Calling all Indian Applicants - 2016 Intake!!

Profile Evaluation --- 31 Indian IT Male
Married and have a young boy

I have taken GMAT and scored 690 (QA 49, VA 34, IR 6, AWA awaited)

Academics:
10th 1999 = 78.4 %
12th 2001 = 86.0 %
B.E.(Computer Science) 2005 = 71.2 %

Work Experience:
9.5 years of work experience and currently working as Project Lead with India’s top IT Service provider
Lead a team of maximum size 8
Technically very good, enjoy doing data analysis

International Exposure:
2 years in London, UK
3 years in USA

Not associated with any NGO and no voluntary involvement.

Recommendations: Will be able to get good recommendations from immediate supervisor and/or higher management

I want to do 12 to 16 months MBA preferably in IT Service Management (ITSM), Business Process Management (BPM)

While taking GMAT, I have chosen executive programs in below B-School:
IIM A
IIM B
IIM C
XLRI
SP Jain
(Open for B-Schools outside India as well)

Please help me in selecting right B-School catering to my requirement and also where I have better chance to get in.

Any suggestion helping my application will be a great help.
Thank you!

Hi beattheheat,

I would still need to know more about the quality of your work experience. If you can bring out your work accomplishments clearly in your essays and tie it up cleanly to your short term and long term goals, you should have a good shot at the programs that you mentioned.

About US and European schools: depends strongly on the nature of your work experience - with respect to what kind of projects you've worked on - industry, etc. Strong extracurriculars will definitely help here. Feel free to send us an email if you wish to discuss this further.

Regards,
Karthik

I think you have selected very good list of schools apart from SPJain.

IIMA/IIMB/IIMC/XLRI -> All of them have a higher work experience as average work ex.

For IIMA or IIMB -> GMAT score can be an issue Overall, I guess profile looks descent. Do try 1 year program in US schools and keep your options open.

I think you have added Tepper, do let me know if you have any specific tepper queries.

hey guys !
My name is Natarajan. This is my profile :

A. Academic :
1. 10th (CBSE) - 90.2%
2. 12th (CBSE) - 79.4%
Entire Schooling has been done in Dubai, Muscat and Abu Dhabi.
3. Undergrad - College : ICT (Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai)
Degree : B.Tech Chemical Engg (specialization in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology) - aggregate score : First Class with distinction ; WES iGPA converted score : 3.6 GPA
4. GMAT - 730 (Q-50 V-39 IR-7 AWA-6.0)

B. Work experience :
1. 2.25 years with Biocon as a Senior Executive Process Engineer.
key role - scale up and tech transfer, plant design, process revamping, equipment design, technical documentation
2. 1 year as a management trainee at Maxcare Middle East (a TPA Health Insurance company in dubai)
3. Summer Intern in 2011 : Sandoz

C. Extra Curricular :
1. Student council member in school (Senior House Captain) and college (Sports Secretary)
2. plenty of awards in football, debates, painting, long distance running.
3. Black belt (Dan 1) - Karate
4. Learnt Tabla for 10 years

D. NGO involvement :
1. Worked with Akanksha and CRY to organize the ICT Green Marathon

E. International Exposure :
1. Entire Schooling in the Gulf
2. 1 year of work experience in Maxcare Dubai by the time I apply to B Schools.

F. Target Schools :
1. Ross
2. Tepper
3. Kenan-Flagler
4. Darden
5. Fuqua
6. Tuck
7. Johnson
8. Anderson
9. Kelley
10. Wharton (ambitious)
11. Kellogg (ambitious)
12. Haas
13. McComb's
14. Emory
15. Booth (ambitious)
16. Columbia
17. Marshall
18. Hough
19. ISB hyderabad
20. University of Washington, Seattle

G. Target Programs : Full time MBA
1. Marketing (consulting or general marketing)
2. General Management

Hoping someone could evaluate my profile and tell me what schools should I be aiming to apply to ? Also, what are my chances at the listed universities ? I am willing to apply to about 10-15 schools.
I do have a gap of 4 months between jobs at biocon and maxcare since i have been diagnosed with an eye condition and lost some time in attending to it.

thanks,
Natarajan

Hi Natarajan,

You have most of the essential ingredients required to make a good application. I think your self assessment is ok.

Few things to keep in mind:

1) Think through your marketing story. It might be ok for ISB, but not for US schools.
2) I would add Tuck, Haas and Columbia to your ambitious list.
3) Darden, Ross, Anderson, McCombs, Emory and Kelly are a bit of a stretch and require careful execution with respect to making sure that you have reasonable career goals and a watertight story that are well reflected in your essays.

I'm not a big fan of applying all over the place - it will affect the quality of your application by a fair amount. I would recommend focussing on 8 - 10 schools at most. Do a lot of work for those 8 - 10 schools: visiting campuses, if possible, talking to current and former students, and really going deep into school research using any other possible avenues.

Best wishes.

Karthik

First of all,

This part is junk if you are applying to US:

1. 10th (CBSE) - 90.2%
2. 12th (CBSE) - 79.4%

Nobody bothers about class X and XII score unlike Indian B schools. ISB will bother about your Class XII score.

Your grad score will matter + your GMAT score will matter.

You have a huge list of the schools and I guess it is unrealistic to apply to all of them. Realistically speaking I guess 4-5 schools per round is the max. You will be completely exhausting with
1) Reading the complete site of the schools
2) Every school has a blog which discusses in depth about the school's initiative and other information.
3) Interacting with at least 2-3 current students and know about your fit with the school and how the school can help you achieve your post MBA goals.
4) Introspecting about your career goals and how to portray them.
5) Building your resume
6) Recos : One thing which you have to depend on your bosses or x-bosess or colleagues.

So think about this process MULTIPLIED by Number of schools.

So shortlist your schools for Round 1 and Round 2. Think about the strategy which you can get you the maximum returns.

Anything about Tepper, let me know.

All the best

Hi Kinjal and Karthik,

Thanks a lot for your prompt replies.
I do understand that managing schools will be a huge pain, so i think i will shortlist it to about 10 schools at max.

Could you'll suggest 10 schools that you think I should be applying to ? (3 ambitious, 4 competitive but in-line, 3 safe schools)

Also, how exactly do i know if i "fit" into a school ? I mean, do i look at post MBA goals and see how well the previous years students' have aligned to them ? or is there something else ?

Moreover, what are the chances of getting a financial aid for these schools ?

Kinjal,
I was wondering if I could make it to Tepper with these credentials ? If I do lack something, what should I be doing to build my resume over the next few months ?
What do the admissions staff look for specifically in a candidate at Tepper and how could i align myself to those requirements ?

Awaiting your replies,

Warm regards,
Natarajan

For this consultants charge aspirants and this takes a lot of effort from your side to understand which schools align with your post MBA goals.
This includes listening to your past experience and interests and aligning with schools which has similar initiatives.


1) Read the site
2) Read the blogs
3) Talk to current students and network.

These are the only way.



The thumb rule, there are more chances of getting scholarship in schools ranked from 11+, it doesn't mean you don't have any chance of getting any $$$ in top 10 schools.
if the school wants you desperately, they will finance you.



I think you have a fair chance of making through Tepper.

It is one thing to do things and it is completely another thing to portray those things in the applications. Tepper prides itself as a helpful community and fit with tepper community is one of the important aspect.

If you are applying to tepper, do go through the tepper site. There are tons of information right there which will answer most of your queries about Tepper. Above that, don't hesitate to tag me or post your questions to me.

I will strongly suggest you to attend Tepper admission events and I assure you will get more information about amazing things about Tepper and how Tepper will help you to progress in your career.

Let me know if you have any further doubts. Always happy to help

All the best

Thanks a ton for your patience and timely help Kinjal
I will most definitely get back to you should I have any queries regarding Tepper.

Natarajan,

Kinjal has done a fantastic job of answering your question. I have nothing more to add to that.

If you have any further question, always feel free to schedule a call with us.

Regards,
Karthik

One more thing I want to point out, do check out the "GMAT Club's Real Time statistics". You can learn a lot of things of previous year threads.

For example : For tepper there is no ding for aspirants who have scored 730+ so Tepper loves high GMAT scores (at least one of the inference which can be drawn)

Anyway post MBA, we need to be data driven why not start now.

As you go to top 10, full profile becomes more prominent than GMAT score or GPA scores but still we can learn a lot.

Let me know if you have further questions.

All the best

I am trying to post simple stuff about me, my profile etc. so i can receive some good advice but this thread keeps me from doing so. It says i cannot post URLs. But there are no URLs in my text. Help please

Hi Everyone!

My profile is as follows.

I will be taking GMAT on Aug. 14, 2015.

Academics - I am a Chartered Accountant by qualification, completed in May 2012. Broadly speaking, the numbers have been on the lower spectrum of my abilities throughout.

I completed my B.com (Undergraduate) course last year after a gap of 4-5 years. I did it only because there are a lot of things which require one to be a graduate to pursue plus some companies have mandatory requirements of graduation irrespective of professional qualification. However, since it never was my first priority, the scores in B.com absolutely stink. very bad.

I have cleared CFA (CFAI, USA) Level 1 also, in December 2012. I wanted to break into the world of Finance so thought it should help but soon realized that work was largely limited to back end research and quant analytics with a CFA degree. So decided to keep it on the backburner since then.

Work experience - CA course requires a mandatory 42 month training. The training covered lots of aspects around auditing, taxation, accounts, financial management etc. Have certificate for the same from the institute as well.

After qualification in May 2012 i started working in a CA firm (consulting firm) as a consultant / analyst. Profile there was Business valuations, financial modelling and then pretty much of everything (e.g. audit, accounts, taxation, transfer pricing) when primary work is not available.

Moved on to Protiviti consulting in June 2013. Its a US based MNC which specializes in risk consulting and business advisory. Currently working with them as an Assistant Manager based out of Delhi / NCR. With these guys i have had huge exposure into Process reviews, process designing, strategic and analytical assignments for identifying cost saving opportunities or achieving business growth, detecting frauds, improving the control mechanism of the client so as to plug loopholes and prevent frauds. I can go on and on about it.

I have my current boss and couple of clients too who would swear by my work.

I also wish to enroll myself for territorial division of Indian Army one day. Its a dream to serve my country in this lifetime and i will fulfill it.

Here comes the question:
I am looking for a one year course which can leverage existing profile. looking to shift into strategy / business consulting with some reputed name. But, i have no clue as to which schools to target. I am open to studying overseas (US/Europe/Singapore) but would also expect work opportunities for 3 to 5 years to recover the initial investment.

Please suggest some B-schools as I have no idea even after having gone through FT rankings etc.

With best regards

Saurabh Malhotra

Hi Saurabh,

Most European schools (INSEAD/IMD/LBS/Oxford Said/Cambridge Judge) have 1 year/near 1 year programs that you can apply to. Emory and USC have 1 year regular MBA programs in the US.

Although your application should be ok, I would recommend that you check with the schools (IMD and Oxford have free profile evaluations, for example) to see if your 3 year degree + late completion + work ex to be counted before graduation bodes well with them.

Regards,
Karthik

Have you considered Georgetown's McDonough School of Business?

Also, a good resource to start familiarizing yourself with US companies and career paths is pymetrics.

pymetrics is a neuroscience game-based assessment test that reveals your top traits and career paths. It then matches you with companies and jobs you are compatible with.

It's FREE and its a great way to begin familiarizing yourself with the recruiting process in the US

https://bit.ly/1JxEviS

Hi all,

I will be applying for FT MBA program for fall 16.
Here's my brief profile,

1. GMAT : 710 (Q49, V36, AWA 6)

6. Target Program : Full Time MBA (pref in the USA). Preferred MBA in Operations / Supply Chain and Logistics. Few schools in which I plan to apply :
1.Tepper
2.Broad
2.Ross, Michigan
3. Kenan-Flagler
4.Carey
5.Fisher
6. Harvard (ambitious)
(not in any particular order)
7. When Planning to apply ? : will start applying in R1 this year for fall'16 programs
8. Post MBA Goals : I intend to work preferably in the Shipping Industry. I believe that my hands on experience of work culture onboard, and having understood the requirements and difficulties faced by the ship’s crew, along with my management training will help me to serve effectively and efficiently in this industry.

Frankly speaking, I selected the target school list without getting too much insight. However, now i have time and i plan to dig deeper to find which schools will be a safe option for me.
Any suggestions / criticisms are welcomed.

Hi Siamr,

You have a good undergrad score with plenty of extra curricular achievements. Your certifications are technical, and are not really going to add much of the MBA- profile value. However, do mention them where required.

Now the thing that I am a little queasy about is your GMAT score - its less for b-schools like Ross and to some extent, Tepper and UNC Kenen Flagler. Can you retake before the application deadlines?

I am missing more details about your work experience - how have you fared in the past 5 years? What positions have you held? What were your achievements? What about leadership experiences (you guys get a tonne of those opportunities). Your international experience will stand you in good stead- talk about it in terms of what you learned and how you evolved due to it.

Your career goals seem to be on track- you will need more granularity on them. From the goals perspective you have got the right names on your list, other than Harvard, which is a stretched stretch.