Hey
pp72038,
Thanks for sharing your profile
To begin with, your scores, a GMAT score of 680 is below the average for top MBA programs, it's not necessarily a deal-breaker. Admissions committees consider your profile as a whole, including your academic achievements, work experience, extracurricular involvement, and recommendations. Your strong academic record, including a first-class honors degree and ranking third in your major, along with your work experience at a prestigious consulting firm, will offset your GMAT score to some extent. While it may lower your chances slightly at some M7 schools, it doesn't completely eliminate your chances.
Since you mentioned that you might need to apply with a 680 GMAT score, it's important to focus on other aspects of your application to compensate for that. Here are a few suggestions to strengthen your profile:
1. Highlight your achievements and impact in your professional experience, emphasizing leadership, problem-solving, and quantitative skills.
2. Showcase your ability to work in diverse teams and manage stakeholders in your role at the e-commerce platform.
3. Emphasize your entrepreneurial experience as the founder of a non-profit organization and your success in a global social business case competition.
4. Demonstrate your passion for data-driven strategy and customer segmentation through specific examples and outcomes from your work.
5. Consider taking additional quantitative courses or certifications to demonstrate your proficiency in data analytics, if feasible.
Your target schools, MIT, Columbia, and Kellogg, are all reputable institutions for an MBA. While admission to these schools is competitive, they are within reach, given your strong academic background, work experience at a renowned consulting firm, and leadership experiences. It's important to thoroughly research each school's admissions criteria, values, and strengths to align your goals and experiences with what they are looking for.
Additionally, consider expanding your target list to include a mix of reach, competitive, and safer schools to increase your chances of admission.
Remember that the MBA application process is holistic, and schools consider various factors in addition to your GMAT score. Strong essays, well-crafted resume, and impactful interviews will also play a crucial role in your application. Focus on presenting a compelling narrative that highlights your strengths, achievements, and future goals. Good luck with your MBA applications!
If you have any questions about your profile or the program and would like to have a more thorough and personalized discussion with our top profile experts, please feel free to schedule a free profile evaluation call with us. We would be more than happy to assist you.Book a free profile evaluation call now! Good Luck!
MBA and Beyondpp72038 wrote:
Hi all,
I would like to apply for MBA-FT in 2024 and would love to get my profile evaluated. Please help take a look at my profile and kindly suggest what US MBA school I can target.
Demographics
- 27 yrold female, Southeast Asian
Undergrad:
- Mechanical Engineering graduate from #1 national Uni (M7 B-School feeder undergrad)
- Grade: 3.63 (First class honors - Top 10% percentile of 1000+ student class size, Rank 3rd in the major with major GPA 3.8)
- Academic excellence scholarship
Gmat: 680 (Q47, V35) (5th attempt)
Professional exp:
- total work experience: ~4 years
A) 3.5yr: MBB’s fresh grad hire, 2 promotions, to receive MBA scholarship from the firm. Experience in retail and data analytics
- Worked on retail strategy cases focusing on pricing and promotion (Fashion and beauty) and customer segmentation, leveraging data analytics and machine learning to define the future-proof strategy for the largest retailer in Southeast Asia
- Launch dozens of A/B tests and build client capability for both pricing and promotion and customer segmentation module, with improvement in profit dollar
-Also work in Financial services during the first year: designed a Wealth-business services model for the largest bank nationally, drive organization change management, and drive digital transformation both back-end process and customer-facing touchpoints
B) 6m: (Externship) Manager at SEA's biggest e-commerce platform(as part of consulting firm’s externship prog), double-hatting as strategic fashion channel owner (Managing 10+ stakeholders) and working directly with CEO on regional segmentation strategy impacting >100M users
- Managed senior stakeholders, successfully upward managing difficult project leads, and provide recommendations directly to the CEO on customer segmentation strategy
- Entrepreneur role as Fashion channel owner, collaborate with multiple stakeholders to improve channel performance, from UI/UX, search/recommendation algo, marketing, campaign, account management, etc.
Extracur:
- Founder of non-profit org (college student mentorship program) with ~100 participants, doing in parallel with work at MBB
- Won Global social business case competition during UG for eco-friendly business model, representing APAC as global finalist and participating in 6m incubation program for social start-up (raised some amount of funds to set up the business but didn’t pursue further due to R&D difficulties caused by the pandemic)
- Worked at a social consulting firm (Pro-bono) for 6m before starting my role at MBB, focusing in education issues and waste management
LOR:
- Strong letter from a partner at the firm (M7 grad)
- Relatively strong letter from the CEO of the E-commerce platform (M7 Grad)
- Strong academic reference from UG professor (MIT grad - repetitional figure in local business and academic field)
Goal post-MBA:
- Theme: Consulting-Tech
- Why MBA: MBA will help broaden my expertise in data-driven strategy for retail, help deepen data-analytics strategy knowledge, and strengthen my creditability on customer segmentation strategy for SEA consulting landscape
- Short term: to stay in consulting (as I got firm's scholarship) and become Manager+ at MBB firm, to be the core member of retail practice and customer-centric strategy in SEA, using data to disrupt and unlock insights on the SEA consumer
- Long term: to be a partner at MBB firm and become regional practice lead for customer strategy and analytics
Target school:
- MIT (1st choice)
- Columbia
- Kellogg
My concern
1.) Do you think I have a chance at my 1st choice school given my GMAT? Or any M7?
My GMAT is the weak point in my candidacy right now. I am planning to attempt GMAT to the lifetime limit, but there is no guarantee how much I can improve in the next 3 attempts.
Due to the unfortunate timing of each gmat attempt, it was difficult to break through the 700 ceiling (i gave 2 attempts before starting my role at MBB firm and had to stop studying to concentrate on work. 2yrs later, got promoted and start studying again, took another 3 attempts and hit 680; then before I can break the 700 I went on an externship and was pulled by the CEO to work directly on his special strategy project, hence wasn’t able to study for 3m)
2.) Assume I need to apply with 680, what should I do more to strengthen my profile?
3.) Are the schools listed achievable with my profiles? If not, which school would be more promising?
close
Updated on: 07 Aug 2023, 01:11
