USC Marshall Profile Eval Thread: Post all Profile Eval Requests Here!

Hello everyone,
I was hoping if someone could review my profile, and gauge my chances of getting into USC's part-time MBA program.
BACKGROUND-
Work experience: 5 years in the mortgage industry (3 years - Quality Control Auditor, 2 years - Capital Markets Analyst. I work at a mortgage bank (200 employees), not too well known.
Undergrad school/major: UC Irvine - Economics/International Studies
Other education/coursework: UCLA Extension: Accounting Intro Courses, Statistics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics (4.0 GPA)
Race/nationality: Korean
Sex: Male
STATS-
GMAT Score: xxx (aiming for 700+) Undergrad GPA: 2.87
MBA INFO-
Goal of MBA: Education, Networking. Become CEO at my current company (Family business).
Target school: USC Part-time MBA program

Thanks for your post! You have a good shot at the USC part-time MBA program. I would love to hear more about your family business as this could help you reach your MBA goals. What is the business and how much have you worked for it so far? Feel free to email me and we can discuss further: scott@personalmbacoach.com

Best,
Scott

Thanks for sharing.

Defining clearly how the MBA would help you achieve your goals and objectives with the family business would help. You may include details on the challenges and opportunities you are facing, or exciting new initiatives you want to lead, such new market entry, improved distribution channels, or introduction of a product line, etc. Relate how the MBA program would help you achieve this.

Articulating these clearly would convince the Admissions Committee that you would indeed benefit from an MBA, and boost your chances.

Wish you all the best!

You may also find our blog entry below helpful:

https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2016/05 ... -and-back/

From the Family Business to Business School (and Back)

“You’re going back to the family business?”

If you’re planning to attend business school with the ultimate intent of working for your family’s business, some of your friends will probably wonder why you would consider pursuing an MBA when they feel that a clear path has already been (very well) paved for you with the power, privilege, and prestige of your family’s business handed to you on a silver platter. Some will envy you, some will resent you, and even more will wonder if you really need an MBA, while you yourself doubt how stating this post-MBA goal will affect your odds of admission.

Interestingly, articulating your personal story towards convince your friends of this decision may also be the same formula towards strengthening your case to getting admitted to your target schools. Let’s examine three ways you can best explain to the Admissions Committee your plans to go from your family’s business to business school, and back:

1) Win Admiration from Peers
Displaying your competence through your strong academic and job accomplishments, demonstrating your character through your work ethic and values, or showcasing how you have gotten involved with interesting and worthwhile activities will help show you as someone who can make it on their own. In turn, this display of independence – that you don’t completely rely on your family to succeed – will work towards winning admiration and respect from your peers, and even your subordinates.

Imagine, sometime in the near future (perhaps your late 20’s or early 30’s), being introduced as the new General Manager of your family’s business. Some whispers from your employees would surely be, “She’s the daughter of the boss, that’s why…” From your side, you would want them to also recognize how you have also excelled outside of the family business environment, whether it is at another company, or towards a specific social cause or interest. Similarly, explaining this desire to find your own success, independent of your family, will be a great way to explain your MBA aspirations to the Admissions Committee.

2) Acknowledge Your Good Fortune
In discussing your history in relation to your family’s business, you would do well to be grateful for the circumstances you have been blessed with. This gratitude will serve as a good point to highlight the knowledge, exposure and network you are equipped with – attractive qualities that can benefit your future business school community, as well.

Mentioning specifics about your family’s business to demonstrate its scale and potential impact not only shows your awareness and interest in the business, but also helps the Admissions Committee realize the impact you can make in the business world. Providing details on the products this company provides, or on its business model, will also help them visualize what you are involved with now, and how it can influence you as a future MBA.

3) Articulate Your Passion
Tell the Admissions Committee what you are excited to do after business school, such as leading the entry into a new market, launching a product line, building a distribution channel, or formulating new company plans. You can also share the challenges your family’s business is currently facing – perhaps it is the need to modernize its systems and processes, or its struggle with the more personal aspects of succession planning or even family politics. Showing your focus and drive to achieve these specific post-MBA objectives – and explaining how attending business school will help you attain these goals – will further demonstrate your substance and maturity.

Relate these future plans and current challenges to your need for an MBA at your specific school of interest by identifying exactly what you aim to gain at their program and how you plan to bring it back to your family’s business. Doing this will help convince the Admission Committee that you are the right fit for their program and deserving of a spot.

Looks solid to me, the advice above is pretty much par for the course for any MBA program. No school wants to accept anyone who might waste their education or money, know what you are there to do, have a goal and mission.
As far as applying goes, your profile looks good to me. I would only say that your GPA is on the lower end and you might want to address that and what was it that led to a low GPA at UCI. Zot son. Zot.

In general, I would not worry too much with a profile like that, but you will definitely need to be able to articulate your goal with the MBA a bit better. The description right now, even if embellished, is just not competitive or interesting enough, in my opinion. That can easily be fixed, however, by doing some research and/or using professional help (I would be happy to explain how we at ARINGO - aringo.com - work with these matters, if you’d like). So basically I see you as a suitable candidate but you do need to work hard on your application, so be prepared to do that. (Also describing your working experience so far in a more detailed way - what about leadership, for instance? - would probably help)

Don’t mean to put you down of course, this is really a small issue to fix compared to what others have to work with, so take it as constructive criticism and good luck!

Hello,

Im an argentinian entrepreneur (half italian actually)

GMAT 730
GPA 7 / 10 in Industrial Engineering at a private univ. ( Uphill trend )

Represented my university in the Argentinian association of IE students while in college.

Freely gave classes of Physics, Electromagnetism, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics to my peers.

Taught Guitar for 2 years.

Speak Spanish, English, Italian and Japanese (written and spoken), all of them fluently.

Launched a startup just for fun 3 years ago, edtech sector. Its my FT job now. (Im the CEO and founder)

Zen Buddhist who also practices sintoism (helped me found myself when I was lost, my essay will be quite interesting).

I want to be a trojan!


Edit: Insight on Argentine GPA, just in case.

Pass with 4/10, 4 = 60%. In english system, a 6 = 2:2 and 7.5 = 2:1

Wow... You have a really interesting profile!... You have a very good chance at USC...I would suggest you to apply to colleges higher than USC in the rankings!

Ask the best!

Posted from my mobile device

If your startup also helped with community work (teaching underprivileged children or made education more affordable for the masses), then you can state that in an application to UCLA and they would admit you on the spot!

Hi guys! I could really use the expertise and advice from someone here. I am an Indian Production Engineer and graduated from the Manipal Institute of Technology in 2015 (7.65 CGPA).

I've since been working in a family business and have worked in roles varying from sales to marketing, business development and product management.
I've represented my company in exhibitions and conferences internationally.
I have single handedly helped my company save a huge amount of money on the biggest hydro power project of its type in the world.
I have also led the design of a new pricing and initial design format that increased accuracy and decreased client response time from a matter of days to a matter of minutes.

I have a 760 on the GMAT and should have 26 months of experience by Fall 2017. I do not have any community work or extra curriculars but I have played a lot of sports as a hobby (and can play most of them well) which I believe has led to a lot of character development both on and off the field.

Given my lack of community work and relatively low work experience, should I apply to Marshall?

Please review my profile and provide any advice! Thanks!

Background and nationality: White Male
Undergrade Information: BA Accounting from large state school (Oregon, Washington, Arizona)
GPA: 3.53
GMAT: 680
Work experience and leadership: 2 years at Bulge Bracket Bank doing credit risk analysis & advisory, covering healthcare companies; then 2 years doing corporate finance (FP&A and IR work) at a F500 Healthcare Provider company.
Community and others Sat on board of directors for a large non-profit ; performed two years of service work in foreign country
Post-MBA goals I want to leverage my healthcare background and pivot into a product manager role for biotech/big pharma. USC places a lot of its students in this field.

Thank you for providing any feedback!

Hi Abach

Looks pretty good overall, and if possible, you should try and enhance that GMAT score by another 20 points, if not strictly from an admissions point of view, then from a scholarship point of view. Apart from that, in your app, be sure to showcase the general management/industry/strategic skills you have gained through your work, because there is a slight disconnect in terms of financial analysis/corp fin for healthcare and product manager roles (as you will see, many people who get into such roles have a prior background in operational biotech). This is not to criticize at all, but just to suggest further things to do.

...

Hey,

So
GMAT : 710
GPA : 3.0 (Graduate in Commerce)
I am a Chartered Accountant & a CFA Charterholder
Location : India
Experience
3 Years Internship in a top international audit firm (Audit)
3 Years Experience in a top US Investment bank (Product Controller for Structured Products)
Currently employed with a top US bank (Treasury Risk - Structural Interest Rate Risk Management)

I am planning to apply for 2021, by the time will have 2 years experience in my current role

Extra Curricular :
NGO Activities
1 Year in a Rotaract Club
Currently part of an NGO that engages in Education for the underprivileged kids (working as a teacher & Center head)

Can someone give me an evaluation and whether I should do something more to better my profile.

Thanks

Nationality- Indian
Gender- Male
Xth- 67.7%
XIIth - 65%
Undergrad- B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering with 54.4%
TOEFL- Yet to take
GMAT- 750 ( Q-50, V-41, AWA-4.5, IR-5)

Work Exp :
1. Have worked for 9 years in Telecom Industry and am currently VAS Manager for Airtel India Operations. Have previously worked with Nokia, Mahindra Comviva. Also have worked in UK for 6 months.
- Have received awards for my work at Airtel and previous organisations
- I have done in house courses in Airtel for Leadership,Security as well as technology


Volunteer Experience :
1. Involved in education of economically deprived kids, conducting fundraisers with an NGO "SOCH"
2. During flood disaster in MP in 2016 I was part of the team that setup communications to emergency and disaster helplines for people affected by the natural calamity
3. Sarva Seva Sankalp Samiti – NGO from Burhanpur for Deaddiction centers, Vaccination Drives, Reforestation, Awareness
programs for Crimes against women.Participated in workshops near Indore and Burhanpur for Vaccination drives, Awareness Camps and planting of saplings for green drive.
4.Mentored students at GS Institute of Management for development of soft skills


Extra Curricular:
1. Head of student placement committee and President of club "Peregrination" in College
2. Designed college website for "Peregrination"
3.Paper Presentation on Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic at national level at Concours 2006 at KIT, Andhra Pradesh
4.Presented Paper on Mobile and Wireless Communication in Techvinox 2005.
5.Paper Presentation on MRI Scan Application of Fuzzy Logic in PIONEER 2K5 at College of Engineering ,Kolhapur
6.Second prize in "Wrocketry" organized at KIT Andhra Pradesh
7.Won HTML web page competition in School level competition

Please evaluate.

USC Masters in Financial Management/Business Analytics:
Nationality - Indian
Gender - Female
Undergrad- B.Tech Civil Engineering at IIT (new) (cgpa 8.9 second in class)
GRE- 327 (Q-170, V-157, AWA-4.5)
Work exp-2 summer internships
Many extra curriculars
Please evaluate my profile
P.S I have a C in statistics and programming will it be bad?

Would request you to please evaluate my profile. Planning to apply this year for fall 19 intake.

Nationality: Indian Male, Age 31, Commerce graduate

Undergrad percentage: 61% from University of Mumbai

Post graduate diploma in Management: 4.3/7

Gmat score: 670 (planning to retake the test in July '18)

Work experience: 2 years in KPO, 5 years in Banking operations as Assistant Manager managing a team of 8 in an MNC bank. 1 promotion.

Extra curriculars: Organising CSR and other corporate events at my workplaces. Have also volunteered at an NGO for mentoring underpriveleged children

Post MBA goals: Transition from banking to management consulting and specialising in strategy and leadership.