Calling all Duke Fuqua MBA Applicants: 2023 Intake Class of 2025

Thanks for doing this, Nikhil

Hello applicants! We would be delighted to evaluate your profile and advise you on how to improve it to gain admission to Duke Fuqua. The Fuqua School of Business, which has established itself as one of the world's top business schools, accepts those who are a perfect fit for its ideals. As a result, you must understand the values and align your profile accordingly.

Please submit your profile in the format specified by Nikhil, and we will gladly evaluate it.

Cheers!
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Username - thelazyshorts
Country (current) - India
Citizenship - Indian
Industry - Not for Profit
Function/Role - Public Health, Strategy, Consultant
Years of work experience - 6
GMAT/GRE (mention with split) - Not taken
Target application round - 2
Post-MBA role targeted - Strategy for health tech and multilateral donor organizations, health care consulting,
Short-term goals - Work in strategy and project management roles
Long-term goals - Lead impact driven organizations in healthcare
Extra-curriculars - Teaching underprivileged kids, volunteering with a women empowerment organization, student leader/placecom representative

Username - behlmanmeet
Country (current) - India
Citizenship - Indian
Industry - Agriculture and IT
Function/Role - 1. Poultry Sector, Operations Management and Strategy, Family business- 4yrs (Current)
2. IT, Associate Systems Engineer, Fidelity Investments- 1yr
Years of work experience - 5
GMAT/GRE (mention with split) - 740(Q50,V40)
Target application round - EA
Post-MBA role targeted - Agriconsultant
Short-term goals - strategy consultant for agribusinesses
Long-term goals - Lead family business to bolster operations and inculcate cleaner options such as Plant-based protein and Clean Meat. Transition India's poultry sector to cleaner alternatives.
Extra-curriculars - Helped a rural school transition to online classes and taught kids free math lessons during Covid, Provide free football mentorship at a local club(Won gold in nationals during high school), Led Free food drives and blood donation camps at a local NGO, Co-created college's first CanSat Team(AeroSpace Tech) and participated internationally in a competition organized by American Aeronautical Society(members include NASA).

Hi thelazyshorts

Thank you for sharing your profile with MBA & Beyond. The main assets of your application are your extracurricular activities, long term goals that remain in line with your work experience, your short term goals that were accentuated during your role in the non-profit organization, and lastly your post-MBA goals really tie the true essence of your application together.

On the work front, your 6 yrs of work experience seems good, especially in the industry you want to be a part of in the long run. However, mentioning the promotions and benefits/bonuses, you may have achieved during these years is also really important as it will show your ability to achieve in an environment. All your goals are synonymous with each other, so it will be easy to portray a strong united front for your future self’s expectations. You will need to showcase your leadership skills because Fuqua believes in bringing out the best in individuals, thus, it also expects its students to have this trait. Your extracurricular activities, especially those of teaching underprivileged kids and volunteering with women empowerment organizations, can be expanded to create a beautiful picture of who you truly are for the admissions committee without having to have met them.

The drawbacks in your profile are, starting with the obvious, your GMAT/GRE score’s unavailability. It is one of the most important part of your application that truly determines where you stand compared to your peers. The only thing that may stand as a block will be your choice of applying in the second round of applications. Coming from an overrepresented pool might affect your chances adversely, so applying sooner would be a great option. You can apply to early action rounds,which provides guaranteed interview invites. Since deadlines are approaching, you will need to focus on your application alongside your GMAT/GRE preparation. Overall, you have a good profile and do have a chance at Fuqua. If you'd like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and chances to Fuqua; feel free to book a free session with us at your convenience.

M7 MBA applications: How to prepare for successful for Round 1

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Strategy Manager, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com



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Hi, behlmanmeet,

Thank you for your post!

First, I would like to say you have quite a good journey from working in the Agriculture industry to working in the IT sector and scoring a stellar 740 on your GMAT. That's quite interesting and highlights how good you are with numbers working in Operations Management and Strategy. Coming to your academics, I suggest you add your college GPA and a bit more about your statistics during your graduation and try to add any additional courses, certifications, and academic accolades won. Also, you must add about your Aerospace tech experience; it would help you explore new horizons in front of the adcom and start an interesting conversation with them.

About your work experience, you did well mentioning your roles & responsibilities; however, you need to back them up with substantial examples of leadership, excellence in the field, decision-making, and analytical skills in your tenure. Moreover, since you want to continue in a family business background, getting into an MBA school with a family business background poses a few challenges but no need to worry! Here is an article you could refer to, How to stand out in your MBA application with a family business background, this would most certainly help provide insights about how to approach your MBA application with a family business background. Also, since you had a short span in the IT sector, which is a more conventional MBA background, you need to explain why you think it was a good time for you to switch? What were your aims & aspirations regarding your career switch? And finally, how would you link your past experiences and skill-set developed during this short span concerning your long-term goals? For your reference, I suggest you go through our article on How you can justify your career switch to pursue an MBA for a career change!

Coming to ECAs, you have some relevant ones; however, you need to add more information so that it doesn't sound just like participation! Mention your contribution, the challenges faced, leadership roles played, the impact generated, and the relevant skills developed through your ECAs to bank upon them! Also, you have a relevant post-MBA goal, which is also a noble cause, which would definitely add extra points to your profile. Fuqua is mainly concerned with having a good impact on the community; as a result, you must demonstrate these values. Now all you need to do is link your past experiences, making them collinear in a manner, and also add all about any international experience/exposure as they are greatly valued at this stage!

Overall, you do have an academically strong profile on the surface. However, I need you to understand that Fuqua is a top B-school with no short of stellar profiles; hence, you have to be clear on how an MBA can help you reach your goals and mention your motivation/driving force, your aspirations, and finally, how can you add diversity to the classroom being from an unconventional industry and you have relevant skills to be successful. If you'd like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further help you with shortlisting MBA programs; feel free to book a free session with us at your convenience.

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Strategy Manager, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com




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Fuqua Application Fee waivers.

You are invited to join the Fuqua admissions team for one of our upcoming virtual events!

You will have the opportunity to chat with a member of the Admissions Team to learn more about our portfolio of programs, including our full-time Daytime MBA program, get insight into the admissions process, and learn what makes an application competitive.

As a thank you for attending one of these events, we will waive your application fee for the 2022-2023 admissions cycle.

Location: Virtual | Zoom
Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Time: 9:30 AM ET

https://admissions.fuqua.duke.edu/regis ... eAdCommVIS
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What’s New in the Duke MBA Application for 2022–2023

Read here: https://blogs.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-mba/2 ... -2022-2023

Can someone guide me around MBA math or any other platform that can help me justify low gpa.What exactly needs to be done on MBA math ? Should I pick a couple of topics and work on them or they have any specific course for MBA aspirants

Hi,
MBA math is a great tool to showcase your academic readiness for quant-heavy subjects. How it works is, that you register on the website, pay the fee, and you get access to a self-paced course in a number of subjects, such as accounting, statistics and finance. You take a pre-test for each subject, in which if you score below the required percentage, you can go through lessons that they provide and then take another test, which you need to pass. They have a course designed specifically for MBA candidates and you don't have to worry about picking topics - you only register and they give you the whole thing.

Some examples of the Fuqua’s 25 randoms things essay

https://blogs.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-mba/2 ... dom-things
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Fuqua Daytime MBA application is now open

https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/programs/day ... structions
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jatin22,

I read that it is designed for the enrolled MBA students unlike HBS Core which serves are credentials for academic readiness. Please correct me if that isnt the case

Hi, Kharevabs!

MBAMath does serve as a proof of academic readiness, but HBS CORe would naturally appear as more favourable because (a) HBS brand, (b) it's a substantial investment, so it shows your seriousness and dedication.

MBAMath is often subsidized for MBA Candidates in some schools after they get in. But schools such as Darden have mentioned during their information sessions that MBAMath is viewed as a favourable course when it comes to assessing academic readiness. I remember Dawna Clarke speaking about it. So, I'm pretty sure Fuqua considers MBAMath in a favourable light as well.

Event Spotlight: Inside the Admissions Committee

Join admissions team members for a live virtual Q&A about the Duke Fuqua Daytime application process. During the session, you will gain insight on how to craft a competitive and authentic application and learn what the admissions committee really wants to know about you. Receive answers to your application-related questions during this live session, and get ready to submit your application!

Location: Virtual | Zoom
Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Time: 9:30 AM ET

You can register here https://admissions.fuqua.duke.edu/regis ... eAdCommVIS
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We have a student-only MBA Spotlight coming up where you will get the opportunity to ask anything related to the school to a current second year student. Limited seats for every session. Register here - https://gmatclub.com/forum/meet-student ... l#p3050513

Top MBA Programs and Best B-Schools for Consulting:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/top-mba-programs-and-best-business-schools-for-consulting-395067.html#p3042835

Thanks for the great compilation, Nikhil

Please join us Saturday, August 6th for an AMA with a recent admit! https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/registe ... gyV3OBWvSF
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You have many impactful elements of your profile, but it’s difficult to give you fulsome advice on your candidacy without some additional details (why project management? What industry? What undergrad? What GRE/GMAT score, etc.). The most important questions will be metrics and stats-driven ones, unfortunately (as punishing and impersonal as that may sound).

Because of the volume of applications associated with your Indian demographic, Admissions Committees use signals like undergraduate institutions (namely, IIT) and employers (namely large, multinational companies) and type of employment (non-IT strategic work, with a premium placed on big name professional services like management consulting or bulge bracket banking) to do the sifting for them. If you have any of these signals on your resume, that will greatly help you, but attending IIT definitely does not make you a shoo-in to Fuqua, especially if you cite IIT admission ceaselessly on your application (a major and unfortunately common faux pas). Like most top full-time MBA programs these days, Duke has roughly 35% international students, and a minority of these are Indian. You can see from the numbers how competitive admissions are for Indian applicants. There are many chickens pecking at a limited number of worms.

If you *DON’T* have these prestige signals to send in your application, you need to find a way to signal academic ability and leadership and pedigree in their absence. You don’t provide a standardized test score. That will be even more important for an Indian candidate without prestige signals. You should attempt both the GRE and the GMAT to see which one you favor before committing to studying and sitting for the exam. In order to have a reasonable shot at Duke, I’d wager you need to have about 20-30 higher than the ~720 - 730 GMAT average for the school, especially if your candidacy lacks the highest caliber prestige signals.

Your test scores and your strategic positioning are the two things over which you have the most control at this point. Take the test very seriously - pay for Kaplan or Princeton review prep and practice as many questions as possible before the big day. Regarding your strategic positioning, I’m concerned about your “project management” aspirations. Post Fuqua, if you go into tech or corporate (tech will be easier given work authorization issues if you lack work authorization in the United States), you should be aiming for a *Product* Management role or Product Marketing or Market Manager Role, not a Project Management role. The distinction in terms of responsibility, prestige and compensation is real and appreciated by the admissions committee. If your test score is high enough (MBB cares about test scores), Management Consulting could be a good path for you, but you’ll need to thread that needle so that MBB syncs with what you have already done in your career and plays to your existing strengths, abilities and future goals. Why do you want to pivot to consulting? Why do you need an MBA to make that pivot? What will MBB give you in terms of long-term positioning? In order to gain admission, all of these questions must be tacitly addressed and answered in your Fuqua personal statement.

It seems as if you are seeking a career outside of India immediately post-MBA. If that’s the case, you may want to read this article https://poetsandquants.com/2022/07/21/work-authorization-considerations-for-the-international-mba-applicant/?pq-category=admissionado-the-mba-exchange&pq-category-2=all-about-the-mba that we have published on international work authorization. Admissions committees are increasingly aware of the challenges international students face post-graduation finding a great job. The handful of companies that sponsor work authorization gets smaller every year, and, at this point, is mainly limited to big tech and professional services like consulting and banking. You need to make sure that the career outline that you describe in your essays syncs with the jobs you’ll actually be eligible for when you graduate. Given the emphasis on post-graduation employment statistics and immediate post-MBA compensation in ranking metrics, Admissions Committees won’t want to accept somebody who espouses a career pipe dream given work authorization realities.

Hi, Where can i find the link for this event

i registered but didnt get the link in mail

https://admissions.fuqua.duke.edu/share ... dium=email