Calling all Indian Applicants - 2016 Intake!!

Whoa..deadly quiet here!!! Would love to know how Indian applicants are doing in this application season.

On a side note, we recently released new version of GMAT Club MBA application guide which contains a chapter on Strategies for International applicants with a special note on Indian and Chinese applicants. Those interested can download the guide here.

The Brand New 2015 GMAT Club MBA Application Guide is Out!

Full Edition - 109 Pages - Free Download GMAT Club's Guide MBA application guide is a collaborative project by GMAT Club legends and GMAT Club partners to form a comprehensive MBA application Guide. The guide is a 109 page wealth of information about MBA application starting from asking the "Why MBA" question to "Waitlist Management"! Oh and we have a start to finish Resume-Essay-Recommenders-School Visit-Interviewing guides too.

Hi everyone.
I was looking for a proper conversion method to convert my cgpa of 7.28/10 to x/4.0, does any one got any idea. Min pass marks were 35

Most b-schools don't require you to do it. If you must, use a trusted service like WES-- they have both paid and non-paid options

Hi all,

I want to apply to Canadian schools only for FULL TIME MBA.
Here's my brief profile,

1. GMAT : 640 (Q43, V35, AWA 5, IR 4), GPA- 6.91/10, Work ex: 25 months in Mobile App Development(Btech CSE), Two summer internships at Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad (Research and Dev)

Target Programs :
Hec Montreal
John Molson School of Business
Telfer School (UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA)
Alberta Business School-University of Alberta (Edmonton)
University of Victoria(Gustavson School of Business)

I have selected these schools because of the ROI.
Can I make it to anyone of them ? Specially in HEC Montreal with this GMAT score or should I retake ?

Do post your query at admission-consultants-124/?fl=menu

Hi All

I am planning for a MBA somewhere in 2017. Considering my age and current salary I am wondering if it is worth going for an MBA after all.

A brief bio about me:

1. Male, currently 35 years old and a Canadian Immigrant at present.
2. BE from Bangalore with terrible grades, MSc from UK with average grades.
3. About 9 years of IT experience at present will be about 11 years when I plan to apply.
4. Developer and Team lead experience in Wipro, IBM, Accenture and HCL (in India). Also worked for IBM Canada (onsite) and currently working for a Canadian company.
5. By the time I apply it will be almost 5 years of international experience and 6 year experience in India.

I am planning for the following (in descending importance):

1. Wharton
2. Chicago Booth
3. Stanford GSB

Now the question is on ROI. Though I will be able to take a student loan in Canada to finance the major part of my expenses, this is how they stack up:

$200k MBA expense + $200k (loss of income for these 2 years considering that I earn around $100k/year) = $400k and even if I get the almost highest non-immigrant base salary of $130k it will be almost 3+ years post MBA before I actually start earning.

So I have the following questions:

1. Is it worth taking the plunge at this age (I am enthusiastic though not convinced)?
2. Am I a fit for these B Schools (considering my experience and an average 680-700 ish GMAT score)?

Thanks in Advance

Do post your query at admission-consultants-124/?fl=menu, you will be able to get replies from admission consultants.

The long and short of it. You will have a difficult chance for the traditional 2 year full time MBA at most of the schools in US due to your age. All schools will recommend that you look at executive MBA programs. You might have a better ROI by going for a 1 year EMBA.

Hello,

I am planning to apply for Fall 2016 MBA.

Following are my qualifications

GMAT Score
3 attempts:
1st 660( Q-49 V-31)
2nd 680(Q-48 V-34) in 2014
3rd 710 (Q48 V-39) in 2015

Education:

R.V College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
BE, Mechanical Engineering, July 2012
Graduated First Class with Distinction. GPA: 8.56/10
Extra curriculars: Member of the Rotaract club district 3190 from 2008-2010, was involved in orphanage visits
Vounteer work and in charge for online gaming section of inter and intra college fests(~20 people)

Experience:
Honda, India Bangalore, India 3 years
Customer Relations Coordinator – South India
Cross functional working among area, zonal and regional managers for customer complaint resolution
Trained dealership manpower and dealer management.
On site visit for complaint reduction parameters, customer handling and legal case handling
Won award for best performer (top 5% of my department) of more than 80 people
2012-2014: Field Services Area In Charge – Customer Services
Acted as a liaison between company and 14 dealers, was responsible for claim settlements, technical
feedback, manpower development, new dealer appointment
Was responsible for the order and sale of parts, and after sales services

Internships

Indian institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Intern
Studied the basic principles of EFPI (Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometers)
Developed a new method of non destructive testing and analysis of metal fracture involving EFPI
Sensors
GE Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Engineering team, Intern (2 months)

ADDITIONAL:
Use of C++, Virtual Basic, Matlab,
Hobbies: Piano, Guitar, Soccer and reading Mystery Novels, and travelling.
Presently involved in musical organization during regional office events.
Extensive international travel: SE Asia, Europe and China (2 months respectively) during school and college days

Looking for a good gen management/ operations program

Interested in Darden, Rice, Tuck,UNC, Cornell, Georgetown,
What are my chances

This suggestion applies to you as well - calling-all-indian-applicants-2016-intake-199662-20.html#p1597906

Hi. here is my profile in brief

Indian Male 28 Years Old

GMAT - 710 (Q 47, V 41, IR 5, AWA 6)

Education :-

UnderGrad- Bachelors in computer application (pune university). GPA- 64% (approx 3.2 as per WES)
PostGrad- Post graduate diploma in Retail Banking and sales (1 year course). GPA- 81% (equivalent 3.9 source WES)

Work ex :-

7 years. Out of this roughly 6 years in banking (commercial and retail) - specifically extensive exp in trade finance & currency market. 1 promotion in one organisation and 2 promotions in another. For the last one year or so have been working as a partner in family business ( equity and commodity brokerage). Used past exp to add currency trading (COMEX) into the product portfolio.

Have good NGO experience as well as good EC's.

Post MBA immediate goal- Transition to Corporate/ Investment Banking (Corporate finance advisory)
Long term goal- expansion of family business into a financial advisory firm.

Looking at applying to B schools for Fall 2016 intake. Gave my gmat a bit late ( 6th Nov) hence will be applying in R2 but can give as much time as required to complete essays. Considering 3-4 out of the below schools :

1) Columbia Business School;
2) Michigan Ross
3) NYU Stern
4) Kelley Business School
5) MIT Sloan
6) Rotman/HKUST

Any feedback if I can get on the profile and choice of schools then that would be of great help. Also one concern- NYU has its 2nd deadline on 15th Nov which I will clearly miss. Is it a good decision to apply in R3 (15th Jan). ?

Hi Prateek,
your GMAT is low for the b-schools you are targeting, specially at CBS, Ross, Stern and MIT. It's fine at the other b-schools. I would suggest you add UNC KenanFlagler, which is strong in Financial services.
I think its a little late to apply to R3 of Stern with an average GMAT/ GPA.

Hey Naren,

Thanks for the file. But I see that the links in the file are not working. Can you please check if its the same at your end, and upload a fresh copy if you can?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the reply. But I am thinking I should apply to atleast one of those 4 schools. .... maybe ross. A 710 might be an average score but it won't harm to add atleast one ambitious school in the mix. other criteria apart from gmat matter as well. Yes, I am adding UNC to the list as well. Can you give me insight into georgetown? Can that be a target school? They have a great program but do they place a lot of emphasis on international exp? Because on their program website it says that about 84% of the class has some international exposure.

Regards

Hi
Here is my profile in brief
male, indian engineer from NIT with a CGPA of 7.4/10, level 2 CFA cleared, GMAT SCORE OF 720, Working in an MNC for past 5.5 years in finance industry, have been mentoring batches in my company, also running a business on my own for past 3 years in hospitality industry have grown it to a turnover of more than a million INR, and employ close to 25 people. Have ventured into other businesses also in the same industry recently. A fitness freak, like travelling and have traveled quite a lot.

I plan to be in the consulting or finance industry(leaning towards consulting) in future.
my target colleges are: Chicago Booth, ISB, NUS, INSEAD, NYU Stern

I would really appreciate any feedback on the profile. would also appreciate if you can comment on the choice of schools or if should add any other
Thanks again

LOW COST, HEALTHY JOB MARKET AND HIGH ROI MAKE HHL LEIPZIG AN ATTRACTIVE MBA DESTINATION

calling-all-hhl-leipzig-mba-applicants-2016-intake-class-of-208609.html#p1602307

I am from hardcore mechanical engineering background and major part of my career has been outside India. However, because of the highly technical nature of my job,my career came to a stagnation and I decided to pursue MBA. I scored 780 ( Q50, V47) in GMAT in my first attempt.

When I started considering various options of MBA studies, I decided to think "myself" and not think with "the crowd". (With a score of V47, I reasoned that my logic train won't go haywire ). My requirements were simple ( and mostly in line with other MBA aspirants from middle-class families) :

1. Cost should be minimal: I would not have preferred taking out a major amount from my savings or take stellar loans, which would burden me financially for a long time.

2. Risk should be minimal: I should go to a market that have a large deficiency of managerial workforce and I should have a fairly high chance to get a decent job. (Of course I had plan to settle down in Europe or as a matter of fact, in a first-world country.)

3. The school: The faculty and of course the job opportunities are the main things to look at.

After doing my survey, I realized that Germany fits in and in fact leaves behind other countries in fulfilling both the above requirements:

1. Cost: With scholarship for exceptional students, the cost of studies are extremely low, way below other US / UK counterparts. I got 3 scholarships ( again thanks to my GMAT score), that supported me considerably in not just my tuition fees, but also my living expenses. However, the competition for scholarship is high.

2. Risk: Germany is the center of European economy and needs a large number of managerial level personnel to fill in it's deficiency. For this reason the German government has relaxed the visa norms for highly educated persons who qualify from recognized German Universities, and allows them stay in Germany for further 18 months after completing their studies to search for a job. Therefore I decided that getting a job in Germany, post-MBA, will be much easier than getting in US/UK. (UK visa norms have been a total catastrophe of late, and US visa norms are not very conducive as well ). From the perspective of averting undue risk, I found Germany the most favorable location.

3. The school: There is absolutely no question about the quality of teaching faculty here. Since we are from India, I was specifically impressed to see an IIM Calcutta professor teaching us Corporate Strategy here !! A great advantage HHL has over other schools in Germany - the one that played a major role in my final selection of school - is that the MBA class size is just about 35. When you have less students in the class , you have less competition for job - a simple fact that many aspirants fail to take into consideration while selecting a school. Moreover, you get personal attention from the professors (almost all of them call you by name), and more importantly from the career management team ! Although I got scholarship offer from other German school, this one fact swung me towards HHL.

Please also note that it is desirable that you speak some German by the time you graduate in order to have broader scope in your job search. Here HHL plays a major role:it has in-built German language courses in the curriculum and since the course period is 21 months, one may comfortably get through the 5 stages of the language during the tenure of studies.

Feel free to ask if you have further queries.

LOW COST, HEALTHY JOB MARKET AND HIGH ROI MAKE HHL LEIPZIG AN ATTRACTIVE MBA DESTINATION

calling-all-hhl-leipzig-mba-applicants-2016-intake-class-of-208609.html#p1602307


I am from hardcore mechanical engineering background and major part of my career has been outside India. However, because of the highly technical nature of my job,my career came to a stagnation and I decided to pursue MBA. I scored 780 ( Q50, V47) in GMAT in my first attempt.

When I started considering various options of MBA studies, I decided to think "myself" and not think with "the crowd". (With a score of V47, I reasoned that my logic train won't go haywire ). My requirements were simple ( and mostly in line with other MBA aspirants from middle-class families) :

1. Cost should be minimal: I would not have preferred taking out a major amount from my savings or take stellar loans, which would burden me financially for a long time.

2. Risk should be minimal: I should go to a market that have a large deficiency of managerial workforce and I should have a fairly high chance to get a decent job. (Of course I had plan to settle down in Europe or as a matter of fact, in a first-world country.)

3. The school: The faculty and of course the job opportunities are the main things to look at.

After doing my survey, I realized that Germany fits in and in fact leaves behind other countries in fulfilling both the above requirements:

1. Cost: With scholarship for exceptional students, the cost of studies are extremely low, way below other US / UK counterparts. I got 3 scholarships ( again thanks to my GMAT score), that supported me considerably in not just my tuition fees, but also my living expenses. However, the competition for scholarship is high.

2. Risk: Germany is the center of European economy and needs a large number of managerial level personnel to fill in it's deficiency. For this reason the German government has relaxed the visa norms for highly educated persons who qualify from recognized German Universities, and allows them stay in Germany for further 18 months after completing their studies to search for a job. Therefore I decided that getting a job in Germany, post-MBA, will be much easier than getting in US/UK. (UK visa norms have been a total catastrophe of late, and US visa norms are not very conducive as well ). From the perspective of averting undue risk, I found Germany the most favorable location.

3. The school: There is absolutely no question about the quality of teaching faculty here. Since we are from India, I was specifically impressed to see an IIM Calcutta professor teaching us Corporate Strategy here !! A great advantage HHL has over other schools in Germany - the one that played a major role in my final selection of school - is that the MBA class size is just about 35. When you have less students in the class , you have less competition for job - a simple fact that many aspirants fail to take into consideration while selecting a school. Moreover, you get personal attention from the professors (almost all of them call you by name), and more importantly from the career management team ! Although I got scholarship offer from other German school, this one fact swung me towards HHL.

Please also note that it is desirable that you speak some German by the time you graduate in order to have broader scope in your job search. Here HHL plays a major role:it has in-built German language courses in the curriculum and since the course period is 21 months, one may comfortably get through the 5 stages of the language during the tenure of studies.

Feel free to ask if you would like further information.

Hi Gautam,

I quite like your profile- specifically the mix of entrepreneurship and a regular job.

I think your b-school choice is fine- Booth and Stern are aspirational schools , so I would suggest you apply to only one among them and replace the other with a safer choice such as UNC Kenan Flagler, which is also a finance/consulting school.

INSEAD places huge emphasis on international experience, so if you lack in that department, consider applying to another program.

Eventually your career goals will need more clarity. You will need to figure out whether it will be finance or consulting.