MBA Decision Tracker: Monitor Application Status in Real Time

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2 years ago

Welcome to GMAT club.

Amazing accomplishments! They come a bit as a double-edged sword. How will the MBA help you and enable you to reach your goals… that would be one aspect to address clearly in your essays - why do you need an MBA and how it will help your career. At your level, almost EMBA would be a cinsideration but it does not have OPT so that’s a big negative.

I have known a number of people however in their 30s who got in and were successful but recruiting was done on their own as they were too senior for the jobs traditionally recruited after an mba.

TheMBAEdge

Hey Aryaman,

Coming from the Cleantech background, couple of quick observations:
-You have a pretty solid career going for you, so have you really thought why you need an MBA? Is it a desire to transition from a policy focused role into a more business management role? Think through this question hard.
-What's the end goal? Is it entrepreneurship? Is it CXO? This will be very relevant for a senior executive like yourself since you will be making a heavy investment on the career front
-You are committing the principal mistake of applying to too many programs, please note that in one round not more than 4 school applications (that too with over 3 months+ of preparation) can be done given the nuanced research required for each application
-Round 3 is a strict no for International applicants
-For career in Renewable / Energy, United States may not be the best destination as Energy is a strong state subject and hence most Energy companies do not recruit international students
- EU maybe a good fit since they have an older cohort, have seen that they are open to candidates with 10 years experience and are aggressive on the Net Zero ambition.

If you are really keen on an MBA, please evaluate the prospect of moving back to India or starting at a lower level in a global firm in a business oriented role. Some programs that may do the trick for you are IMD, INSEAD, MIT Sloan Fellow, Stanford MSx and LBS.

If you have any other queries, please reach out at info@thembaedge.com.

Saxena_Aryaman

Indeed a great thanks for providing feedbacks. I am aligned with the suggestions made hereinabove. The following responses may also be noted and advised:

1. The MBA for me is a tool to unlock a potential life long opportunity of working in energy security markets in India and South East Asia. I primarily see a great deal of policies and political drive in this region for achieving sustainable energy and regional power security. The scenario is similar in European and gulf nations, Singapore is another great destination for my post MBA jobs. Having said this that I do not foresee US markets as my primary employment markets post MBA, why do I still prefer a US B-School? The answer lies in the reputation, opportunities and learnings that are offered here, which are globally recognised and attracts a great deal of recruiters.

2. I do foresee a larger management role post MBA in India, I can not overlook the fact that the opportunities would also be equally available in public policy and government advisory space. Typically, with an MBA from the Ivy League, I can find myself an employment in consulting, advocacy think-tanks, law firms, corporates etc. Therefore, my primary objective is to gather knowledge and business know-how to get into roles which are more on the management or advisory turf.

3. What I would be majorly focusing on in my MBA would be economics &amp; finances, Human Resources, Public Policy, and entrepreneurship. I want to work in agri-tech industry post MBA as it blends my experience of energy and utility sector with the needs of the agriculture sector. Notwithstanding, that the policy, advocacy and finance would be the major drivers of market growth in India for the next two to three decades when we talk about country's food security.

4. I am also interested in exploring opportunities to contribute with foreign governments, specially in the African nations where energy transition is currently underway and requires a global insight to implement financing models and investment policies. I am confident that these opportunities would be possible with a global MBA.

5. As far as the selection of B-school list is concerned, I am fully aligned with the observation that the best approach is to apply for a maximum of 5-6 B schools in one round, the objective of listing several schools is to get a profile evaluation for these schools where I am interested in applying.

Also, just to add, I received admission invitation from NYU - Law in 2018 (rejected) for a specialised LLM in energy laws.

Well my 2 cents:
-Ideally go for an MBA in the geography where you would want to work in the short term since recruiters tend to prefer recruiting from local markets. While US MBAs are well recognized across the globe, if you intend to work in Asia / EU chose a business school over there since a local alumni network (which plays a big role in recruitment) makes a substantial difference.
-A US MBA will cost you over $200k for a 2 year format, so it may not make sense from an ROI perspective to return immediately to India, in the US the industries open to international students typically are Tech, Consulting and Finance. So be mindful that you may have to rethink your career options are be open to moving out of Energy to stay in the US
-LLM and MBA admissions are quite different so please dont make any judgment on the basis of the past applications to LLM.

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Welcome to GMAT club and great profile. A few quick thoughts:

1. If you have any tech p.m. type of opportunities or responsibilities I would take them and include them in your résumé to show that you’re taking those steps already.

2. Development background helps with the number of tech positions and recruiting.

3. For extra curricular things, it’s nice to show you have a personality but they’re not super valuable unless you have a strong result or you are really proud of something or something really takes a lot of your time. So extra curricular and not going to get you very far

4. Your Gmail is a bit on the lower side for the Indian male engineer unfortunately 😬 hopefully your promotions in experience will highlight your capability.

Comments 2 comments

Awesome profile.

Just a few quick thoughts: your activity during college is good and important but that was several years ago and that only talks about your college times. It indicates you had time available despite being busy in college so make sure you give it some attention but don’t make it the focus of everything because you want to focus on your current accomplishments in your job.

In terms of schools to recommend, nothing much else comes to mind perhaps Berkeley and Sloan and maybe on the safety level, would be darden or Johnson but I think you’ve captured schools pretty well. VC is heavily networked and off-campus.

Good luck!

Ritvik_Sharma_999

Thanks for the review! @bb

Comments 3 comments

Hey @DaringDynamo,

You have got a very robust profile with good GRE score, median GPA and strong work experience. However, you school shortlist is very broad and it literally spans across the world which I get from a hedging point of view but will put you in immense pressure during the application cycle. Would recommend applying to maximum of 5-6 schools in the fall cycle and putting in a strong application for these schools otherwise you run the risk of half baked applications which can produce undesired results.
Just based on the limited information that I have here are my 2 cents, Fuqua may not make the most sense, Tepper will be a decent bet, KF and USC can also be good bets depending on your background. Yale may not be most apt to fit your aspirations while Ross being a strong bet maybe more on the competitive side. Have you looked at other schools like McCombs, Anderson which I feel maybe good fits for your profile.
In the Indian context, the IIM PGPx and ISB are very good choices for local market recruitment.

This is my feedback based on the limited information, do drop a msg to info@thembaedge.com for a detailed discussion.

All the best!

Thanks,
TheMBAEdge

I would recommend to pick the country where you are going to work/live and decided that sooner than later. Otherwise, lots of fees and cost and effort only to choose later 😇

DaringDynamo

Thanks @TheMBAEdge and @bb . It was really insightful. I have currently applied to Indian B-Schools.

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Hi. Welcome to GMAT club!
I think you should be under represented indeed. Sri Lanka has been hit by some hardships in the last few years, based on what I’ve seen and heard. I hope things are better over there and good luck with your applications!

PS. You definitely want to explain your GPA. Your GMAT would be just fine but if your GPA is indeed quite low, your only recourse really is a strong test score. I’m not sure if you have it in you to do a retake and improve your score …a high score never hurts… 😇

sidhusan

Thanks bb

Great score! Are you applying this year again or you started at Queen's?
P.S. I have heard that Canadian schools give 50% at most for scholarship, is that more or less accurate?

Shikharv99

hey can you tell me the process to apply for Scholarship ?

quant92

hey, can you tell me more about Rotman interviews?

Wow! That’s an amazing GRE score.

The best way to address any concerns about your work experience is showing at work, maturity, and just presenting yourself well. These are the elements that admissions are considering and also the employers will consider. Admissions always look at your employability after graduation and they want to make sure they serve you well. Hopefully you have some promotions and the good track at work. That will take care of any concerns.

PS. We have not seen many scholarships with Jerry but we think this year may be the year they start for high Jerry scores because Jerry is now included in some of the rankings… 🤞

Raj777XYZ

Thanks! I did get one promotion at work within 8 months. I applied Early Action Duke, hopefully that does the trick!

Thats a positive. Your score should carry you too. 🤞

Comments 7 comments

Awesome job getting your applications prepped and ready! 👍

cup_vt

Hi, just curious, did you really get an interview invite from Kellogg 1 day after Round 1 deadline?
Edit: Sorry I didn't know Kellogg interview all applicants.

Kelly interviews almost all applicants. There are some capacity constraints and things like that but for round one yes.

There’s a number of other programs that guarantee an interview if you apply in round one such as tuck, Dan, and I think Fuqua as well.

Thanks @bb. I didn't know that, but according to this post, I guess they've recently changed their interview thing or am I missing something?
https://gmatclub.com/forum/chances-of-g ... 80562.html

milpilot16

I see the confusion. I am not sure how that bounces against the suggested post interview acceptance rate of 51%. It should be roughly equal to the overall acceptance rate since Kellogg interviews roughly all applicants.

Good question. I think Kellogg has been interviewing people for a while so I’m not sure about that stat… would not add up 😬

Russellk

Would love to connect with you about this process. Marine Corps vet here and currently working as a civ for the Air Force. Feeling a little intimidated by the whole process!

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MBAGuide

@vatsagrawal

Interesting goals. Make sure you are able to show a strong connect with your passion for sports and how a particular MBA program will actually help you steer your career in that direction. Schools look for connect with the goals and your ability to fulfil them in your past stories. With unconventional goals, there is little room for vagueness. Show deep research into your career prospects to win over the adcoms.

Personalized advice tailored to your specific situation is just a phone call or message away. Do not hesitate to reach out to us if you need help navigating your unique circumstances in the B School admissions process. We do not cap discussion hours for our applicants

Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD alum, ex MBA admissions interviewer)
MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/ | Message: +91 9971200927| email- mbaguideconsulting@gmail.com

Hi. Great profile!
I think your plans makes sense. Nike tends to hire quite a few MBA graduates. So there’s definitely one option and perhaps there are many others. At the same time, I have been hearing any little feedback from recent graduates that merchandising and consumer goods them to pay on the lower side compared to e-commerce or tech jobs. Don’t let me discourage you from following your dream but you may consider Plan B as well at some point.

Otherwise I think you have a great profile and a great score to try your luck at the number of these schools 👍

Hey Vatsal,

Opportunities in Sports Merchandising within the US are fairly limited and the ones that do hire MBAs may not be able to sponsor your visa given the demand supply mismatch. Unfortunately, Nike sponsors on a case by case basis and that too marketing analytics functions. If you are really passionate about Sports merchandising, think about the EU where you have options like Decathlon, Manchester United, Adidas and many other larger sports retailer offering some good roles for business graduates. Plus given their focus on the Indian market, you may make a good fit for their hiring plans as most are aggressively looking at expanding their India presence.
Within the US it would make sense to stick to plain vanilla e-comm/retail opportunities with the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Target etc. since they have been working with international students day in and day out.

Reach out at info@thembaedge,com | +918368000961 if you have any other queries. All the best for your applications!

Thank you. Good feedback. I have not considered the visa issue. CPG and a number of other industries do not sponsor unfortunately…. Things got better during the pandemic but places such as Nike and Patagonia are highly competitive….

vatsagrawal

Hi folks, sorry just saw these inputs. Thanks a ton! Sharing some more nuances around my Plan A and Plan B, looking forward to discussing this further.

My immediate post MBA goal is to re-enter the Strategy domain in e-commerce domain, and, I would love for this to be with a sporting goods firm as I can see myself being excited to work in a role of the sort. I feel my experience in BD, merchandizing and platform growth has given me the basic wireframe, which an MBA can really polish up to enable me to succeed here. This is my plan A, however, I am aware real life is often not ideal, and my plan B will be to look out for established e-commerce firms like Amazon where my existing work experience combined with my MBA learnings can help me excel.

One reason for me to look into US B-Schools was because I wanted a comprehensive MBA experience given my work experience will still be just average (5 years) for most programs. Another reason for going with US was because they have the best ranked schools for my overall profile, and I feel I will be able to find a peer group there that will really push me to fuel my own growth.

I understand the visa concerns, but I'd rather have a plan B to deal with that rather than not show case my motivation on the application. Having a mainstream goal in a competitive candidate pool like mine (Indian male with an engineering background) could also negatively impact my application, so that was another headwind I felt incoming with that approach.

Eager to hear your views on this!

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Hey! Another member from Vietnam. Welcome. It seems this is the year of Vietnam 👍😎

I think you have a very strong profile and it’s a bummer you score maxed out at 650. at the same time, with 13 years of full-time work experience, you will be making some of the admissions officers slightly concerned about the value of their business school can add. it’s not that they do not want you. They would all love to have you as a part of their class because you’d be such a strong contributor, they would be more concerned about recruiting at their program.

Frankly, I think you’ll get into all of these schools. The challenge will be getting the right job and fit for you. Traditional recruiting path out of business school is mid management at best. While tech p.m. jobs pay quite a bit, they’re not that senior. You’re starting out pretty much at the bottom of the tech PM field. Recruiting straight into a mid or senior management requires referrals and connections. Not in the weird sense but in the sense that somebody needs to vouch for you Because it’s a big risk for employers to recruit someone without a track record within the industry.

Have you considered the Sloan fellows and Stanford MSX? We are shorter full-time programs for experienced professionals. I don’t know about their average GMAT scores something to research potentially…. At the same time, those programs would not provide a scholarship. These schools you’re applying to would likely offer money.

meomap88

Thank you, BB, for your insightful feedback! I hope to continue receiving your support for my case, as I am aware it is not a typical one.

** Why Full-time MBA:
I'm a high performer who has reached a plateau in the local labor market. I aim to enhance myself by thriving in the global working environment. To achieve further progress, I need to acquire more skills, knowledge, and expand my network, all of which can be offered by an MBA. Full-time STEM MBA with 3 years of working after graduation will be a great opportunity for me to fulfill my expectations.

I have switched 2-3 managerial roles within the automotive industry (Marketing / Business Analysis / HR), so I'm not doubted to switch functions OR industries (not both of them at the same time). I aimed to Market Analysis or Business Analysis function in some Tech companies which are developing AI/Cloud services/products for Automotive industry.

But if Tech industry is not a good idea, should I consider hiring a career orientation consultation before I begin preparing my essays?

** GMAT Score:
I achieved Q49, IR 8 and V29. I plan to take GMAT FOCUS multiple times in November and December.
+ According to ESR, the primary factor contributing to my low verbal score was a weak performance in SC, which will no longer be included in GMAT FOCUS.
+ IR (the section that I got 8) will be included in new GMAT edition.
+ I took a GMAT focus mock test on MBA.com and scored 645 (89% percentile).
I wonder if gaining admission to those schools will significantly improve if I can achieve the similar score in the actual exam?

Sincerely thank you for your help and your time!

My pleasure! I think GMAT focus is a good idea. It has fewer quantitative elements.

In terms of your career and getting some guidance, my recommendation would be to get in touch with current students who are looking for jobs and who have their fingers on the pulse of the job market. I have a feeling after two phone calls you’ll get a very clear idea about opportunities as well as obstacles you should be preparing to face.

I would recommend listening very carefully and astutely to what they have to say. Careful in the sense that they will never tell you that their business school is terrible and they made the worst decision in their life but they will provide some indication of challenges and signal to you. It will be up to you to pick up on those signals and either know them or make a mistake and ignore them. I’m not saying that you should not do an NBA or anything like that, I’m saying that they may recommend a different program in a roundabout way.

I did not mean to say that tech is a bad idea. I feel the challenges you will face will be very similar across industries. It is easier to recruit into the same industry you came from however because your work experience will get more credit and more recognition. However 70 or 80% of business school students change the career and they get an MBA for exactly the same reason you are pursuing it.

Let me know if I’m misunderstood anything 😇

Hi, Vietnamese applicant here, would love to connect with you

Hi, considering your impressive background and undergrad prestige, it might have been advantageous to invest more time in enhancing your GMAT score and aiming for admission to a school in this league with the possibility of securing substantial scholarships. Applicants often undervalue the pivotal role that a strong GMAT score plays in obtaining full scholarship.

Get candid advice tailored to your specific situation. We do not cap discussion hours with our applicants. Feel free to connect

Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD alum, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/ | Message: +91 9971200927| email- mbaguideconsulting@gmail.com

Congrats for the interview and all the best! Do diversify your risk by applying to Oxbridge since they are also feeder programs for the likes of IFC, WB, ADB etc.

Great profile! Good luck!
Insead average is around 700 but they take in people across the board and 650 should not keep you out much.

JKINSEAD

Hi thanks . Do you mean Oxford Saïd MBA ?

yuxizhao

Congrats!!

Wow! Amazing job! No need to worry about Oxford/Cambridge anymore 😇👍

Comments 10 comments

Welcome and nice profile.

Another school to recommend that used to be quintessential CPG program is Kellogg. This used to be their bread and butter many many moons ago.

Not sure if you’re considering accounting any financial aid or scholarships but they come less abundantly with executive assessment scores. I am sure you had your reasons to take the EA. Potentially, GMAT focus is very very similar but my guess is you probably not interested in another encounter with the GMAT. Nobody is.

CPG has been somewhat lagging and losing the battle to tack and consulting in business schools, in part due to lower compensation and more traditional roles and slow growth frankly. However having that background, makes you strong contender and schools like people who are not switches.

licia11

Hi! I just updated my post a bit more to give background!

Awesome!

I missed your point about focus on New York and East Coast and I think it makes sense to be in Columbia or Stern and to be right there. I don’t know how many CPG jobs are in that area but I’m guessing there’s a little bit of everything in New York 😎

I see the strategy behind the school choice now thank you!

Thank you! NYC is kind of where my heart as my family/fiancé/his family are here but I’m open to looking at Kellogg if they are well known for it!

I am considering taking the GRE. I took it once and didn’t do great, so I am still studying to it. However, if the GMAT focus is an option, I may consider it!

GRE is a bit like EA in the eyes of the admissions. Unless you get a really high score, it’s not going to get you in with any fancy scholarship money but if you get none of your stellar score, you can sneak in with a lower than average much easier than with the GMAT. GRE is also more common and doesn’t get admissions wondering why did you take EA instead of GMAT or GRE … type of thing.

By the way, have you applied for the forte foundation or considered their program or is this too late already? Have some amazing offers for application fee waivers if you sign up for their program.

I am apart of Forte MBALaunch and used/will be using their waivers for most of my schools. I also worked with a consultant on my applications. Honestly, I struggle with standardized tests. It’s just not my strong suit and I fully admit to it. I really wanted to stick with the GMAT because I think I can do well with it for my R2 schools. But I’m so burnt out from switching between exams/studying generally.

Awesome. I’m glad you got great support from forte and the consultant. Don’t worry about the test too much. It is what it is and people have gotten in with lower or even no scores at all… there are many roads you can take. If you can demonstrate strong academic rigor with a good profile, your test is not a big driver.

PS. I know it’s outside of your general geography but you may consider Ross and Darden to bump your chances and instead of studying for the GMAT/GRE/etc

I am hoping my essays/WE show my passion for why I want to go back to school and balance out my EA score

There is a rumor which is probably not helpful to spread but what else do we have to do, with ChatGPT making everyone an amazing writer, there’s a good chance résumé and your professional achievements will take the first and the most decisive role in the application and I feel you Should have the lease concerns in that regard and feel a little bit less paranoid.

Another theory I’ve heard is that applying to more schools and increases your chances and I think I could agree with that, the more shots you have the most likely one of them will be lucky one. 🤷‍♂️

Good luck!

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