Live Chat with Prasanth Ramanand (Senior Consultant - ARINGO) Session Transcript
Dear Members,
We had a chat session with Prasant Ramanand on GMAT Club a week back. Prasanth chatted with GMAT Club members in chat room for an hour, answered to their questions, and shared some words of wisdom.
For those who missed this event, I am putting here some important questions/answers as well as tips shared by Prasanth during the event. You can also download the transcript of this entire session from bottom of this post. Also visit this thread to view schedule of upcoming consultant chat events. schedule-of-online-chat-sessions-with-admission-consultants-188123.html
aashu4uiit: Can you suggest what should be a Typical GMAT ( more admit admit ) score for an Indian IT male , 10 Years work ex for INSEAD and IMD. Profile : 10y works IT Project manager . average acads and extra curricular
Aringo_Prasanth: Hi Aashu, so MBA is about holistic evaluation. As you know Indians generally have a high score (700+) but there are plenty of those in IIM (Indian-IT-Male) profile with that score and won't score an admit still. On the other hand, I've clients with 680 who got through (from IIM pool). So, I encourage you to get as high score as possible, but don't get too hung up on GMAT. The application package needs to differentiate you from the crowd and that's the key to admit
MBASpartan: Would you mind giving a quick overview of Kellogg and Booth ? Other than the normal high GMAT, work experience, etc? Thanks!
Aringo_Prasanth: Chicago is very unique given the nature of their essay prompt. They really like those applicants who have tried to shake things a bit at their work. It's in their nature to be more analytical and inquisitive. Kellogg on the other hand is more interested in seeing if you've taken risks in your career, tried to do something different
manneken: Hi Prasanth, Do you have any idea about the importance of GMAT for Phd applications? Especially at UC Berkeley or UCLA?
Aringo_Prasanth: Hi Manneken, for PhD GMAT is still a key attribute to show quantitative abilities, but the more important criteria will be your research aptitude.
madhan: Hi Prasanth, Have you ever dealt with applicants who got into H/S/W with average grades..if so can please discuss about, what was the X factor in those applicants??
Aringo_Prasanth: Hi Madhan, ah I was waiting when someone would start the HSW discussion Yes, it's possible to get into those programs with a lower acads. Obviously, if you have lower GPA then it's important to get a higher GMAT to offset that negative a little.
Ergenekon: Prasanth, is there any difference between attitudes of wharton and columbia adcoms? for example one can pay more attention to leadership etc.
Aringo_Prasanth: H/S/W - sure. With HBS, it's about what is the best thing about you that you want to share. You can talk about work or personal life or future goals or anything else about you that will differentiate you from others.
Wharton - has completely revamped their process recently and I believe they are trying too hard to ensure the class is filled with students who are likeable, humble and get along. So the team dynamics is key for Wharton these days
Columbia's process hasn't changed much in the recent years, alumni continues to do the interviews and so adcom is perhaps happy with how we have filtered the applicants thus far
Narenn: Hi Prasanth, Let me ask a couple questions on today’s topic of this chat - MBA Application Essays.
What are the characteristics of good and bad essays?
What’s the ideal time to start essays writing?
And, finally, please share some tips on Essay drafting
Aringo_Prasanth: Hi Narenn, sure. I'll address them one by one.
1- A good essay will attempt to do several things - it will capture the attention of the reader from the get go. It will have a compelling narrative, story arc that keeps things interesting till the end. It will above all, address the question carefully and showcase applicant's strengths and differentiate him/her from the crowd.
A bad essay on the other hand, will be boring to read and won't have a strong story to support the narrative
2-Ideal time to start writing - well, I've had clients who wanted to wrap up everything in 1 week and we have done that successfully. That said, the best thing will be to start 3-4 months before deadlines, so you have time to reflect and not rush through
3- Tips for drafting - I recommend doing something that we call Personal Data Mining at
Aringo . You really need to look at your work/personal lives objectively and capture all the important moments and reasons behind decisions at every juncture - prior to start writing essays. This will help you identify strong stories later as well as give you clarity of purpose when you write the essays
Some useful material available on this link
https://www.aringo.com/MBA_Essay_Tips.htmaashu4uiit: If I have one more year to improve on things other than GMAT can you suggest what should one do ? language course ... something else any list.
Aringo_Prasanth: Hi Aashu - you can work on community service if that's lacking. You can take up a side project if you wish to showcase yourself as an entrepreneur. There are several possibilities it all depends on your positioning and current weakness.
madhan: how
aringo is different from other admissions consultants??
Aringo_Prasanth: Aringo has been around for a while, and we have spent $ to extract insights from the scores of applications that was successful. When a client works with us, you get benefit of not just 1 consultant, you get to talk to multiple across the process as well as get feedback on goals etc. from the strategy committee.
Session Transcript
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