML web page competition in School level competition

Please evaluate.

Background and nationality - Indian male candidate

Undergrad - B. Com with 57.5% (63.5% in the final year)

Postgrad - Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Management (Majors in Development Management) NOTE: Only the institute's name has Forest in it; I studied nothing related to it!

GMAT - 710 (Q-49 V-38)

Work experience and leadership -
Total of 3.5 years of work experience in lending space. I have worked for two financial institutions during this period, both of which were into impact investment. I assessed companies which had either social or environmental impact, and were from either financial inclusion, food and agri, affordable healthcare, affordable education, or clean energy sector. There were all early-stage companies with little to no access to formal sources of financing before my company lent to them. I individually did credit and operational analysis of the companies. I was assigned a new vertical in the first organization (I was assigned the role over my more senior colleagues) and was assigned as the lead member of one of the sectors in the second company.

The "story" - I was pursuing CA during my graduation, and had successfully cleared the intermediate examination. But something felt amiss and the only reason I was pursuing CA was because everybody around me was doing the same and I knew for a fact that there was good money at the end of the tunnel. But something felt amiss and I quit CA following my level II examination and instead decided to do PG. In PG, my course focused on community development and development management in general. I wanted to combine my PG study to what I did prior to that, and hence I got in the impact investment space.

Community and others -
1. Participated in multiple CSR events during PG
2. Ran numerous campaigns during PG, both for the upliftment of the underprivileged as well as for environmental conservation.
3. Active member of Blue Cross
4. Fitness enthusiast and I do work as a fitness instructor

Recommendations - I am sure I can get pretty strong recommendations

Post MBA goals -
Staying in the impact investment space, first by taking some international exposure with the larger donor organizations and then by eventually setting up my own investment fund.

Additional thoughts - I guess my work-ex is on the lower side, but I can show steady increase in responsibilities during this period. Also, I know that my undergrad score is miserable. Nothing really that I can do about it now, but will asking the AdCom to focus on my better-than-average Quant score in GMAT help?

Thanks for the help!

Hi aroy10!

You had me wondering how forests were related to your goals! That all makes sense, and your work experience sounds really great. Impact investing is a hot field, one that a lot of MBAs want to get into, so I think you'd have a really great perspective to bring to a class. Since you want to stay in that general space, make sure you identify a few clear learning goals that explain why you need an MBA now to take your career to the next level. 3-5 years experience is quite common, so I don't think you're on the low end. Even if you can't show promotions in titles, it sounds like you can still show strong progression in your responsibilities, and your recommenders can speak to your increasing leadership.

I think your main challenge is overcoming that low GPA from undergrad. First, you might want to write an Optional Essay explaining any context around the GPA (not to make excuses, but to show you've changed since then). Second, GMAT is the best way to counteract a low GPA! Can you retake? Right now your score is right near Darden's average, but given your GPA, and your competitive applicant pool, I think you need to be ~20 points above the average. A third option for addressing the GPA is to take supplemental pre-MBA coursework (especially if there are any quant classes you failed or near-failed). There are online options for this where you get a transcript/grade.

Hope this helps, and best of luck!
Kate


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Kate,

Thank you for doing this!

Background: Asian Male U.S. Military

Undergrad: United States Air Force Academy B.S. Legal Studies GPA 2.36

Graduate: Oklahoma State University M.S. Entrepreneurship GPA 3.727

GMAT: 710 49Q 37V 5AWA 7IR

Work Experience:
-Air Force Contracting Officer, essentially acquisitions for Air Force. Significant leadership experience through Air Force. Multiple Group level awards, 1 Major Command Award. Exited military as a Captain 5 years
-Medtronic surgery consultant/sales experience. Increased revenue in a 2 year downward trending territory. Grew passion for biotechnology. 2 years
-Currently working on launching platform for New York City to help veterans in need. 4 months

E/C
-Currently Air Force Reserves Captain, I volunteer to interview applicants to Air Force Academy to help them decide if the military is right for them.
-Medical Missions, I was able to earn more than $500k worth of medical implants and tools from Medtronic, and helped ship them to Puerto Rico to help surgeons treat children with scoliosis. Did this for a year and a half while at Medtronic
-Habitat for humanity. Volunteered while in the Air Force to help give back to the cities that embraced the Air Force Base.

Story
-Enjoyed time in Air Force grew passionate about conducting business deals enabling mission capability for Air Force. At Medtronic grew passionate and saw the impact of biotech watching patients move limbs for the first time after an accident. Long term goal is to become accredited investor focused on biotech ecosystem to help improve quality of life globally. Short term is to become investment banker in healthcare group to learn to correctly value companies and identify key growth factors.

Additional info
-I had family health issues that I will not disclose here, but I did not know how to deal with the demanding military and academic curriculum and family issues at home.
-I have always wanted to attend a top MBA program, but I knew my UG gpa is a scarlet letter. I took finance and accounting in Graduate school where I got A's in, out performed peers during my careers and scored a fair GMAT 710 to compensate.

Kate thank you again for your help!

Hi builtok, happy to help! You have a really strong profile for Darden. They (and all schools really) will value your military experience, but especially a school like Darden that is so team-based in its curriculum, I think your perspective will be really interesting. It is also a school that does very well in investment banking placements. I am very impressed by your extracurricular activities, and your passion for making a difference through biotech. I think your story sounds very compelling. The one negative is of course your GPA. That is definitely going to make your chances tough -- so hopefully you have a few safer schools that you're targeting as backups too. As far as how to address the GPA, do plan to write the 250 word optional essay explaining the context and what you learned from the experience. The graduate GPA will definitely help. Your GMAT is strong but is it possible to retake to score even higher? That is really the best way to counteract a low GPA. If not, I think the essays will be really important for you to share your story and make a compelling case why the school is the best fit for you. Have you visited / networked with the Darden community? That should be a priority too.

Best of luck!
Kate


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Kate,

Thank you for the feedback! All my practice scores were in the 710 range. I was contemplating retaking it, but with essay writing season I won't have the time to study to improve my score. I have been networking heavily with Darden. I attended a networking event at Google, spoke with couple members of the Veterans Club, spoke adcom member who specifically works on veteran applicants, and I will be going to a Darden military open house this week. Hopefully all of this will help me position myself for an offer. Thank you again, I really appreciate your help!

Got it, that makes sense to focus on essay writing since your score was in line with practice exams. And it is a solid, well-balanced score. That networking should definitely help -- great job!


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Background and Nationality: White, Male

Undergrad Information: Big Ten School, Finance & Accounting Degrees

GMAT: 730 (Q47, V42, IR 8, AWA 6)

Work Experience and Leadership: Four years in Financial Service Office at Big 4 firm (blend of accounting and consulting)--one of 4 lead associates on multi-million dollar project, Certified Public Accounting

Community and Others: Trekking and Mountaineering -- week long summits of Mt Kilimanjaro (2017), Machu Picchu (2016) and Mt. Rainier (2018), scuba diving, skiing, distance running

Post MBA Goals: Asset Management (majority of my clients served have been large, global asset managers)

Hi sprinni!

See my post in the Kellogg thread: https://gmatclub.com/forum/please-evalu ... l#p1972467

Kate



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Thanks, Kate! I provided a bit more detail on the Kellogg thread. Really appreciate your insight here.

Hi, please evaluate my profile.

Background and nationality: Female Engineer from IIT, Indian
Undergrad Information: Mineral Engineer, GPA: 3.30
GMAT: 730 (Q: 50, V: 40, AWA: 4)
Work experience and leadership: Working in one of the big fours in management consulting domain from past 3 years. Got promoted to senior consultant role this year. Worked on projects such as turnaround, capacity building, marketing strategy, business planning etc. for mining sector clients.
Community and others: Associated with toolbox India and Toastmasters International
Post MBA goals: Would like to work in strategy consulting in firms such as MBB, ATK etc.

Hi ArunaGupta,
I think you've got a strong profile for Darden. Your IIT experience will help you stand out, and your GMAT is excellent too. Your work experience sounds really solid too, with the promotion and variety of projects. And the switch to strategy consulting seem totally reasonable too. So I think you're in good shape, assuming you execute really standout application materials, especially to show your fit with the case method. See here for our Darden essay analysis: https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2017/06 ... 2017-2018/

Best of luck!
Kate


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Background and nationality: Nepalese citizen

Undergrad Information
Bsc (H) in Statistics from one of the best college in India
Scored around 80% overall

GMAT: 610 Q49 V25 IR 8

Work experience and leadership. Work experience over 2 years. Started a joint venture service company in Nepal. Have built the company from scratch. Now the company turnover is around $100,000. Managing around 15-17 employees and look after Marketing and Finance.
Community and others: Have worked with 3 different NGOs during college. Interned with them as well as have worked part time.

Post MBA goals: After learning more about management would like to get back to expand my business.

Hi

My name is Gagandeep. I just gave my GMAT, and I am looking for some guidance on how to go about shortlisting the right schools for myself. Following are the details about my score and background:

GMAT - 720 (Quant: 50, Verbal: 38, IR: 7, AWA: waiting for official score report)
Nationality: Indian
Work experience: 4.5 Years
Designation: Manager
Current Organisation: Flipkart (e-commerce)
Qualification: BE (Hons) Civil Engg.- BITS Pilani

I have been have worked for a construction company previously, for almost 2 years. I was into project management back then, and also got involved into operations and procurement. Post that, I moved to Flipkart ( a leading e-commerce company in India), where I have worked in multiple teams in the last 2.5 years. I have had exposure to multiple angles of the business (have worked with vendors/suppliers, sellers, banks) over this period, and am currently into Strategy and Operations for Payments and Consumer Finance business (we strive to drive affordability for customers by closely working with banks).

I am willing to explore the following career opportunities post MBA - General Management, Consulting, Operations, Product Management

I need help with shortlisting relevant B schools, which are in line with my career goals, and which can be cracked with my GMAT score and my background. Any help will be appreciated.

Hi all,
do you think I have chance to be admitted to MBA+MSDS?
GMAT: 610 (Q47, V27)
TOEFL: 101
GPA: 3.24
Working Exp: 5 years (fashion retail, marketing, analytics, general management)

Hi JaggyS,

You may want to start by checking out our School Selection Guide here: https://shop.mbamission.com/products/se ... ba-program

Second, it may help to narrow down on your career choice (you will need to do this anyway for essays); that could help guide your school selection based on which schools have strong reputations and job placement rates in those fields.

Finally, given the competitiveness of your demographic, I think your sweet spot will be schools where your GMAT is ~20 points over the school's average.

Hope this helps in narrowing down your choices!
Kate


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