LBS Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

Hi

- Your GMAT score is decent, but not outstanding, and your GPA is average as well. You would still have some chance at HEC, provided you can submit in the earlier rounds and build a strong application. Last year, we had several clients get in with sub-700 scores to the HEC MiM, but all of them really put in strong apps. Focus on that.
- LBS may not really be an option as you will have about 2 years of work ex by the time you begin and LBS does not look at applicants with more.
- Your ECA are really strong, so leverage them as definite assets. Your leadership potential is excellent, and that will certainly help for your HEC app.
- Try and broaden the list of schools you are applying to a bit. Include ESSEC as another top option, and perhaps look at the Duke MMS too.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with further questions as needed.

Thanks for the evaluation!

I want to know what are my chances for ESADE , ESSEC and Ivey? Any other colleges should i target?

Hi,

Am Aadav SS. I am looking forward to MBA in finance and strategy starting in 2018. I would like to know how would the admissions committee treat the below profile:

10th: 88%
12th: 92.16%
Undergrad: 6.79/10
GMAT: 710
Toefl: 100

College:
1. Marketing Head - National Conference on Advances in Chemical Engineering (2 years)
2. Event Co-ordinator- National Level Technical Workshops

Job profile:
1. Event management-7 months
2. Assistant Systems Engineer, TCS- BUsiness Intelligence - 7 months (Best Performer)
3. Procurement Analyst, Beroe Consulting - 1 years and 2 months (Certificate of Merit-Analyst Training Program)
4. Strategy and sales -(Startup) starting soon until 2018 (probably 1 year and 5 months by the time I wish to take up the course)

The profile seems to be having an drifted career in short span. But interms of exposure on job, I have had some decent success in every role I assumed.
Looking forward for an opinion as to how the admissions committee would treat such profiles.

1) Way too many job changes in a short span. This is a big Achilles heel and will be very hard to defend. You'd need to do really well in your start-up to compensate.
2) Also, there doesn't seem to be a match between your career aspirations (Finance & Strategy) and your work-ex and academics.
3) GMAT is par.
4) I don't see any volunteering or non-profit interests.

Weak profile, as of now, for LBS!

I have had some exposure to finance as a procurement analyst. As for exposure to finance & strategy, I look forward to my startup where my role includes bringing in funds. And I forgot to mention the volunteeting part-

1. Organized CSR activities in TCS
2. Volunteered for Cerebral Palsy Today
3. Volunteering in training and giving practice sessions Boccia players for 2020 Paralympics
4. Blood donor once in every six months
5. Mentoring college juniors on jobs and startups

As for the career is concerned, I accept that my job roles have been different everytime. I took up these roles as and when I landed up with offers to learn something new. In the long run, I intend to stay settled with finance and strategy post-MBA.

1) Make your startup-experience count. Pick a senior role and build skills in corporate Finance and business Strategy (sales/marketing/operations/HR/Investor relations etc). Spend at least 3 years, before applying.
2) pick ONE non-profit track for volunteering. Again, it is not the breadth that counts, but depth of skill and experience.

All the best.

Hello All -
I gave my GMAT a couple of days ago and got a score of 720(Q50/V38). I need advice on the schools that I can apply to with my score and have a realistic chance of admission being an Indian applicant. Below is a brief on my profile:

Graduation: Mechanical Engineering(Passed out in 2013) - GPA: 3.5(according to WES)
Work Experience: 39 months in sales and marketing at ExxonMobil Corporation and currently working as an operations manager at NEED(Network for Economic and Entrepreneurship Development ; It's a non-profit organization based out of Lucknow, India)
Extra-Curriculars: school and college Football team, Squash and Swimming school teams ; Acted in and directed Choreos during college ; Part of organizing committee of a number of college fests and led the marketing team during a couple of fests.
Volunteer work: Part of a number of volunteer activities during college and work at EM(house building, teaching, roadshows etc).

Interest: Marketing and Strategy

Thanks.

Shashank Saurav
Nationality : Indian
Education : PGPM ( Finance and marketing) with 6.68/10( CGPA)
B.E (Electronics and Communication) in 2010 with 58.04%
XII - 72.40%
X - 82.40%
Work Experience: Currently working as Senior Valuation Analyst(in an MNC) , prior was working as a Equity research Analyst in an MNC ( Financial services) . In total i have total of 4 years of experience in Valuation, Equity Research, Transaction Advisory.
Certifications : CFA L1
I have also worked in an NGO for 3 years (part time)
i want to go for Master's program in finance. I can manage a decent score in GMAT (720-750).
Volunteer Experience:
-3 years of NGO experience
-Have done certification in big data.
- In my graduation days have been a core member of many college events and fests.

I want to improve my profile, could you please suggest what all can i do to improve it. Also would like to have a realistic idea about which all colleges can i target based on my profile and score.

Regards,
Shashank




Regards,
Shashank

Shashank Saurav
Nationality : Indian
Education : PGPM ( Finance and marketing) with 6.68/10( CGPA)
B.E (Electronics and Communication) in 2010 with 58.04%
XII - 72.40%
X - 82.40%
Work Experience: Currently working as Senior Valuation Analyst(in an MNC) , prior was working as a Equity research Analyst in an MNC ( Financial services) . In total i have total of 4 years of experience in Valuation, Equity Research, Transaction Advisory.
Certifications : CFA L1
I have also worked in an NGO for 3 years (part time)
i want to go for Master's program in finance. I can manage a decent score in GMAT (720-750).
Volunteer Experience:
-3 years of NGO experience
-Have done certification in big data.
- In my graduation days have been a core member of many college events and fests.

I want to improve my profile, could you please suggest what all can i do to improve it. Also would like to have a realistic idea about which all colleges can i target based on my profile and score.

Regards,
Shashank

Shashank Saurav
Nationality : Indian
Education : PGPM ( Finance and marketing) with 6.68/10( CGPA)
B.E (Electronics and Communication) in 2010 with 58.04%
XII - 72.40%
X - 82.40%
Work Experience: Currently working as Senior Valuation Analyst(in an MNC) , prior was working as a Equity research Analyst in an MNC ( Financial services) . In total i have total of 4 years of experience in Valuation, Equity Research, Transaction Advisory.
Certifications : CFA L1
I have also worked in an NGO for 3 years (part time)
i want to go for Master's program in finance. I can manage a decent score in GMAT (720-750).
Volunteer Experience:
-3 years of NGO experience
-Have done certification in big data.
- In my graduation days have been a core member of many college events and fests.

I want to improve my profile, could you please suggest what all can i do to improve it. Also would like to have a realistic idea about which all colleges can i target based on my profile and score.

Regards,
Shashank

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Hi Guys, I am a long time lurker on this site and have finally decided to go ahead and pursue an MBA, I was just wondering I could get an honest profile evaluation of what my chances are of getting into LBS

I am applying to the full-time program at LBS and would love to get feedback on what my chances are.

Age: 25, New Zealand citizen (Bangladeshi ethnicity - I grew up in NZ, but am currently working in Australia)

Undergrad: Civil engineering at a top 50 engineering program in the world at time of graduation and top university in NZ(University of Auckland)

Postgrad: Master of Engineering focused on Engineering Management (construction, risk, project) - Please also keep in my mind I completed my Masters full time whilst also working full time as I was responsible for the delivery of a multi-million dollar project so taking time off wasn't really an option. Same university as the undergrad.

Undergrad GPA: This is my obvious weak point it's at 2.9 if I take into account my first year (which is actually not counted at Auckland university), otherwise, it's a 3.25

Postgrad GPA: this is a more respectable GPA of 3.6

Work: 3.5 years work experience, with clear progression in scope. My background has been until recently heavily involved in the delivery of large-scale construction projects (managing all aspects of such projects), but I have recently made the switch Infrastructure Advisory as I prefer the high-level strategic thinking that comes with it. I intend to naturally progress from here into management consulting. I am currently with Aurecon a significant player in the Engineering Consultancy space.

Goal: I am really only looking to get into MBB if not will settle for tier 2 consultancies.

GMAT: Just started studying so no official score yet. I took a prelim practice exam with zero prep and scored 620, and I am confident I can get around the 730 mark.

Do I have a shot at getting in?

Thanks in advance!

Hello Kiwi Lurker! You are mentioning Kellogg here but posted this in Kellogg, LBS and INSEAD - are you looking at all 3 of those?

When do you plan to apply? grades are shaky as you know, but masters helps (however weighs less than undergrad) if you get a strong GMAT 730+ that will not be seen as a concern. Plan to devote a lot of time to getting the absolute best GMAT score you can. While you are from NZ, they do also think about ethnicity and yours is overrepresented.

That said, your work profile is relatively diverse. Very coincidental, I am currently working with someone who works in infrastructure project management and plans to go to McKinsey infrastructure advisory post MBA. Do note that you need a minimum 700 GMAT for MBB, if top 20, 720 GMAT.

What is the situation with regards to the non-quant stuff? Community, leadership, hobbies?
Don't underestimate this - no one pounds the table for a 3.9 Gpa. This is how you make a human connection to humans who have the power to say yes or no.

Finally, do you anticipate strong letters?
Would be happy to send you my profile review questionnaire, and speak with you further after Jan 5!
Best,
Farrell

Thanks for the reply Farrell!

I am surprised that there are a lot of Bangladeshi's pursuing MBA at the top MBA programs. Yes, I have also posted this message on a couple of the other pages, that is because I am considering any and all of the top MBA programs. As for the non-quant stuff, I am quite active in the Bangladeshi community, having carried out a lot of social and humanitarian work (i.e. working/donating at orphanages, building shelters for the homeless etc).

Also, I play football (soccer), having represented both my school and university at the national level as well as club level here in NZ, although I haven't played in the past year due to knee reconstruction surgery. I guess my interests would be football, weight lifting (I compete occasionally, again nothing in the past 6 months due to injury/surgery). I guess I am really just concerned about my GPA and whether or not my chances of even interviewing gets diminished by not having such a strong GMAT (<730).

Also if you could send that questionnaire through that would be awesome, my email address is tanzimislam0@gmail.com.

Cheers,

Have a lovely New Year!

Age: 26 when starting MBA

Location: NYC

High School (Is this relevant?): 4.2/4.0 GPA, honors, etc.

Undergrad: Double major in Nursing + Communications. Nursing program one of the most competitive in the region. Cummulative 3.2/4.0 GPA

GMAT: Haven't taken yet. Hoping to get 700+

Extracurriculars in College:
1. On exec board of nonprofit health org all throughout college
2. Was president of nursing college for 2 years
3. College senator 3 years
4. Contributing editor for a semester for two campus publications

Work:
1. Currently: school nurse/health records auditor for private schools in my state (3 mo)
2. Family business in real estate/tourism in a different country: 2014-present (2y+)
3. Intern (8 mo) for a health org; ended in Cambodia working with entertainment workers for 3 months
4. Social Media Specialist last 1.5 years in college. Pretty much worked full time

So I should first say that I'm by no means an admissions consultant, but you look strong.

A couple of questions:
Will the admissions committee know that your school is strong? Is it well known (even internationally) outside nursing? If so, you're GPA ok, but not super great. I have worse, but you have to account for that. Unfortunately, your high school GPA will not matter.

Extracurriculars in college all look great. I would continue community service now. I'd also try to seek more leadership in those positions.

You're international experience is great. For the family owned business, is it a large business? Can that be easily validated for them? You're going to want to show them that you REALLY did work for the business and it wasn't just a cover for not having a job etc (not saying that's the case). I think you're also going to have to answer why you didn't stay with nursing, but are now back being a nurse. I'd also seek to gain leadership positions at your school etc. It may be a weak point, given it doesn't scream leadership or success, given you have some people who have started their own multi-million dollar business or have been promoted frequently where they work. It's going to be how you tell that story.

The big thing for you will be to get a 700+, with a high quant score. You may also want to take classes in quantitative subjects to demonstrate skills in this regard.

You'll also want to make sure your story really pops. Why is business school right for you? How has your past led you there? Does your past and business school match with you short and long term goals?