Hi, I'm an indian female
chemical engineer working in one of the world's largest oil and gas companies.
Work experience- Financial planning and analysis +Engineering + latest- team lead within oil and gas projects
Undergrad Information
GMAT:740(V44 Q48)
Work experience and leadership - Work ex as above + global recognition+ award from VP+ team lead for projects
Community and others - Participation in college and company CSR events at an Average level

Post MBA goals- Build on the finance knowledge and work in M&A and consulting roles for energy companies transitioning into clean tech and renewables.

Anything else?- consistent and high academics
Great LORs

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Hi,
Would appreciate your support for profile evaluation-
.
Nationality- Indian
GMAT- 770
Work Ex - 52months (day of enrollment)
International work ex - 29 months
Industry- oil and gas , epc sector
Position- procurement engineer
Currently spearheading edtech business venture of the company in middle east market.
Certification- SAP MM, SIX SIGNA GREEN BELT, BLACK BELT, PMP(PDU CERTIFICATE ONLY, EXAM IN DEC 2021)
work exp in countries such as nigeria, saudi arabia, dubai etc...
Post mba career - consulting (operations/scm)
Long term- to head scm /operations division with amazon or walmart ...
Extra curricular- avg (motorcycle tours,
Community service- not much but have helped indian expat community to get repatriate from saudi to india in the midst of covid ..so there is one interesting instance....
Helped save my boss's life when he was having a heart attack...so
Not the usual ngo kinda exp bt yes do have some ... community impact examples..

Target school-
Top 10

Good essays-7/10
LOR- all good as have some interesting stories and have led multiple projects for big clients like aramco , sabic etc...
UG- mechanical engineering , 6.93/10 cgpa - avg University (top 30% in the class)

Looking forward to hearing from you...
Cheers

BR
Sk

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Hi everyone,

Background: Mexican
Undergraduate: ITESM (Top LATAM university)/GPA: 85/100 (top 20%)
GRE: 325 (165Q/160V)
Work Experience: ~65 months of full-time work experience by matriculation.
4.5 years of experience in private equity at a US$1bn + fund in LATAM (1 year) then left to co-manage a small VC fund (spent 1.2 years there; US$5mm AUM) in Mexico. Once that fund was fully invested left to join a starting PE fund worked for 2.5 years there (4 promotions across work history). Recently joined a energy start-up in the US to gain more international experience prior to my MBA.

Post MBA Goals: Start my own ed-tech company or work at a ed-tech startup (think Coursera)

Strong LOR and Essays

Extracurriculars
co-captain of Private equity fund football team
Spend 20 hours a year cleaning rivers and planting trees (not much free time in private equity)
in college spent over 300 hours helping a small organization focused on improving the quality of life in low income rural towns in Mexico (roughly spent 20 hours a month)

Work experience is really good (PE/ VC is quite unique). Score could be better for sure. 330+ atleast would be good target I'd say. Extra-curricular could use some work too.

Posted from my mobile device

Any insight or advice on this one?
Would appreciate...
BR
Sk

Hi All,

I would really appreciate a feedback on my profile.

GMAT - 770
10th - 78.6% (CBSE)
12th - 77.2% with PCM (CBSE)
Graduation - B.tech (Computer Science engineering) from UPTU (72.8 %)
Age : 33
Gender: Female
Nationality - Indian
Target Colleges : HARVARD, STANFORD, WHARTON, INSEAD, LBS , COLUMBIA, KELLOGGS, MIT SLOAN, NYU STERN, CHICAGO BOOTH
Professional Experience- 11.5 years of Full time work experience ( Worked in known IT Brands - Capgemini,L&T Infotech, Wipro)
CURRENT ROLE : ( Business Intelligence Specialist) Manager in a Hedge fund company. Works in a techno-functional role
Career key highlights -
 Saved $49.7M by implementing proof-of-concept to convert $500 M projects from Ab Initio to PySpark technology
 Contributed $200k annual revenue by aggregating unstructured data from 100+ sources for new product
 Saved a fine of $125M by creating Data Redaction Framework, since replicated globally on data obfuscation for card
customers; Supported the Project Manager and Tech Lead to liaison with clients and harvest available test data
 Optimized support model and addressed recurring incidents reducing weekly incident count from 55 to 20; Reduced
the production incident TAT by 20% using a logistic plan for frequently occurring issues
 Collaborated with Infrastructure team to write custom shell scripts for process monitoring and data clean-up; Reduced
disk space requirement by 35% by freeing up 15TB space daily
 Reduced 50% TAT for managerial reporting system using optimized algorithms for query processing
 Facilitated business expansion and increased user base from 100-200 to 100k users in 3 months
 Generated processes to capture data from 150 servers across different locations; Reduced 30% TAT for check-in/out
and graph execution by streamlining 120 projects using data lineage
 Trained a team of 4 recruits in Financial Services Business Unit; Got promoted first, amongst the batch of 1100


CERTIFICATIONS
 NSE Academy Certification in Financial Markets Certification, NSE India, Aug 2015
 Certification on Data Warehouse Concepts, Brain-bench, Aug 2015
ACHIEVEMENTS
 Won the 1st prize among 1500 participants, Planks Competition, organized by <>, Mar 2018
 Author of Romance Novel <>, 2015
 Featured in National Newspapers ( Hindustan Times , Times of India ) , 2015
 1 Manuscript complete & publishing is in progres ( Not sure if this is worth mentioning ) , 2 Manuscripts ( Writing in progress) .
VOLUNTEER WORK
 Volunteer, Corporate Wellness Programs, <>: Organised wellness challenges for 80 colleagues & helped
5 colleagues to achieve weight transformation; Wrote 15 health & fitness articles on the company portal, Mar 2020
 Young Professional Ambassador, CSR Team, <>: Created awareness about 'Teach for India’ fellowship
programme; Identified 135 individuals out of which 5 were selected for fellowship programme, Apr 2012 – Mar 2013

Post MBA goals - (Short term plan )Digital Transformation Leader , ( Long term plan) Chief Information Officer . I am also open to explore possibilities in Consulting and look forward to explore that dimension too. But leveraging my IT experience in Business Intelligence would be great.

Hi! Thanks for taking a look at my profile. Targeting the EMBA program.
Age: 32
Nationality: American (Indian origin)
Undergrad: Economics, math, statistics (3.4 GPA)
Masters: HR from Rutgers (3.9 GPA)
EA: Planning to take the executive assessment since I will have 8 years of work ex by matriculation. Currently around the 150-155 range in the official practice tests
Work Experience: 8 years in the automotive and tech industries. Currently head of analytics in HR at a series D unicorn startup. I lead a team of data scientists and am building the people analytics function from the ground up
Sponsorship: 100% company sponsored
LOR: 1 is from my current manager. I worked with her at a previous company and she asked me to join her here so we have a great relationship. I have not decided on my second LOR. I can ask my professional mentor who managed me at my first job and has seen my growth across my career. My second option is a c-suite leader who has worked with me closely at this job, but does not know much about my career before this. She is extremely well known
Extracurriculars: Started my own people analytics consortium, part of the leadership committee for the south asian ERG at work, volunteer with impoverished children in India and work with school kids from under-resourced areas near me. I also do a lot of DEI work as a part of my job, building processes to analyze and ensure equity across the employee lifecycle
Motivation for getting an MBA: I want to be able to connect our people data back to the business objectives. HR tends to be in the support function objectives grouped with a lot of other items, but I believe that people data and analytics should underlay all of our business objectives. In order to do this effectively, I need to be able to understand and speak the languages of the different functions.

You have a good shot--although EA score and Rutgers is not necessarily the most helpful but you are sponsored and have some good support. Do a good job on your essays and application overall!
_________________

StratusDonna
I forgot to mention I have an alumni referral as well - they recommended me for the program. Not sure if this helps though?

Posted from my mobile device

_________________

Hi All

Wondering what would be an acceptable EA score for Wharton. I have taken it twice and got the below scores:

Attempt 1 - 152 (IR11, V11, Q10)

Attempt 2 - 151 (IR9, V9, Q13)

Should I retake the EA? Planning to apply in R2.

Profile - Engineer working as Director in a small tech company w 12 years WE

Thank you.
+1

Hi All!

Can you please review my profile?

Thank you very much!

Background and nationality: Hungarian, male, 27 years old by the time I apply.

Undergrad Information: Law degree from a Hungarian university, GPA: 4,61/5 with a summa cum laude distinction, top 15% of the class. I have received national excellence scholarships (these scholarships are given to students who have particularly high GPAs and performed certain extracurricular activities) for three semesters and national merit scholarships for all other semesters from the Hungarian Ministry of Justice and have received a Dean’s Award as well.


GMAT: aiming for 760-770

Work experience and leadership: by the time I apply I’ll have more than three years of experience working as a transactional lawyer on real estate and m&a deals at leading international law firms in Budapest, including 200-400 million EUR cross-border deals, not much leadership experience as I’m still considered a quite junior associate in the legal environment, however I have regularly coordinated different sub-tasks of a larger matter, where I had to lead and coordinate the work of my colleagues who are even more junior than me.

Community and others: now this is definetely one of my weakest points, I do not have much community experience apart from being part of a college for advanced studies during my years at university, I also have won and placed well on a couple of national competitions and participated in an international competition as well and had several internships during uni as extracurricular activities.

Post MBA goals:
Short term: switch my carrier to investment banking, as I’m definetly more interested in the finance/business side of deals than the legal side
Long term: build on my experience gained as a transactional lawyer and an investment banker and establish an m&a/transactional advisory firm in Hungary

International experience: I have studied a semester abroad as an Erasmus student, but no significant international work experience

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate my profile. I'm thinking of applying to Wharton Molies Advanced Access this year. Currently a senior in college

Background and nationality: Asian Male, non-US citizen
Undergrad Information: Top 3 liberal arts college, GPA 3.94, Major GPA 4.0
GMAT: 750(Q49/V42), 740(Cancelled), 750(Q50/V41). Thinking of taking it the fourth time. Consistently getting 780s on practice tests. However, I would really appreciate it if people can share some thoughts on 1) is taking it 4 times too many times? 2) Is the fact that I took it 3 times and got identical scores viewed negatively?
Work experience and leadership: Internships in VC, Hedge Fund, and PE. Incoming ft PE associate on investment team. Treasurer for student clubs
Community and others: Some volunteering.
Post MBA goals: short term transitioning to hedge fund and long-term starting a fund in Asia
Anything else?

yxu

1) is taking it 4 times too many times?

Yes, especially when you don't need to retake the exam given your scores.

2) Is the fact that I took it 3 times and got identical scores viewed negatively?

Not necessarily negatively but not positively either because you already scored high enough. Getting 10-20 extra points at your level is not necessary.

You will be given a look because you check several books but it looks like you have limited extracurricular/community accomplishments (important for deferred MBA admissions) and your profile isn't exactly one that screams non-traditional. It'll be a reach but definitely apply. If you don't get in, you can always re-apply after you have accrued 2+ years of full-time work experience.

Hi yxu,

Thanks for your post!

First, I would like to mention that the average GMAT for Wharton is about 733; hence, I don’t think you should reappear again for your GMAT and focus on other major aspects of your profile. Regarding your second question, I would like to say that it’s all about “mindset & presentation.” You could present your score as an example of your consistency, as scoring a 735+ consecutively for the third time is not a joke! Also, you need to understand that the program is for candidates who have done well academically in college, which does not exclusively mean they have the highest GPAs or GMAT, but that they’ve learned a lot and are already seeking to apply that knowledge and skill in the real world.

Coming to your Internships, try to highlight the relevant skills learned, roles & responsibilities (including part-time positions and future full-time positions ), and how this skill-set would help in the Wharton MBA program. Furthermore, mention how you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? While answering, Try to align your experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton.

Coming to ECAs, you have been Treasurer for student clubs and have some volunteering experience. You should use your ECAs to draft proper examples of leadership, your capabilities and how did you make an impact in your environment.

All in all, I would say you don’t need to reappear for your GMAT. However, I would suggest adding mesmerizing essays that would highlight your personal, professional, and academic performance and how you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community. If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further chances to Wharton. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience.

Insights from an INSEAD Alum on How to Ace Your MBA Application

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Profile Analyst & Channel Manager, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com

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Congratulations on your academic achievements so far. As an international applying to Wharton, you will face tougher odds than a domestic U.S. citizen, though coming from Hungary makes you part of a less well-represented Eastern European demographic (versus, say, Indian/Pakistani/Chinese/Bangladeshi, etc.).

Your profile will have fewer “known quantities” than other profiles, especially if the “big deals” that you are working on aren’t with a well known bulge-bracket international bank (e.g., Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, etc.). Schools like to see these employer names on resumes because 1) it outsources some of the sifting 2) students with these names on their resumes do better in recruiting, which is ultimately what every AdCom wants since employability and salary averages weigh heavily on school ranking.

All of this means that you should study hard for the GMAT, because it may be the only apples-to-apples comparison that your candidacy allows for. There won’t be that many mega M&A Hungarian transaction lawyers, but almost every Wharton applicant will have a GMAT score, which allows for comparison across geography and discipline. If you can get the 760-770 you are angling for, you will be doing yourself a great service. (Though know that 770 GMAT scores still get rejected from Wharton every cycle).

You provided more color on your aspirations and background than many candidate eval requests (Thank you!), but we don’t know *why* you want to go into IB from the legal side. We also don’t know why you need the MBA to do it. Many people go from legal M&A roles to sell-side customer facing ones without an MBA. There is an adage in finance, “The Harvard JD is the best MBA.” You’ve been to a lot of school already. More than many other MBA hopefuls. You are going to need to demonstrate why you need an MBA to achieve your goals and how an MBA will make you better and more successful in the job you want. I can’t answer this question without talking to you, but I’d imagine that things like formal finance/accounting/operations coursework will be helpful to you and you may not have classroom experiences in these areas. Some people talk about the opportunity to hone leadership as a honed discipline (e.g., leadership treks, club management roles, etc.), but that’s not something I’d emphasize if you know that you are already weaker on the EC leadership piece.

A note on the EC leadership stuff: we get a lot of international clients who think they don’t have anything EC when in reality they have good, usable material and they just don’t realize it. For example, being part of a band, even informally, even with your church choir, for instance, can make for great essays. You don’t have to found a non-profit and raise a bottomless endowment to seem like a nice, fun person outside of the classroom. Many successful applicants write great essays about their hobbyist passion for piano or chess or karaoke or car repair. Sometimes these provide even more fertile, unique material than the boilerplate civic engagement. Think about how you spend your time outside of work - almost anything can be turned into a great essay with the right guidance and paradigm. If you literally do nothing outside of work, then start a few hobbies! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! You’ll be better for it if you have a life outside of work, beyond your business school application!
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Hi yxu,

Thank you for sharing. Congrats on the strong GMAT/undergraduate performance. If you think you can score even higher, it will not hurt you to sit for the test a fourth time (you can take the exam up to 5 times during a 12-month period). I'd say a 760+ could give you an edge you may not have otherwise had.

Successful deferred MBA applicants have a strong track record of leadership and success. What are some internship/extracurricular activities that you have engaged in?

Wharton's Advance Access program is a great choice, though you will want to target additional schools to maximize your chances of success. Take a look at Personal MBA Coach's deferred MBA packages to explore additional programs and learn how we can help set you up for success.

Feel free to reach out to scott@personalmbacoach.com to further discuss your candidacy. We work with a lot of folks from top liberal arts colleges, and a lot of deferred MBA applicants.

Best,
Personal MBA Coach


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Hello yxu , albeit a little late in responding, I hope this thread would help others with similar concerns.

Your undergrad GPA and GMAT are decently competitive for the Wharton Molies Advance Access program, therefore rather than dwelling on the last 2 attempts, you should focus on streamlining your narrative to highlight what makes you unique as an applicant.

"The program seeks students who are innovative, intellectually curious, and ready to take professional risks while impacting the world."
In my humble opinion, conveying your impact potential is extremely important to be considered a strong applicant for this advanced access program with a philanthropic connotation. Your lack of volunteering experience and work experience in areas that reflect positively on this aspect can be a cause for concern. The objective of this program is to encourage individuals who want to follow an unconventional professional trajectory with confidence, under Wharton's patronage. Think what is the underlying theme connecting all the internships you did and how does the upcoming PE role add to the passions, goals, and ideas that you have for yourself. Communicate how will you make a positive impact with your contributions.

Warm regards
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Hi! I'm planning to apply for fall next year or the year after, hoping mainly to build my profile - would appreciate it if anyone can give me any advice:

Background and nationality: 26 years old, Chinese male, one of the Southeast Asian countries
Undergrad Information: University College London, Engineering (second class upper)
GMAT: Second take 710 (V36 Q50), IR 5 (just took today, might cancel and retake); Cancelled first take 690 (V37 Q48), IR 5
Work experience and leadership: 1 year in my country's sovereign fund (PE and equity research analyst roles), before working in a non-MBB (non-big4 either) as a junior strategy consultant. Also, I was my ex-Prime Minister's intern for 2 months in university days not sure how much will this info help.
Community and others: None at the moment. Used to represent my uni for archery in a competition or two. Was a national Scrabble player up to 18 years old. Also was a volunteer tutor + helped a rural community build a house (literally) when I was 18. Was an assistant Karate coach for young children for a while during weekends.
Entrepreneurship experience: Not really like a business per se, but I started the first student-run consulting group in my country, started Jujitsu club during college, was class representative in university)
Post MBA goals: Either entrepreneurship or work in VC, with a focus on fintech perhaps. Still not entirely sure about motivation for a MBA at the moment - for now it's mainly the prestige.
Anything else? First-gen, secured full scholarship for my entire undergrad, interned at multiple consulting firms and a renowned local PE firm. I also travelled to 20 countries in university not sure if that helps.
Schools I am planning to apply to: HWS, MIT, Columbia

Personal thoughts on my strengths and weaknesses in profile:
Pros:
- First-gen student, strong extracurriculars when I was 18 (lol) so I guess I can spin the story of me coming from a poor background (e.g. became a national scrabble player at 16 at a Chinese school) and very self-made
- Full scholarship record
- Generally interesting I feel? (worked for my Prime Minister, did martial arts, played Scrabble, archery etc)

Cons:
- Career is not exceptional (sovereign fund for a year, then strategy at Tier 2 not Tier 1)
- Very average academics (2:1, below average GMAT of 710)
- Feels like my extracurriculars weren't too impressive after 18 years old

Was hoping to obtain advice on: 1. should I cancel my GMAT scores in the next 72 hours (noting that my IR was 5), 2. anything that stands out, and what can I possibly do in the meantime to boost my profile) 3. Grades - not sure if that would be a little bit of a disadvantage as a Southeast Asian male consultant.

Thanks in advance!

Hi fairplay01 hope you are doing well

1. You need not cancel a 710 as an increase over your current GMAT score would demonstrate your persistence and commitment to doing better. However, some applicants are not comfortable with presenting their GMAT score history when they are confident of getting a better one the next time around. So let it be your call.

2. If portrayed in the right manner, I think experience in strategy consulting, topped with PE experience is the classic “Top Tier” kind of pre-MBA experience, especially for young professionals like you. So that’s good.
But at the same time, you must also understand that you would be competing with similar high-performing profiles who may have better brands or even MBB branding in addition to a top-tier VC experience.
You have to demonstrate that working in a small strategy consulting company (non-feeder) gave you more opportunities to get hands-on experience, opportunities to engage with leadership, and have a direct impact on business, compared to folks with branded feeder profiles that may not have the right kind of depth in their professional experiences.
If you can corroborate your internship stint with ex-PM, that would be an interesting read in your application. Your ECs can be interesting points of discussion too and present a well-rounded profile.

3. You have been a scholarship holder all throughout, therefore I do not think that with a great GMAT score and this academic record the schools would think any less about your academic bent.

I also suggest you to consider other schools from the top 10-15 ranking as safe options.

If you wish to seek professional guidance feel free to reach out.

Best wishes
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