Thanks Prerna, this helps.

@CentaClaws I only interviewed at Said. She started by asking what did I learn from all the alumni I spoke to. A bit from my essays. My motivation for Said and my goals post MBA. Since I wanted to get into PE consulting, she asked me my thoughts about PE right now. She asked how I will manage the stress of an MBA. What do I value in a leader. She asked an interested question - there are two types of people in the world, who are they and which one are you.

My interview at Said was very average, I was a bit nervous. I think that was key to my rejection. At Cambridge I feel that I got rejected without interview since I applied in R3.

@khanna05 I am not going to ISB. I will be going to LBS!

@AugustAcademy Thank you!

@Jaideepgmatfocus umm I’m not sure but sometime in May only. Max by 17th May

No movement

Hi, yes i will be attending IESE this fall! Feel free to shoot me questions

I got into Oxford and waiting for LBS. I was also waitlisted in R2, and LBS is my dream school. Let’s see.

Yeah I got tired of waiting for LBS. I am going to try and study abroad in London in Y2 at LBS hopefully. Thanks, yeah lmk how it goes.

I wish I had a calculator that would translate alumni relationships into dollars to help you with your decision. A lot of successes based on Chen luck and trying and pursuing. I do think Tuck is more prestigious than Fuqua and more exclusive perhaps so I think that will be worth something. People will definitely talk to you and I think that would be a big helpful plus. I had the same time it doesn’t mean you’ll get a job .


I have not checked the alum composition within companies. It changes from time to time and especially now with tech changes and troubles it’s all over the place. Before the pandemic messed things up, tech was a fairly common exit path for consultants. As tech jobs dry up, consultant exit pats dried out and consultants stopped quitting. at least that’s one theory I have heard from a person.

so the value of alum is going to be slow to how much effort you invest into it. A lot of the hiring is done using referrals in many companies and especially in large tech firms. You want somebody to refer you but there’s a difference between a cold and a warm referral so to speak.

I would say that it’s gonna be pretty hard to get into anywhere without a cold referral. That’s basically an employee putting you into the database and saying they referred you and they know you a bit. I don’t think anyone is getting any jobs without this kind of a Minimum effort these days just because there’s so many applicants and HR struggles with choosing the right one.

at the same time, everyone else is getting these so if you don’t have as good of experience or don’t as highly in your job performance or other elements, they’ll be quite a number of referred candidates. Everyone with a computer can find an alarm in the company and bug them until they refer them. Not very hard to do. Trick for you stay engaged with the employed tech stay in touch with them for the two years while you’re in business school. In that case, you have a relationship in the network and something much better than a cold referral. This is the relationship matter and make a meeting for difference it’s not a replacement for relevant work experience or skill set. Right now, I’m seeing many students mentioned that employers are looking for people with prior work experience and they have plenty to choose from those for not changing industries. And the for that , your best opportunity is getting an internship in the summer. These can be networked but they’re harder to network.

😂 One message above you said it all comes down to scholarship and now you’re getting back to indecisive.

PS. This is very common by the way and if you have a gut feeling and it’s just feels right, nothing can change that so it sounds like you may be more decisive

Thank you, yes I did.

Thank you, yes I did.

Hey, It was good. Very conversational in nature. Questions were around my work experience (especially on leadership traits), a few questions with regard to creativity and life lessons from travelling (based on the conversation on hobby earlier)

Hey bb and Arvind, thanks for your responses. To answer your point, I have experience in 3 companies (Big MNC, startup, and small traditional business) and different models of business ( B2C, B2G and B2B) through sales, marketing, sales support and development. The rational is I have had varied experiences which have given me skill sets which are needed in a consulting career such as adaptability, pattern recognition, analytics and an understanding of marketing and branding. One more clarification, I have explicitly mentioned consulting with a marketing and branding track like in companies such as McKinsey or even smaller companies that excel at this.
I too had originally thought that maybe there is a gap in my goal and experience but speaking objectively (also through discussions/interviews with MBa students and Adcom, where they gave a positive response for my line of thought) the story while not air tight is honestly not very bad... I would have thought many schools like IESE, Cambridge would've called me for an interview, but that didn't happen. I had worked with a consultant who helped me with building the story in a very personalized and individual way.
What was supposed to be a 6 month process, from preparing to admit has become very overwhelming now. I had hoped to target T25, but that seems like a distant dream right now. Not to mention how it has felt like Indian profiles are held at a very high standard even by the college's level.
Any thoughts on which colleges I should think about? Or if I should work on building my profile for a year and apply next year?

Agreed... Not a lot is making sense right now. I too felt that something was truly amiss when even my conventionally safe colleges didn't give me an interview. The cases you highlight bring the weirdness of this round in the forefront!
While I agree that an updated GMAT might definitely help, I'm unfortunately not sure if I have it in me to prepare again and try a 4th time. Might sound a bit defeatist but the 3rd time was to be my last attempt even if I had scored worse. While my mocks gave me 780, 760, I am sure I'll score much lower in my next attempt.
I'm planning to apply to T40, + top colleges at Alternate countries (eg Australia (not sure with their changing immigration policies though)) . Worst case I'll wait for next year and build my resume up with a promotion and few big projects. Maybe give GRE a try... Don't know. But one thing is for sure, all this talk of "holistic" decision making keeps us in the dark about what is wrong and what to improve. I see candidates with weaker profiles from other countries (avg & under represented) getting scholarships where I am unable to get an interview. UNC is on my list for R2 with tepper, darden, mccombs (maybe), Emory, Vanderbilt (maybe), and a few more maybe. My main focus however is to find the motivation to be in the game after such a dismal R1 result.

Thanks for your reverts BB, I think I speak for many on Gmat club forum when I say that you've been like the friend I've never met and can still talk to comfortably and most definitely would enjoy hanging out with. 😊

That sounds wild, but not enough to be dismissed! I just might do that. Will have to see the portion and bridge any glaring gaps before I do though... My GMAT knowledge had started melting the moment I got a 720! ;P But can definitely think about it. Thanks for the suggestion BB!

Hey, appreciate the offer. Will definitely keep this in mind when i do get stuck! Thanks 😊

Hey Vardan, I haven't received a revert yet sadly.

Thanks a lot for your comments. Just wanted to know if I have a chance at INSEAD Singapore? Should I give it a try or it will be money down the drain?

It’s a little tricky and tough to get scholarships in top business schools. You have to be really better than other applicants and in someway be desirable and attractive to a particular program to qualify for a merit scholarship. Think about it as football teams that are trying to recruit the best soccer players. Someone to play for free and some need to be attracted with large payments… you have to be really good to be attracted with a scholarship

When you write your GMAT you get to choose 5 school to which GMAC sends your score. You don't have to pay separately for it if you choose to apply to these schools.

You're free to apply to any other school you want to, but you'll have to pay GMAC to send your scores to those schools.

The fees for sending your score is NOT within the application fees which you have to pay anyway (unless you have a waiver)