Profile Evaluation for B schools

Question

GMAT - Requesting Advice : Ask Admissionado

Hello Team,

Request your help in my profile evaluation.

Indian Female 27 years old
Class 10 92%
Class 12 98%
Mechanical engineer86%

Work integrated course in BITS Manufacturing Management 92%
6 years of exp in Aerospace industry

GMAT 710 Q50 V34 IR 8

Cultural activities Medium involvement during school and college
Part of CSR team of the company right now

Please advice if I need to take GMAT again or if I have any chances with my current score.

Please advice on chances to global TOP 10 B schools

Posted from my mobile device

Laksh128 · Answer

For Indian engineers normally in average score +20 points needs to added. But you can try to give one more shot and get 750+. That will be really a safe score. You can also try ISB.

Posted from my mobile device

SharanyaReddy3006 · Answer

Hello!

Thank you for your response.

I did not understand the one on 20 points. Can you elaborate on this please.
Also I want to understand how ISB fares among the top B schools.

Thanks a ton !

Posted from my mobile device

Laksh128 · Answer

Average gmat score for Indian in foreign B school is normally, the average gmat score of that particular B school + 20 or 30 Points. It’s because you are going to compete with Indian student who’s average GMAT score is higher compare to other countries. Therefore before applying to any college always look for these points. But you will get the Benifit of gender diversity, so you can take a risk of applying. But to be honest if you want top 10 B school then you need 730+. Also ISB is top B school in India but good ROI. you should defiantly apply in ISB.

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

CosmicEnergy · Answer

Hello everyone,

I am new to GMAT club. And I hope I am posting at the right place. I want my profile to be evaluated for both MFin and MBA programs.

I am an India, age 26.

Class 10: 95.80 % ( School rank 1, district topper, state rank 11)
Class 12: 85.00% ( School rank 5)
UG: NIT Jamshedpur, B. Tech: 82.90% (Top 20% of the batch)
PG: MBA in Finance (Minor in Operations), FMS, University of Delhi, 75.44% (Rank 4, Top 2% of the batch)

Yes, I am targetting a second MBA or an MS in Finance (yet to decide and I am inclined towards Finance)

Pre-MBA work experience: Associate Applications Developer at Oracle Financial Services Software, 20 months
- Worked on Retail, Corporate and Islamic banking modules
- Improved functional performance in liquidation, standing instructions etc.
- Improved loan processing timing from 7 days to 2 mins
- Improved credit rating performance and profile evaluation time
- Worked on Java & Scala programming langauges

Internships
1. Department of Space, ISRO, 8 weeks
- Worked on developing Real-time disease outbreaks system, working on Python 2.7, wrote more than 13000 lines of code
2. Axis Bank, General Management Intern, 8 weeks
- Improved the Prime Plus product by removing and adding certain features, and rebranding it

Post-MBA work experience
- No experience, I will start working in April. Just beginning an early preparation for GMAT and learning more about the International B-Schools
- Placed on campus in a Financial Analytics firm
- Also targetting off-campus companies for roles in IB, Equity Research etc.

Projects
1. Equity Research, Company: Equitylevers
- Worked on developing the overall company analysis model
- Prediction, valuation etc
2. Financial Modelling, Academic Project at FMS
- Building Markowitz portfolio using 25 listed stocks on NSE, Sharpe ratio; 1.33
- Predicting USD-INR exchange rate using OLS regression
- Predicted Customer credit default and churn in telecom industry using logit & probit models

Software/Tools: Excel, MATLAB, Pythion 2.7 & 3.6, Python libraries - Pandas, NSEpy, Numpy, Matplotlib etc.

Extracurricular - Mostly college level
- Rubik's cube
- Drawing & Painting
- Football

Positions of Responsibility
- Heady Boy at School
- Coordinator of events at tech fest of NIT Jamshedpur
- Placement Cell of NIT Jamshedpur
- Restructuring Committee at FMS Delhi

Any other info is needed?

- I took CAT (an exam similar to GMAT in India) 2016 - Secured 99.87 percentile in CAT
- I have not taken GMAT yet (expecting 720-740)
- Please comment about the chances and which one would be better considering that I am a bit inclined towards Finance, Consulting would be my second choice.

Admissionado · Answer

SharanyaReddy3006, ideally you'll want to raise your GMAT to 740+ for a top 10 school. Although it definitely helps a lot that you are female, you are still in a tough demographic as an Indian engineer. It's the most overrepresented group among b-school applicants & it's also a group that tends to have very high GMAT scores. Your work experience sounds solid, but it will also be critical to show the business impact that you've had while you've been there. The challenge for applicants coming from a technical background is that they have a hard time showing they have the business foundation necessary to thrive in b-school -- and showing business impact will be even more critical if your GMAT is on the low end since that is another factor they use to gauge your likely success in school and beyond. And of course, strong, specific career goals will be critical as well, not only because your argument for why you need the MBA rests on those goals but also because it's a way to differentiate yourself against all the other Indian engineers. (The most common post-MBA goals among this group are product manager at a tech firm and consulting, so anything outside of those can work in your favor).

Finally, your extracurriculars are a bit on the low end. I'd see if you can find a meaningful leadership role/experience with your company's CSR group that you can highlight on your resume. You essentially want to do everything you can to eliminate any weaknesses in your candidacy, especially if you are unable to improve your GMAT score. If you are unable to move beyond the 710, you can still take a shot at top 10 schools but I'd expand & include some schools in the 11-20 range as well.

Good luck to you!

Finally, your extracurriculars are a bit on the low end. I'd see if you can find a meaningful leadership role/experience with your company's CSR group that you can highlight on your resume. You essentially want to do everything you can to eliminate any weaknesses in your candidacy, especially if you are unable to improve your GMAT score. If you are unable to move beyond the 710, you can still take a shot at top 10 schools but I'd expand & include some schools in the 11-20 range as well.

Good luck to you!

Megha1412 · Answer

Request you to please evaluate my profile for HBS, Stanford, Wharton.
Gmat: not yet given but expect 720+
Education:
Chartered Accountant ( cleared most of the subjects with exemption)
CFA charterholder (cleared all levels in first attempt)
B.Com (Hons) : Delhi University - GPA 3.5
Class XII: 95.25% (Commerce)
Certification from Bombay Stock Exchange in Financial modelling 
Work Experience:
College internship at EY in Risk Advisory (3months)
Deloitte: 3yrs as Articled Assistant in Assurance services
PwC: 9months in Deals Advisory (Financial due diligence)
Quit PwC to start my own transaction advisory firm. I am currently involved in private fundraising for startups. About to close a transaction involving a majority acquisition of one of my clients. Also, I am heading the Finance division (team of 7 members) for my family business.
Volunteer work:
Team lead CSR activity at Deloitte for a particular year.
Part of an NGO providing education to impoverished kids.
Helped a small school providing education to students that fall below poverty line, to register as an NGO and thus raise funds from Corporates.

Posted from my mobile device

Admissionado · Answer

Megha1412, thanks for reaching out! I was not 100% sure how long you've been running your own firm but based on what you shared here it looks like you have at least 4 years of experience & possibly more. The average years of exprience at most top schools is 3-5 and ideally you don't want to exceed that. If you start to have much more than 5 years of experience the adcom will start to worry that you no longer need the degree. Again it varies a bit by school (and European schools tend to skew a bit older) but it does sound like now is the time for you to apply so you can avoid that risk!

Some other factors that will be important to your candidacy are your gender (it's much tougher as an Indian male than an Indian female since Indian males are so over-represented among the applicant pool) & also the extent to which you've driven meaningful impact at work. The fact that you started your own firm can be something that help you stand out, but it will depend in part on the size and success of your firm. Your family business is also intriguing - especially if you would consider naming it as a post-MBA goal. The adcom loves family business applicants. When you've worked in a family business you've often had the chance to show meaningful impact; and when your post-MBA goal is to return to the family business they know 1) you pretty much have a guaranteed job, which is good for their stats and 2) You are likely to go on to have big impact since it's your family business (which again often translates to the opportunity to have access to significant leadership roles much earlier than you would in a typical job).

It seems like your GPA & extracurriculars are solid but not differentiators. A 3.5 means you will generally hit or at least be close to the average at most top schools. Your extracurriculars are somewhat generic for an Indian applicant but it's good that you do have some extracurriculars to speak to.

I would shoot for at least a 720 on your GMAT & the ideal would be to hit a 740+. Like I said, if you are female that will help, but overall Indian applicants tend to score very high on the GMAT & that is the demographic to which you will be compared. In terms of target schools, a lot is going to depend on how you differentiate yourself. Your work experience is one place to do that (again speaking to your impact & any meaningful results you've driven), as are your goals. It will be critical to convey a unique value proposition that helps you stand out from the crowd, especially since you are coming from a competitive demographic. I think you do have some material that you can leverage to do that (again, I'm definitely curious about the family business & about the size & success of your own firm) - it will all be in how you use that material to tell a story that stands out. The GMAT score & the uniqueness of your story are what will make the difference for you in the extent to which top 10 vs top 20 schools make the most sense.

If you need any help thinking through it definitely reach out to us & Claudia can get you set up with a free consultation with one of our MBA Consultants! You can reach her at [email protected].

Profile Evaluation for B schools

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards