Columbia Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

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Hi beastron,

Thank you for sharing your profile.

I'd like to congratulate you on your outstanding GMAT score of 770. Bravo, that's quite fantastic! You are good on the academic front; all you need to do is provide a little more information about your overall statistics and provide a brief description of any additional courses, certifications, and academic honors.

Regarding your work experience, you belong to an overrepresented pool of candidates, thus, you need to focus on "Branding your Profile" by emphasizing your duties and responsibilities, important projects, and global experience, and supporting them with outstanding leadership models and excellence in the field. AdComs are also interested in how well you performed as a leader, going above and beyond your responsibilities to make things happen, therefore, highlight outstanding leadership models and quantify your successful projects! Working in a startup, you would need to highlight specific challenges you faced and the ways you overcame them. Your promotions would also be required to be highlighted in your essays.

Talking about your ECs, sport activities seems quite generic and would require specific achievements to be mentioned. However, you must highlight your passion for scuba diving. In addition, indulging in social causes and community work highlights your social responsibilities as an individual and plays an important role in impressing the AdComs. Overall, you would need to make your EC’s more dynamic to strengthen your application.

Now coming to your dilemma, you can apply to Early action round in Columbia. However, it all comes down to how competitive your profile is. If you’d like, we are happy to get on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and guide you with your confusion. So feel free to book a free session with us at your convenience.

Sign up for the Webinar on- Set yourself up for R2 MBA applications

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

Hi Rishav7,

Thanks for writing in.

You definitely have a lot working for you on all fronts - academic, professional, and extra-curricular. So, yes, you do have a chance at your target schools provided you are able to bring all your achievements together and present the same to the Admissions Committee in a compelling manner. Your career goals also sync well but you need to think about a long-term goal as well.

Spend the next year actively working on building your profile - keep up your performance at work and see if you can take up work that allows you to exhibit your leadership skills further; focus on generating impact both at work and beyond. Further, start interacting with alumni to gain a better understanding of each program.

On a side note, while you have a chance at these schools, it would be worthwhile to add a few more top ~15 schools to your list of target schools purely in the interest of feasibility.

All the best!

The following are the profile's gaps and weaknesses:
1. The competitive demographic is something you must take into consideration while considering competitive colleges like Columbia, even though there is obviously little you can be done about it.


2. Post-MBA objectives lack clarity. Columbia places a lot of emphasis on figuring out how a Columbia MBA fits into your career trajectory. At a high level, what you've said makes sense, but it has to be much more precise. As vague as it gets is wanting to launch your own business.

3. "Community and others" is denoted by a question mark. Did you make a substantial influence or accomplish noteworthy goals? Please elaborate. I can tell where you may have accomplished a lot in this category and where it is merely filler.

"Visit our Website for more free resources and absolutely anything and everything latest about MBA on MBA and Beyond

Hey, MCBAS,

First of all, I must say you have done extremely well in your EA! So kudos on that! However, you must understand that GMAT remains dominant in applying for different B-schools whether you are interested in full-time MBA programs or Executive/Part-time MBA schools. In comparison, EA mainly works well for the later half! So a good GMAT score would also land you in a better position and wider horizons for your application. A lot will also depend on various other parameters, including academics, work experience, essays, and ECs. Hence I would suggest taking the GMAT, and then we could together work on building your profile from scratch! Therefore, If you'd like, we are happy to schedule a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further chances to schools. So 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

Background
- Age 24
- Swiss (born to 1st Gen immigrant parents)
- First to attend uni in my family

Education
- BA in Business Administration from Uni St. Gallen (top tier business school in DACH region), 3.7 GPA
- Co-published paper based on my thesis alongside supervisor and professor

Exam results
- GMAT 760 (V49, Q47, IR 8, AWA not yet received)
- TOEFL: (not yet taken) Aiming for 115-120

Work Experience - Part-Time during Uni (~2 years part-time)
1. Internship at Marketing Association
2. Research Assistant at Uni
3. Various smaller jobs with some leadership experience

Work Experience - Full-Time after Uni (1 year at application)
1. Big4 consulting internship (6 mo)
2. In-house strategy at prestigious bulge bracket bank (6 mo)
3. Recently started tech startup with friends

Extracurricular
- Elected representative of my cohort in student parliament
- Member of appointments committee for 3 professorships

Post MBA Goals
- Continue work on startup if it works out
- Otherwise go into MBB consulting

I would greatly appreciate any feedback and advice
Thank you

Greetings, Everyone!

With the interview invites flying out for September season deadlines, we congratulate everyone who has received an invite, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors!🎉

For anyone who hasn’t received an invitation yet, be patient; sometimes, it might take a little more time than usual! But don’t worry; it will come. Also, especially for anyone Waitlisted, we are very sorry to hear that. However, you must understand that the waitlist doesn’t mean all is lost; there is hope!

At Top B-schools like Columbia, the WL applicants are considered alongside all other applicants in subsequent application rounds and sometimes even into the summer after round 3 decisions have gone out.

Also, I recommend you follow these tips; it will definitely help with your current situation.

1. Change viewpoint – View being waitlisted as having potential as a Columbia student, but there was something about your application, or due to a greater applicant pool, that made adcom unable to extend you a full acceptance offer.

2. Taking Steps – Actively taking steps to improve your candidacy; that’s all the committee cares about, a fighter! Showcase how you embodied some of Columbia’s core values in the time period will definitely improve your candidacy.

3. Don’t bombard Adcom with needless emails or check-ins; limit your communication to specific events, actions, or materials.

The bottom line is that the admissions team won’t know your level of dedication to attending Columbia unless you tell them. So, reach out and explain your commitment to getting accepted, and finally, stress on Why Columbia; what is it about the school that makes you want to be a part of it so much!

To know more, you can click – How do you deal with being waitlisted?



Lastly, for anyone denied, WE ARE WITH YOU! It’s just a minor setback in your road to your dream, nothing that you can’t shake off; there are plenty of Schools you can target in Round 2! We will try our best to assist in your quest for your dream B-school.

At MBanndBeyond, we believe that “it’s never too early to start preparing, and it’s never too late to improve.”

Hence, with that said, we bring to you a detailed profile (one of its kind ) of one of our candidates who got an Interview invite from Columbia EVEN AFTER BEING REJECTED PREVIOUSLY IN ROUND 3 FOR CBS. The story is about inspiration, determination, and how one should handle rejection!


To understand what needs to be done after being Rejected from your dream school, you can refer to this article HERE

Also, we are putting the profile below for everyone’s thorough inspection & Understanding! This would help draw comparisons for your own profile rebuilding & remodeling.

Candidate Profile

Work Experience — 10 years In charge of operations/production/maintenance in a Family business (Peru), in raw material purchasing/manufacturing of Brazil nuts

Undergraduate Information — Engineering background

Target Schools — Columbia J-Term 2023 MBA Program.

GMAT Score — 660

Why MBA — Wanted to acquire more knowledge to help company grow&develop and to further explore investments.

Post MBA Goal — Wants to establish governance and proper company accounting and professionalize it.

Well, yes, we did make some improvements. To be specific, he needed help with branding and essay editing for Columbia in time for R1.. Hence, we focussed on a few points to make a strong narrative!


1. Incorporating Personal Branding Statement — Made it more specific and highlighted even minor aspects to make it reflective of the journey, character, and values.
2. Goal Identification & Goal Articulation — Polished the short-term goals while keeping interests and values aligned and also helped determine long-term goals to present a strong profile to adcoms.
3. Clarity about Why MBA (very important) — Worked on creating a strong narrative about how an MBA gets you closer to your goal(s).
4. Reflect & Revise — Fixed gaps & any possible misalignments between goals and branding statements and supported all of this with real-world examples.

These are some points you can all learn from and highlight as a part of your profile-building process!

Not only that, if your profile is strong, we can help you connect with the Consultant who worked with her and even the Candidate himself in case anyone wants to discuss different aspects of their profile with them! Hence, you can either get on a profile evaluation call with us to help you with your profile. Click HERE to get additional benefits.

We wish you all the best with your Application Process!
MBA and Beyond

Miya Applying for MBA

Age:28
Gender: Female
Nationality: Chinese
Canadian Permanent Resident
First Generation to attend college


Academic
BBA from a Canadian University with 2.45/4.33
I know this is pretty low
There are two reasons:
1.My family experienced a serious financial issue when I was in college, and I had to work day and night to fund myself

2.Our grades were given on curve

GRE: 326 (v156 q170) plan to take one more exam to get a 330+ score
IELTS/TOEFL Waived

CFA II passed, plan to take III in Feb 2023
FRM II passed


WE: 60
1.Currently work as a community manager
in the Chinese Largest Business Study-Abroad Forum

2.Previously work as a CFA instructor
in the Chinese Largest Financial Education Company

3.As soon as I graduated, I worked as an Administrative Assistant
in the Vancouver office of the Chinese Second-Largest Glass Manufacturing Company


Career Goal:
Short term: Financial Sponsors Group in a IB
Long term: Launch a finance education company to prompt education equality


Others:
1.various kinds of volunteer experience during college, and have done many part-time jobs to fund for the tuition fee

2.love to share info will others, and set up a GRE study group and help more than 100 students to prepare for the test

3.devote to animal resurcing, have resurced many dogs, cats, rabbits and so on.

4.donated tuition fees for a poor student until she attended university through “PROJECTHOPE”(a NPO project aimed to subsidizing out-of-school children in poverty-stricken areas to return to school)


Questions:
1.What is my chance to get into Columbia

2.What else could I do to increase the chance?

3.When is the best time to submit my application? ASAP or else?


Thanks for your kind help!!!!!!

jla336:

Thanks for posting:

1.What is my chance to get into Columbia

A: Columbia feels like a stretch, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Yes, GPA is a concern but hopefully the AdCom will given full weight to your justification (presumably written in your optional essay) in making their decision. You should apply but have backup options.

2.What else could I do to increase the chance?

A: It's a little late in the game for this year. At this point you are purely talking about retaking the GRE and putting together a great application (resume + essays.)

3.When is the best time to submit my application? ASAP or else?

A: ASAP. Columbia has rolling admission and you're past the Early Decision deadline. You really want to apply before the bulks of R1 decisions come out. You also are retaking the GRE, right? So you have to factor that in too. If you apply some time in the next few weeks that should be fine.

My team at Admissionado is really efficient at putting together applications for CBS. Do you want to reach out to us for a free consultation so we can discuss your background and our services in more detail?

https://admissionado.com/free-consultation/

Hi everyone!

Please share your thoughts on my profile.

Demography:
29-year-old Indian Male

Education:
Undergrad
- Bachelor in Engineering: Computer Science. Visveshwaraya Technological University, India (2011-2015)
- Grade: 69% Aggregate. 1st Class
- Got a full-ride merit scholarship for 4 years of engineering as I come from a low-income background and scored more than 90% in 12th standard (Physics: 89, Chemistry: 93, Maths: 91)
Graduation
- Masters of Science: Computer Science. University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland (2017-2018)
- Grade: 2.1 . First Class
- Got a scholarship of 4000 euros for educational excellence in engineering

GMAT:
760 (Q50-V42-IR:8-AWA:4)

Current Role:
Senior Software Engineer
-Design, develop and maintain enterprise-level software applications

Work Experience:
Dublin, Ireland (4 years)
-Worked for an Investment Management firm as the lead software developer to build in-house technology products
-Contributed to the design-development-testing and production phases of an enterprise-level Trade-Order Management System with a team of 4 international software developers
-The system effectively manages more than $600 million per month in transactions and handles more than $200 million on a single day during portfolio rebalancing

Bangalore, India (2 years)
-Worked for a Management Consulting firm as a Decision Scientist
-Worked with multiple fortune 500 clients to provide data-driven insights and actionable recommendations

Extracurriculars:
Captain of the University Volleyball Team (2012- 2015)
-Led the team to win our first state-level tournament in 9 years
-Won various regional tournaments across Karnataka, India
Trekked the Himalayas (2017)
-After 3 months of intense training, trekked to Roopkund, Himalayas
-This expedition was with a team of 20 people, ascending from 7000 feet on day 0 to reaching 16,000 feet on day 9
Active Tennis player
-Won the club championship for doubles and the most improved player of the year award in 2019

Languages:
-English
-Hindi
-Kannada

Post-MBA Goal:
-short-term: Switch from tech to consulting, get into MBB. Ideally continue to stay in the finance and tech space
-long-term: Work in strategy roles/ leadership positions in mid-sized fin-tech firms

LOR:
- Strong letter from my current CEO

Target Schools:
Havard, Booth, Kellog, Tuck, Columbia, LBS, INSEAD

Strengths:
- 4 years of international experience. Living in Dublin, worked mostly with the Irish and the germans
- Worked on niche investment tech products. Quant and tech-heavy.
- Wore multiple hats in terms of working with Traders, Brokers, external lawyers, international software developers, and data vendors
- Implemented multiple software from whiteboard to live environments

Weakness:
- Mostly worked in small teams. Haven't led teams of size 10 or more professionally.
- Relatively less exposure in terms of presenting to / convincing stakeholders.

Hey NextGenNerd,

Thanks for sharing a detailed profile.

Your profile looks good on the surface. On the academic side 760, is a stellar score. Your GPA is quite low, but your GMAT score will help you compensate for it. On the work front, 6+ years of experience settles you in a comfortable position to answer the AdComs on various parameters. Working in Dublin would also demonstrate your international exposure. - being exposed to various professionals including traders, Brokers, external lawyers, international software developers, and data vendors also would give your profile a major boost. Your successful management of more than $600 million per month in transactions and more than $200 million on a single day during portfolio rebalancing also should be included in your application. You must specifically bring out instances and scenarios from your work-ex where you stood up in leadership roles and helped your organizations sail out of crisis or impending trouble. You can also showcase your career as that of progression and performance which has been better than your peers.

Coming to the ECs, you seem to have a wide list under your table. However, trekking seems to be your major highlight, try highlighting major learnings from these treks. Speaking about all of this with the right passion can assist you in bringing diversity to your apps. It is important to convey your stories to the AdComs in the best way possible.

I would also appreciate two major things from your profile:
1) Your preparedness with your LOR’s.
2) The acknowledgment of your strengths and weaknesses as it will help you amplify your strengths and work on your backdrops. You may read an article on how to address your strengths and weaknesses in your essays. You will get some insights.

Your short and long-term goals of switching from tech to MBB and taking up leadership roles seem quite practical. It is important to align your goals with the schools you are targeting. I would like you to go through our article How to bring collinearity in your post-MBA goals? to frame your post MBA essays in a better way.

We have helped one of our applicants secure admission into Columbia, Yale, NYU and Fuqua with scholarships. Overall you seem to fit all the parameters essential to get into a top B-school. It all depends on how you connect the dots and build a great story around it. Hence, If you'd like, we are happy to connect you with our Profile Experts (who are alums and students of top B-Schools) who will discuss your profile at length in a 30-45 minutes call and provide you with feedback based on your aspirations and goals. Feel free to schedule a call with us here for in-depth profile evaluation (and some networking on the side!)

No one knows the application process better than the individuals who have gone through it. We match you with alumni from your desired business school. Meet our Panel of Consultants.

Let's discuss how to write admit winning essays for MBA applications

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Strategy Manager
Testimonials
Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com

Visit our website www.mbaandbeyond.com for more MBA resources.

Hi everyone, I was looking to apply to B-schools next year (2024 intake) and would appreciate if I could get inputs on my profile. Thank you! –

Nationality and Age: Indian male and 24 years old

GMAT: 730 taken 2 years ago (Q47 V42)

Educational Experience: Undergraduate Degree – Bachelor’s in Management Studies (Finance Specialization), Delhi University (top 5% college in India) – GPA 8.6/10

Work Experience: (3.5 years in Total)
1) 2.5 years at a MBB consulting firm - mid-office strategy role focusing on the consumer practice area. Staffed on 8 consumer & retail client cases involving cost optimization, portfolio expansion and growth strategies. Clients based in 7 global markets including US, UK and Japan. Awarded fast track promotion in 18-months owing to business impact (top 10% percent of associates at the firm)
2) 1 year at a Beauty Tech start up – Strategy & ops role for a Sequoia funded Indian Beauty unicorn. Building a new priority business vertical that has grown 35% month-on-month since launch. Closed 9 global brand partnership deals worth $4M+ with brands from South Korea, UK and US. Awarded rookie award within 6 months of joining (top 1% of new joiners for exceptional impact)
3) 4 months – Undergrad internships (2 months each) at advisory practices of 2 Big-4 accounting firms across risk advisory and transaction advisory

International Experience:
1) Remote (non-travel) case work with companies and case teams of 7 countries (US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia most closely)
2) SPOC for all global beauty brands at current company, closely working with global beauty brand teams based in 3 countries (South Korea, US, and UK)
3) Leisure travel to 8 countries across 3 continents

Extra-curricular:
1) Executive member of college debating society – responsible for training 30-member team led to most successful year of society. Organized 2 national and 4 university debates that saw participation from 1200+ students
2) Associate at college social entrepreneurship cell - Set up SOPs and a centralized MIS for 15 labs of rural digital literacy project based in Indian villages. Expanded the project into 2 new villages. Project winner of Indian national round (out of 108 colleges) and runners-up in world cup held in Toronto, Canada
3) Avid business quizzer in school & university with 6+ first place positions
4) Sports enthusiast – hobby Tennis player and distance runner (7 races completed)

Career Goals: Strategy & Ops leadership role at a Consumer Tech firm post MBA with a longer-term aspiration of Entrepreneurship in the consumer industry

Questions:
1) GMAT – Should I retake the GMAT to increase my score or spend time working on other aspects of my profile?
2) Chances at target schools – INSEAD, Chicago Booth, Columbia, LBS, Hass

Thanks!

Bschool2023:

Questions:

1) GMAT – Should I retake the GMAT to increase my score or spend time working on other aspects of my profile?

A: Your GMAT score is fine. If you truly feel you can add at least 20 points, then give it another shot but for the schools on your list it's more than sufficient, even for someone such as yourself coming from a competitive demographic. Overall, you are better off focusing on other aspects of your profile.

2) Chances at target schools – INSEAD, Chicago Booth, Columbia, LBS, Hass

A: This is a great list and very appropriate for your background. If you are very interested in Columbia for a 2024 intake, I would seriously consider Early Decision as that will give you a slight edge. Even if you do not, apply on the earlier side given the rolling admission. You can target the other schools for R1 of next year.

If you are going to focus on profile development, please consider our Advanced Planning Program. It's a great "crash course" with a primary consultant on our team who can assess your profile and build a short-term plan to enhance your profile prior to the release of applications in the summer of next year.

https://admissionado.com/mba/mba-advanc ... g-program/

Background and nationality: Asian American (Filipino)

Undergrad Information: lower ranked state school; finance major; 3.42 GPA

Grad school: law school tier 2 (50-100 ranked) low gpa

GMAT: 760 (Q49, V47)

Work experience and leadership: 3 years non-profit attorney helping indigent clients with legal issues; 1 year concurrently working with small businesses with transactional issues and some alternative dispute resolution; currently working in government procurement (will have around 6 months on job by time of application)

Community and others: martial arts and tennis

Post MBA goals: pivot to consulting

Anything else? Like to apply ED Columbia for 2024 matriculation. Also looking at Booth, Wharton, MIT, Ross, Tuck, Yale. Would attend Columbia if accepted ED of course.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Everyone,
I’d love your feedback on my profile for Columbia Business School.
27-Year-Old Indian Male

Under Grad – Economics Major from one of the top undergrad colleges in the country with a 6.48/10 GPA. (The GPA is def going to be a pain in the ass)
GRE – 337 (V – 169, Q – 168)

Work Ex – 7 years at matriculation, 5 Years in Consulting across India, UAE, and Israel with 2 different boutique management consulting firms. I have traveled to Israel for 1 year and traveled to UAE for 2 years.
Currently heading Consulting and Implementation for an Israeli product-based startup (It’s a spin-off of my first organization and they called me back to head the consulting and implementation arm)
1 promotion in the last 1 year in the current job

Leadership: Captain of the college basketball team, Part of an 8-member organizing committee of the college’s sport fest

Extracurricular: National level basketball player and represented my state at All India level tournaments during college time (That’s why my GPA got ****), taught underprivileged kids during college time, worked for TeachForIndia (Taught underprivileged post covid) for 2 years, I have my own podcast on NBA, I own 5 retail outlets in India with an ARR of $1.5 Million

Post MBA Goal – Work for a consulting firm mostly an MBB and then specialize in the Retail, F&B, and CPG sector to become a partner eventually (Aligns with the work and projects that I have done in the last 6 years)

Recommenders – One is from Booth. Both will write great LORs for me.

Hello everyone,

I'm having major FOMO, i was late this application cycle and applied late to Fletcher, INSEAD and HEC. Got an admit to Fletcher, waiting on INSEAD and HEC, i was planning on applying to the J-term round would love feedback on the profile as well as the kind of applicants in the J-term and if it is worth applying to for an international candidate that isnt going to get funded by their employer

Background and nationality - Indian , 32 this year

Undergrad Information - Top 10 college

GMAT: 750

Work experience and leadership - 8.5 years - 2.5 in tech, 6 in Transaction advisory, Investment banking, PE, Corp-Dev - Led teams, interacted directly with management and founders of companies from early stage startups to unicorns. Was the execution lead for deals and helped negotiate price and terms on large deals (latest $108mn fundraise from General Atlantic)

Community and others -
1) Operation support for family trust( very small corpus) - that helps bring sanitation, education, medicines, electricity to villages
2)Mentor Chartered accountant students in their coursework
3)Devised blended finance product and worked with govt orgs to create a market and product to help the trillion dollar funding gap for micro enterprises
4)Pro-bono fundraise for a sports-tech startup whose founder didn't have a college degree and came from a marginalized community
5) Financial work-shops for low-income families, to help them understand impact of economic policies

Post MBA goals
My thesis is that the lines between impact investing and PE/VC are blurring and therefore the goal is to get into a VC fund interested in sustainable finance

Your profile is looking pretty impressive so far, with a solid GMAT score of 750 and some great work experience in finance. But to really make your MBA application stand out, it's important to dive deeper into your specific achievements and impacts in each role, and share more details about your extracurricular activities and quantify the same.

When it comes to your application, remember that your GMAT or GRE score is just one piece of the puzzle. Your essays, statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation are all really important too, and can make a big difference in how your application is perceived. So make sure you're putting your best foot forward in all aspects of your application.

And when it comes to your extracurricular activities, try to focus on recent achievements and the impact you've had. Colleges abroad tend to look at five main factors when considering applicants: academics, work experience, extracurricular activities, curricular achievements, and impact. So if you can showcase your strengths in each of these areas, and quantify them then, you'll be in a great position to land an admission in a top-tier institution.

One other thing to keep in mind is that applying to the J-term round could be a good option for international candidates who aren't funded by their employer. Just be sure to evaluate whether the program aligns with your goals and whether you're up for the intensity of the program.

Both HEC Paris and INSEAD are dream colleges, and a combination of your good GMAT score and a compelling application will increase your chances of getting admitted.

If you need more help, we'd be happy to set up a call and give more pointers on how to improve your profile and the right schools you should target.
You can setup a call via this link:
https://bit.ly/3DSH5km

agas2504:

With your background and set of accomplishments, it's definitely worth an application to Columbia for J-term. I believe your experience, extracurriculars and post-MBA focus will help separate your candidacy even if you are coming from a competitive demographic and with international standing.

The only major concern is your age, but applying for J-term should help mitigate that somewhat.

I would also wait to see how you fare with INSEAD. HEC is great, but INSEAD is the type of program that could be tough to pass up on without knowing if Columbia a sure thing. If you are waitlisted or rejected from those two, I would potentially give up Fletcher to try your hand at Columbia. You could also reapply to HEC and INSEAD (and others) next season as well.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do/if you need more help.

-Admissionado
https://admissionado.com/free-consultation/