Ask ARINGO MBA Admissions Consulting

Hi and thanks for reaching out!

I definitely think it makes sense for someone whose post-MBA goal is to start their own venture to look into a start up personally, but I don’t think any start up will do for this purpose, it should be something that has some kind of connection to what it is that you want to do in the end. Without knowing what kind of venture it is that you would want to start after your MBA and knowing more about the start up in question, it is hard for me to assess how similar they are but it is something you need to evaluate in order to make a smart decision yourself. If the start up is completely unrelated to your end goal, it might be smarter to skip that opportunity for now.

You also did not get into why you are applying to the schools you listed, I do think they all see quite a lot of start up related applicants, but if your list of schools isn’t set in stone, so to speak, maybe you should add a few more entrepreneurship focused schools to your list too? You can find a partial list of those here, for example:
https://aringo.com/mba-entrepreneurship-specialization/

Just a thought since I don’t know much about your profile otherwise, so it’s hard for me to say how likely you are to be admitted to the schools listed in your post.

Good luck no matter what you end up doing!

Thanks for reaching out to us! Your profile definitely has positive parts, but it is hard to know for sure how competitive it is without knowing more details about your work, if you have been promoted, what kind of measurable achievements you can add to your resume etc. (So if you would want a more thorough profile evaluation with all that taken into account, feel free to contact the ARINGO team off the board here for example: https://aringo.com/mba-process-registration/)

And of course how competitive your profile is also depends on what schools you decide to apply to in the end. But since I am not seeing something very unique in your profile for now I would probably say top 10 in the US would be a stretch, so you should probably focus on schools in the top 15 to top 20 range. And keep in mind that even for those you need to work a lot on your essays, recommendations etc.!

Good luck!

Thanks for taking the time to read this Aringo! I'd really appreciate your feedback on my profile.

Personal

Male
25 years old
American with Pakistani heritage

Stats

GMAT: 710, Q47/V40/IR8/AWA6 (only attempt)
Undergrad: Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration/ Majored in Finance with Cum Laude distinction.
3.44 GPA, decent Midwest public university. GPA suffered in freshman year with science heavy classes; I was originally premed and hated it. Switched to Finance and did much better while actually enjoying learning, so upward trajectory. My general education requirements were completed at a community college with a 4.0 GPA and are not factored into the above average. Also, I worked full time while completing my last two years of university.


Extracurricular

Not too much in college; I participated in a few events for local non-profit organizations, but most of my time was spent working. Post graduation, I have been actively volunteering regularly through my current job at a nonprofit mutual health care company; we have a huge presence in the community. Also, I have been volunteering and have organized charitable events through my place of worship for about a year (fundraising dinners, supplies collection etc), and also provide tutoring. Finally, I teach jiu jitsu to kids aged 6-14 and run the kids’ program at my gym.

Work Experience

1 year as an economic technician with the state government; first job out of college. Performed economic analysis on employment trends and wage figures in coordination with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

2 years as a financial analyst at big 3 auto company: forecast and analyze tooling, material, and labor costs across several high profile vehicle programs; worked on several high impact cost saving projects, as well as managed our tooling audit team that recovered over $5M of overspend during my tenure (sounds like a lot but our program budgets were colossal).

2 years (by R1 application deadline) as a senior financial analyst at large non profit mutual health care company: more corporate finance work; responsible for my entire department’s month end financial reporting and account reconciliations. Have implemented several process improvements and automated data entry processes. Managed three projects that have had high visibility and impact throughout the company; currently managing fourth and largest project to consolidate our two invoicing systems. Also sit on board of our protected health information committee which is responsible for upholding HIPAA regulations and client confidentiality throughout the company; received two promotions.

I was double promoted in high school which is how I'll be able to have 5 years of experience by R1.

Goal of MBA
Move out of corporate finance and into management consulting, with a concentration in health care. Prefer to stay in the Midwest and would love to land at a firm like Deloitte/EY.

Target Schools
My absolute dream school is Ross. I’ve done a lot of research on them and am planning on attending their local events, as well as their VIP campus visit program. They have excellent placement in both consulting and tech, and their MAP program fits my hands on learning style perfectly. Aside from Ross, I’m also interested in Fuqua as they are similarly strong in these areas.

My reach schools are Kellogg and Booth, but I know I’ll need to get my GMAT up for those. I'm planning on applying R1 for 2019 intake.

Again, I really appreciate your help! Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Hi and thanks for reaching out!

Some thoughts: as you have only taken the GMAT once, you should definitely try again. Any increase here would be very helpful and you are right that an increase is actually a must for those reach schools.

Your work experience is fine. Do you have any measurable achievements that you could add to your CV in that part? If so, that would really help too.

Additionally your post-MBA goal needs some finetuning and I would also work on explaining why you have chosen the schools in question in order to highlight their fit for you.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Looking to target Rutgers(either FT if my stats put me in range for a scholarship or PT) for their concentration in pharmaceutical management and analytics courses.

1. GMAT 640 (Q36 V41; Essay: 5.5; IR6) - debating retaking to raise quant score I have only taken it once.

2. UG GPA 3.04 (California State University, Fullerton: Double major B.S. Cellular & Developmental Biology (3.41 Major GPA) / B.A. Marketing). Something to note as well this is only my undergraduate GPA, I was in a community college prior to transferring - 2.66 for an overall 2.89 if I include my community college GPA. Reason for low UG GPA - I worked throughout college and was working through both majors at the same time as well as all summers.

3. Biotech/Pharma/Tech WE: 44mo-56mo (18 month progressed from coordinator to marketing strategist in a top 3 hereditary diagnostics firm and then 14 month in commercial analytics/sales operations as an analyst in pharma, 12 month sales operations manager in tech and may have 12mo of data warehousing/commercial operations consulting in pharma by the time I apply in the next year/1.5 years)

4. Hispanic Male: Will be 29/30 when applying

5. Not many extracurricular in terms of clubs: license private pilot & been focusing on my personal technical skills in SQL/Python/Data warehousing.

Goal of MBA - Expand my current knowledge of pharma management and data analytics as well as jump into a commercial leadership development program in top 20 pharma company.

Hi,
And thanks for reaching out!

First of all, if you have only taken the GMAT once, I would definitely take it again, as it seems there should be room for improvement there. And as I am sure you know, the better the GMAT score, the easier it will be to get in AND to get a scholarship so you would have a lot to gain by retaking. (Don’t forget you don’t have to report a score that is worse than your current one, if that should be the end result)

Second of all, I don’t have a lot of information about you so it’s hard to say for sure but I see enough unique and noteworthy things in your profile to be comfortable saying that you might have enough to work with in order to be accepted and maybe even offered a scholarship at schools at this level, despite your GMAT score GPA, so I would definitely aim for the full time option if I were you. Don’t forget that a professional can really help you with your essays and recommendations in order to make that a reality.

Any reason that you are only applying to one school? I do see you as a diverse and unique enough candidate for a bunch of schools, to be honest.

Can you PM me regarding Aringos services? I have submitted a form through your website would like to learn more. I am definitely aiming for full time. Reason I am only targeting 1-2 programs is my fiancee is pursuing a PhD so we are relocating within the next year (which will be for at last 5-6yrs) so I am only targeting schools that are within a region that have a high prevalence of commercial pharma jobs (hence socal, Boston/Cambridge, Chicago).


Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Hi, sure, will do!

Hi Gil. I would need your advice. Here is my profile:

Age: 29
Gender: Male
Nationality: Indian

Education:
Be marine engineering,graduated in dec 2011
GPA: 6.4 on a 10 point scale [As 4 point Grading is not standardized in my country]

GMAT: 700 Q49, V35

Work Experience: 7 yrs in shipping (Currently working for British petroleum as 3rd engineer on their oil and chemical ships)

MBA goals- I want to make a career in consulting(priority) or to work for tech giants(apple,microsft,google etc).
My goal is to apply for the fall of 2019.
Pls suggest suitable MBA programs in which I would stand a realistic chance.(Assuming I manage to put a strong application and LOR)

Many thanks.

Thanks again!

Hi and thanks for reaching out!

There is a lot of information missing here and I am not even sure where you are looking for schools geographically (the US? Canada? Europe? Asia?) so I suggest you start by using the ARINGO Admissions Chances Calculator, it should give you some direction I think. You’ll find it here:
https://aringo.com/mba-admission-chances-calculator/

Alternatively, you can also contact the ARINGO team directly here:
https://aringo.com/mba-process-registration/
With a CV and some additional information, such as career high lights, possible promotions and leadership roles and information about your extra curriculars. With that information, we can give you a more reliable profile evaluation than with the information that you provided.

Hi

At this stage in my life i am at cross roads and looking for advise from experts


Am 39 year old techie who started working in IT industry right after campus placement . However , since last 9 have been doing product development ,handling duties ranging from leading global design to leading deployment teams of our softwares across industries and countries . To be be frank , i have been pretty satisfied with work thus far as things are way challenging when you work on products that is sold/implemented globally as opposed to working for one client at a time (as is the case in an IT service industry typically).

The urge for an MBA came when i started to further myself in product management space and realized that whatever i have learnt or I am learning is through informal knowledge ,own experience and inputs/feedback from peers and is not structured . Hence in short term goal is to learn management in formal/structured way so that i can be successful product manager . Long term goal is to launch our own products successfully (own venture) - though we have technical expertise/excellence at hand but from go to market strategy, sales, long term success perspective it seems an uphill task without intensive immersive MBA education .


I am looking for colleges in Canada and clueless as to which one is within the reach . Just gave GMAT few days ago - Total score 710 ( Q-49 , V-37)
a) Being 39 years of age is virtually closed all my chance of full time MBA ? ( I dont want to go for EMBA)
b) Will improving GMAT score above 710 help address the -ves of age factor ?

Please advise

Regards

Hi,
An MBA at 39 is unusual but not impossible. We have worked with plenty of “older” candidates before and if there is something unique about their profile otherwise, we have seen that they can be admitted, even to some of the top schools out there. You shared some information about yourself, but not really enough for me to be able to say for sure how attractive of a candidate you are.

I would therefore really recommend that you fill in the contact us form on the ARINGO website (https://aringo.com/mba-process-registration/) and attach a CV when you send in the form, with as many details about yourself as possible. What you need to be looking for in your case is really something that sets you apart from the crowd. You might have some really cool achievements or measurable results to list, for example?

You also need to explain more in depth why you need an MBA and how that is going to help you get where you want to be in the future. So I would list that as your main task for now, in order to improve your chances of admission. (What you wrote here is pretty vague)

Some schools to look into are the following:
https://aringo.com/the-sauder-mba-british-columbia/
https://aringo.com/york-schulich-business-school-mba/
https://aringo.com/toronto-rotman-business-school-mba/
https://aringo.com/queens-business-school-mba/
https://aringo.com/ivey-business-school-mba/
https://aringo.com/desautels-mba-mcgill/
(as you mentioned you were interested in Canada in particular)

I didn’t understand if a retake of the GMAT is an option for you, but if I understood you correctly, you have only taken it once, so in that case I would really consider that as well.

Hope that helps!

Currently looking at different schools to apply to and trying to figure out how competitive my stats and profile are for the schools I'm interested in. I've got a slightly unique background / accomplishments, but I'm not sure how these play into the eyes of an admissions committee. Also, I'm quite interested in finding a good culture fit, seeing as this is what I'll be doing for 2 years or so. Planning to apply Round 1 this fall 2018, matriculating fall 2019. Any and all advice or opinions are welcome as I am still just attempting to figure out what schools I should focus my efforts on. Thanks in advance for your time and opinions!

Backgound

Sex: Male (26)

Race/Nationality: Hispanic / USA

GMAT: 710 (45Q/42V), IR 8, AWA 6.0

Undergraduate: GPA - 3.8, Double majored in Business Economics and Management (Average State School)

Graduate School: Masters degree in environmental economics and rural development, Graduated with "Honors", Earned a "Distinction" for my master's thesis (think Oxford, LSE, Cambridge)

Athletics: The reason I went to the average state school was because I was an ESPN All-American at my sport and the school had a great athletic program. I got a full-ride athletic scholarship and was the captain of my Division-1 team. Ranked an ESPN top-10 recruit coming out of high school, but blew out my ankles / achilles / back freshman and sophomore year, and had to re-evaluate my life plan afterwards. This is the area of my background where I have no idea how much value admissions committees will place on my application.

Extra-curriculars: I have volunteered at an urban farm non-profit for awhile. The organization is built to teach low-income children from my city about the importance of farming, responsibility, and hard work. I help build chicken coops / greenhouses / community gardens / etc. there when needed, and am now a field trip leader for groups of children who come and visit the farm. I also volunteer at an urban garden center where I help out with distributing plant seeds and transplants for low-income families to grow food for the season.

Work Experience

Current: Active US government security clearance working for a financial regulator in the agriculture industry. I travel around the US visiting and examining agricultural banks to ensure compliance with federal regulations, and provide consultative-like advice on financial issues that are affecting the bank at that time. I've gotten two promotions within three years of working there, and now am in charge of my own bank that has assets over $500MM. I examine all levels of a bank including: governance, capital levels, asset quality, earnings, liquidity, interest rate sensitivity, internal controls, policies and procedures, etc. We work in a project type management structure, so sometimes I am managing between 10-15 people, and other times I am managing no one. Strong performance appraisals throughout my time at the organization. Will have just over 4 years of WE at this position before matriculation.

Past: Before I was at my current job, I interned in the mayor's office of my city (fairly large capital city) doing sustainability work, and I also had an internship the summer between undergrad and grad school where I worked in Central America for a large multinational agricultural company in the corporate social responsibility department.

MBA Info

Goal of MBA: My favorite part of my job is the project management style consultative work we do for the banks we regulate. I'd like to leverage my financial and project management work experience to transition to consulting. Preferably, I'd like to work for a consulting company with a strong agriculture related client base. Also, I'm interested in sustainability and corporate responsibility, so that is something I'm interested in from an MBA program and hopefully a future job.

Schools: Harvard, Stanford (big stretches), Dartmouth (personal favorite), Booth, Northwestern, Yale, Duke, Michigan, Washington-Foster

I tried to focus on schools with a strong consulting employment record, and also like I mentioned above, culture fit. I love the outdoors (skiing, backpacking, biking) and thrive better when I am in an environment of teamwork and fun rather than ultra competitive. Lastly, I think I'd like to be in the Mid-West or West Coast of the US which explains the Mid-West focus and UW-Foster interest.

Hi,
And thanks for reaching out!

I like your profile, your athletic background can definitely help, depending on how you bring it up in your essays of course, and what conclusions you draw from it all etc. But I would definitely not leave that part out, as reaching the level you did is definitely something that shows determination and capability to succeed, both characteristics the adcoms are after.

The extra curriculars are great, too, I like how they connect to your work experience and post-MBA goal as well, so you are really all good there too!
Harvard and Stanford will be challenging, of course, as they are for everyone, but I do see you as a good candidate for the other schools listed. You will need excellent essays and letters of recommendation, of course, but if you can do that, and narrow down your list to just a few schools where you do think you can demonstrate fit, your chances should be really good.

It is really hard for me to say which schools you should choose as it is such a personal decision so I recommend you do some more research on all the ones listed in order to be able to narrow the list down. Should you have any more specific questions related to any of the schools, feel free to get in touch with us here for a free consultation:
https://aringo.com/mba-process-registration/

Good luck!

Dear Experts,

I request you to kindly evaluate my profile for MILR from Cornell University. However, I have listed a few more programs for backup though I’m interested only in MILR, Cornell University.

Programs Interested in: Full-time MBA / MS or Specialized Masters in HR
1. Tier-1 Schools
• MILR, Cornell University
• MS-HCM, Columbia University - School of Professional Studies (From 2019 Part-time program is being upgraded to Full time program)
2. Tier-2 Schools
• MBA (HR specialisation), Wisconsin School of Business, Madison
• Master of HRLR, Michigan State University

Class start year preference: Classes starting in Sept 2019

My Profile:
 General Info:
1. Indian + Male
2. Engineer + PGDM (HR)

 Academics:
1. Bachelor in Engineering (ECE) from Tier - 2 Institute, 2009, 63.87% (Top 25 percentile of the class)
2. Post Graduate Diploma in Management (HR) from Tier - 2 B-School, 2013, 5.15/7.0 CGPA (Top 25 percentile of the class)

 Work experience: 7 years, India
1. Boutique Consulting: (2009-2011, 22 m): Associate - Business Research | Role: Sector Research & Research report development for Textiles Industry

2. Government Skills Development Council: 2013-2014, 17 m): Manager - Affiliations (Partners & Industry) | Role: Sales Operations: 80%, Skill Research: 20% | Achievements: Largest number of partner empanelment by any Skill Council in India in a fiscal year; Selected to anchor the Skill Gap study with KPMG & Sector Skill Council (SSC) Optimization Study with McKinsey & Co.

3. Big-4 Consulting (2014-2017, 32 m): Senior Consultant - Customer Consulting | Role: CRM process designing, System Testing, Customer Experience Design | Achievements: Received 1 client appreciation award & 1 firm award

4. Education & Skills Think-Tank (May 2017- Till Date): Manager - Research & Partnerships | Role: Research, Project Management & Knowledge Management; Additional responsibility of managing the entire Talent Acquisition lifecycle for Research Associate (RA) roles | Managing a team of 4 members

 Internships: (2012-2013, 11 m, During PGDM(HR)): 3 HR internships including an international summer internship in an MNC in Germany HQ.
1. Summer Associate - Global University Relations, with Europe’s largest Engineering Company
2. Intern - HR Strategy, Planning & Policy, with India’s largest multi-brand retail chain
3. Intern - Early Careers Resourcing, with India’s largest private Life Insurance Company

 Extra-curriculars:

1. Leadership in student bodies:
a) Forum Representative, ECE Forum: During my B.E, I was ECE Forum Representative where I have conducted large student events, introduced new events such as Spell Bee (1st time in India), etc.
b) Alumni Secretary, B-School (2011-2013): I have managed a team of 50 volunteers to implement the largest alumni outreach program culminating in largest turnout at the Alumni meet in our B-Schools history.
c) Convenor, HR Club, B-School (2012-2013): I also started a HR Club in my B-School wherein we have called Industry professionals for guest lectures, conducting knowledge circles, etc.

2. Research articles/papers published: More than 10 articles in HRM published in B-School
magazines/journals

3. Competitions:
a) Winner of best summer project in HR in multiple forums such as Institute of Management Consultants of India (IMCI), Indian Society for Training & Development (ISTD), etc.
b) Selected as the top-15 Management Student in India by Dewang Mehta Foundation after a multi-level National competitive process
c) I also competitively got selected for Harvard Project for Asian & International Relations (HPAIR), Boston from among 600 students globally
d) Winner of other competitions such as Mahindra SSG - Breakfast with the CEO Series, Infosys Aspirations 2020, etc.

 Test Scores:
1. GMAT: 700 (Q49, V35) IR3 | Actual Test date: Apr 2018; Plan to take another attempt soon
2. IELTS: 8.0/9.0 with all sections above 7.5 but score expiring in May 2018; Have to re-take or request for waiver

 Post-MBA Goal:
I did my 1st Masters(PDGM) quite early in my profession journey having less than 2 years of experience. Hence could not take an informed decision & leverage on the academic & career opportunities which was available in HRM in better known programs in India. I wish to embrace this opportunity to acquire, apply & assimilate knowledge of HRM & IR through this 2nd Masters/MBA and fulfil my career aspirations & passion to work as HR Business Partner/ HR leadership role in an MNCs.

My Questions for the Experts:

Q1. Now, I'm keen to transition into HR Business Partner roles in MNCs in US and hence, I wish to pursue MILR, Cornell to achieve my goal. However, I already have my 1st Masters in HR (PGDM-HR) from India & no work experience in HR but in Consulting, Business Research & Sales operations (Except 11 months HR internship experience).
[Note: The acceptance rate for the MILR program is typically between 35% and 40%.]

Do I even have a chance considering my profile and test scores described in the previous paragraphs?

Q2. Most of the candidates take GRE for MILR, Cornell MILR. While the mean GMAT score is 680 (Q47, V36) for Cornell MILR and I have GMAT: 700 (Q49, V35).
• But my verbal score is 1 point below the Verbal mean score.
• Additionally, I have only IR3.
• Besides we have to account for the fact that I’m Indian + Male + Engineer being from an overrepresented demographic segment

Will I have to retake the GMAT or my present score is competitive enough?

Q3. Is community service experience a must to show some involvement outside of work?

Thanking in advance

Hi Aringo Team,

I would greatly appreciate an evaluation given that I believe I have finally discovered something I would love to develop myself on (product management) given that I work closely with many engineers, but only from a compliance standpoint (so not helping with the top line, so to speak). Would you happen to help recommend schools in the Top 25 that may suit me? Also, which schools would have a higher likelihood of accepting me based on my credentials (and forecasting GMAT?). I feel that I'm pretty average given that my undergrad seems to be conflicting (not a good school, but over performed seems to average out). Also, would any seem to offer some sort of financial package at first glance?

I did take your calculator which slotted me at a 65, which makes it seem like I'm competitive at the Top 10-20 b-schools, but wanted a second look with the details below.

Thanks in advanced, and I definitely do appreciate your time! It's helpful!!

1) Undergrad College -
California State University (Ranked ~#300 US, so pretty bad) in Business Admin: Accounting.
3.9 GPA Major GPA (Top 2% Graduating Class), and received the honor of being the College of Business's Accounting honoree (basically being the MVP of Accounting for my 2014 Class). Also have my CPA. I used to be president of a Pan-Asian student org focused on professional development where I increased membership by 2x.

2) Work Experience
Advisory in a Big Four primarily dealing with their largest tech 'relationship' clients. I deal a lot with their home grown platforms from a compliance standpoint, so essentially helping companies lock down their tech stack from a financial risk perspective. Lots of collaborative work between finance, business application owners, and engineering teams. 2 Years to senior, and looking to promo to manager in Sept 2019 if I don't leave for b-school before then! High performer, developed my own training curriculum for new hires, and I also facilitate a few trainings.

3) GMAT
Have not taken, but early indication of practice exams look to slot me around 700-720. My goal is 720, but given that I'm cranking some hours + gym, it's a bit difficult to commit to a LOT of hours.

4) Extra Currs
I mentor 1-2 UC Berkeley undergrads a semester - these are students who are usually looking for help on getting into the professional services industry.

5) Nationality, Age, Gender
American Born Chinese Burmese.

6) Post MBA goals - industry, company, desired location
I'd love to work as a PM in the tech industry, preferably at a FANG-type firm before perhaps moving into more of a start-up type company. However, I am open to the consulting aspect that MBA opens up. However, I understand this may not be in the tech industry - regardless, I feel like I'm good at making connections and genuinely enjoy meeting new people and helping them solve their problems (generic BS answer, I know)

Hi and thanks for reaching out to us!

First of all, you say you are really only interested in Cornell, but you didn’t specify why that is. Depending on the strength of that reasoning, it could increase your chances of admission to Cornell specifically, so it would be interesting to hear more about that part, if possible.

Your profile is good overall and I think your GMAT score in combination with that is good enough as it is, assuming you can bring out excellent essays and recommendations.

A transition like the one you described is definitely possible, but you should be prepared to address it and justify it in your essays, as it is not a completely obvious one. (Although I do see some HR related things in there so it is not completely out of the blue either)

Any extracurricular activities that you can list as an addition to your very impressive CV will help, but it does not have to be community service necessarily.

Hope that helps!