Profile evaluation for INSEAD, Duke Fuqua, Marshall, Berkeley Haas, Stanford, Johnson (Cornell), CBS, Ivey, GMAT Focus 705, Law background, from Canada

gmatclub

Comments 6 comments

2 years ago

Good profile. Many of the lawyer applicants I know or have helped with their MBA applications, worked at law firms doing corporate law. So, working at a big 4 could be a slight differentiator in your profile, for whatever its worth. Your could consider a lot more b-schools with your career trajectory and goals - I wouldn't be able to suggest any at this point as its not clear what your rational for selecting b-schools is (your list mentioned here has very varied choices).
Congrats on the Ivey admit. Did you make it to Ivey without a GMAT/ GRE score?

Namita, MBA Decoder.com

TBull9

Thanks, Namita. Canadian in California, hence the school choices. The main goal is to move to consulting so more global mobility (hence INSEAD). Yes to GMAT waiver for Ivey, also applied to USC with GMAT waiver. Based on your opinion, and the limited information above, can you gave me an honest opinion on the chances of getting into INSEAD? Thanks again.

Hmm. You can study practically at any good MBA program and be a contender for a consulting role. Talking about INSEAD- the b-school loves applicants who have an international orientation, which you seem to have plenty of - Chinese descent+ Canadian upbringing and education + US education and work experience - play this to your strength, tell how the combination of all these cultures shapes you into the person you are today and you'll be good.
The other aspect to focus on would be your leadership skills - both at work and in your extra curricular pursuits.

Thanks, Namita. I appreciate your input. Yes on the leadership skills as well. Multiple club president roles (all elected) throughout undergrad and law school, also lead engagements as a senior associate (20-30M deal size), with managerial tasks over all other international tax team inputs (usually 2+ other teams we need to manage depending on the deal size).
I'm confident in my profile, however, my concern is INSEAD requires GMAT. With the short time I have to prep (less than a month), honestly don't think I can get to the average GMAT score. I just took an official GFE mock exam yesterday and I scored right above the recommended 65 percentile on GFE. Don't see significant improvements since the exam is a week away and I need INSEAD's decision prior to early March when Ivey starts (already talked to INSEAD recruiter, and the recruiter is open to the idea of providing a decision earlier in R3, or let the adcom consider my profile in R2 even after the deadline).

You already have an admit in hand, where I assume you will join anyway, so my suggestion is- go ahead and take your chances with INSEAD. Submit absolutely your best application and do your best in the GFE. If postponing the exam by a week or so is an option, then it may help ironing out last minute testing challenges.
My guess is your work would not involve number crunching. However, do bring out the analytical/critical thinking nature of your work however possible. Lawyers can easily justify good communication skills. So my advice would be to use some part of the application (an optional essay) and the recommendations to tell that you satisfy the criteria tested by the GRE/ GMAT in your day to day work life.
Hope that helps.
Namita, MBA Decoder.com

Thanks Namita, I'm a tax lawyer so our day to day actually involves number crunching, even model building. We do tax due diligence for US tech companies which I've highlighted in my optional essay for INSEAD. It was also my basis for applying for GMAT waiver, based on my quantitative working experience.