Non-IT Indian Female Profile Evaluation

Question

Hi, EssaySnark,

As a hopeful BSer, it would be great to get your opinion on my profile.

1) Brief description of your full-time work experience. What do you do?

I have 6 years of work-ex(as of Aug 2013) in business research (IT and HR) and advisory. Joined in the company's India office as an Associate and was later moved to Washington DC, (HQ) to manage the current role.
In my current role (last 2+ years), I am a Product Manager, managing two products and responsible for meeting their annual launch targets, marketing, development and enhancement. My work involves speaking to functional heads of HR in Global 1000 companies across the world and helping them develop and enhance their learning evaluation and metrics strategy. In a matrix management role (not responsible for career development), I manage two people on my team with their day to day task execution and prioritization. Have exceeded launched targets consistently in the two years and also

2) Your GMAT. - Scheduled in two weeks (expected: 690-710)

3) College info:
NIT (National Institute of Technology ) - 7.08 CGPA [~3.5 GPA, i hope ]

4) Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience.
Volunteer Experience (Most recent first):
1. Project Manager leading a cross-functional team of 8 for a 4 month consulting project for Ashoka.org. Project was on implementing a unified global strategy for engaging Ashoka Support Network members.
2. Volunteer Consultant, CompassDC - Washington DC based non-profit organization. Team member on a 9 month long strategic alignment project helping a community service organization in the DC metro area. Created a partner prioritization tool that has been adopted by the non-profit and is also being used by CompassDC for other clients.
3. Volunteer Consultant, Ashoka - Lead the team to advise Ashoka on streamlining their client surveys. Won the Outstanding TEAM award from the company for successful delivery of project and letter of appreciation from Ashoka.

First female in the college history to lead multiple clubs:
a) Founding member and eventually, Chief Editor of college magazine
b) Co-convenor of Autofest (Technology fest for Automobile enthusiast)
b) Treasurer of the flagship college technology festival - managing a budget of Rs.10 lakhs.

Represented district in State-level swimming championship for 3-4 years during school. Also, School head-girl and awarded All-rounder gold medal and shield in school (if it helps).

5) Important certifications like CFA, CPA, FSA, or CA. - None

6) Your target programs. - Dream school - Ross. Other programs - Wharton, Kellogg, Kelley, McCombs and may be Sloan (on the fence for that)

7) When you plan to apply?
R1 (Kellogg, Wharton, Ross), R2 (Kelley, McCombs)

8) Your post-MBA goal. - General Management --> Strategic Planning (interest aligned from my experience in non-profit)

9) Others : I work with surveys and data as a part of my job but on paper my quant skills don't come across very well. My college grade in the Quant courses are on the low end and also not hopeful of a very "high" (think - Q49-51) in GMAT.

Could you let me know if my profile makes up for the lack on numbers? Thanks in advance for your guidance!

essaysnark · Answer

YAY! A personal greeting from a BSer requesting a profile review in a polite manner! How refreshing!!!

We can start off our comments by saying, YOU HAVE A REAL SHOT AT ROSS. You may already know that we're big fans of Michigan and we're thrilled that you're naming them as your first choice. A Round 1 app with a decent GMAT (690 is 'decent' though of course we hope you do better!!) - we think you could make it. Your essays need to be great of course, and that's just as hard as the GMAT for most people. It's good you'll be finishing up with test prep in the next two weeks so you can move your focus over to the essays next. You definitely have enough time to get it all done so don't let us stress you out - we always suggest that the dropdead date for a GMAT test is mid to late August so you're fine. And you're clearly doing your research by being here (and on the blahg!) so you're hopefully very well equipped with the resources you need to make it happen. Ross is very flexible and they'll look at all of your profile - they won't get hung up on any one factor like quant or otherwise. You'll need to show that you can handle the material but they don't expert everyone to be financial engineering whizkids - they like a balanced class and you'll be able to bring in a unique angle with your work experience. The fact that you've been in DC for awhile adds a lot to your chances, that type of ex-pat experience is valuable for the Indian profile. So we are All Systems Go! for you - you have some obvious strengths and you just need to take care of each element one by one now, with a great showing on your upcoming test date (remember to BREATHE during the test!) and then turning your attention to the remaining pieces in order. If we can help with additional questions please don't hesitate to ask! EssaySnark PS: we don't mean to ignore your other school choices but if you love Ross - and do a good job on the essays - and apply in Round 1 - then we don't see why that couldn't work out for you!

MBAjunkie16 · Answer

Thank you! thank you thank you...and did I say, thank you so much! :-D

I have had a couple of rough weekends with terrible mock GMAT scores and I wrote the above being "this" close to abandoning this whole exercise all together.

So this does give me a lot of heart and I can't but appreciate your vote of confidence - this will help me buckle down and get to the target GMAT score. *fingers crossed* I am definitely cutting it very thin as far essays are concerned with the delayed GMAT and the low mock scores are definitely not helping. That said, in terms of the essays since that is the critical piece of this whole process, do you recommend addressing the "non quant-jockness" of my profile in the essays? :?:

essaysnark · Answer

Oh no - please don't give up! The process of applying to bschool is a MAJOR rollercoaster - the emotions go crazy! Here's a happily-ever-after story from someone who was in your shoes not that long ago - you may find it inspiring. :-)

On the essays, it's hard to give advice without seeing the big picture but just to react to literally what you said: You wouldn't talk in negative terms about not being a quant jock (don't emphasize the negatives) but yes you should find ways to present examples of actual experiences and projects that you've worked on that have been quantitative and analytical in nature. Identify some that your recommenders can mention too. That can go a long way to showing that you've got the mental chops to make it in bschool. However, given the very restricted essays this year - even at Ross where they're a bit more generous in allowing you some space to write - you don't want to sacrifice your best content in order to put in examples of quant stuff. In other words, if you have this stellar story to present in a certain place in the essays and then you hear that EssaySnark says you also need to stuff in an example of a quant-based project... don't ditch the stellar story in favor of it. Look at the entirety of your application first in terms of the most important things to highlight, and then look at where you can weave in something in this category. Hope that helps - yes it's very strategic - we have tools to walk you through all that if you're interested, you can PM us if you want more details. Good luck on that GMAT!! You can do it!! :-)

EssaySnark

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