Profile Evaluation - French Business Analyst

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of an MBA at either Booth or Kellogg and I would like a profile evaluation before I actually start the process.

Target Year for MBA : 2014-2015

Academics :

I completed a MS in Engineering (concentration Software Engineering and Statistics) from a mid-tier French Engineering School ("Grande Ecole").
GPA : 3.5 (if translation from french grading scale to us gpa is relevant)
GMAT : 700

Work Experience :

2 month internship in Ontario : High Performance Computing for a Research Center
6 month internship in France : Developer for a top-3 french Investment Bank
2.5 years full time job in France : Business Analyst (financial applications) for a joint venture of IBM and a world leader shipping company

Extra Curricular :

Age : 26
Languages : French, English (fluent), Spanish, Arabic (Intermediate)
Sports : Judo black belt, former high school national athlete
Involved in programs aiming at helping students with underpriviledged backgrounds

My goal is to work in investment banking in Chicago.

Thank you for your time!

essaysnark · Answer

Hi vncntvncnt! (couldn't afford to buy any vowels with that username? ;-)

jk) Thanks for asking for our take on your profile - you have a built-in advantage as you're coming from a part of the world that gets relatively fewer applications to the best schools. There's certainly plenty of candidates applying from Europe in general but it's not nearly as many as some other areas and we don't see too many from France in particular. So you stand out a bit just in terms of being able to add some diversity on campus (and everyone loves a French accent!!). The Arabic skills are also distinctive, though perhaps not so much for a French national - just in the larger applicant pool they're more unusual. So all of this adds some value in your profile. However, we're a little confused on your timing, not sure if you're saying you want to apply this fall to start in 2014? Or that you'll apply next year to start the year after? Or you want to do a one-year MBA? Kellogg has the 1Y MBA so that could be an option if that's what you're saying - it's not as easy to do a big career jump through Kellogg 1Y since there's no internship built in but it might be possible. We're going to go on the assumption that you mean you will apply this year, to start next year, at the two full-time programs in the city of Chicago, Kellogg and Booth, to graduate in 2016. Any feedback we offer might be different if any of that is off from your actual plans. We're also not sure where you came up with the 3.5 GPA; people often make mistakes when converting from other systems and the schools all want you to report exactly as your school recorded your marks. If you're in the TB range then we'd agree you're possibly ~3.5 but we're hesitant to commit to any of that without knowing more - and the academics do matter in terms of how your application will be received. Regardless, it appears you did well in school and the educational profile is appropriate, with the Master's on top of a 3-year undergrad (correct?) - that's a good foundation to have for the U.S. admissions. It's also nice that you had the internship in North America, and your post-university work experience looks solid. What will matter most is what type of leadership experiences and examples you can include on the resume and your recommenders can discuss, and how you answer those important essays for these two schools. You look like you have everything lining up quite well so far and the fact that you're so certain about the specific schools you want to apply to and your post-MBA career path in Chicago is quite unusual - people aren't usually coming to us with these decisions made already, so that's great to see. It shows that you've done your research and know what you want to do next - and that's AT LEAST half the battle with nailing down a viable strategy for success with these excellent schools. Please write back with any specific questions we can help you with - you have a lot going for you already and a Round 1 app to either of these schools might work out well for you! If you're determined to get into one or the other then there's obviously a lot riding on it and the essays (and recs) will matter a LOT, but you've got enough time to work through all of that. Good job on starting early. Let us know how we can help! EssaySnark

vncntvncnt · Answer

Thank you very much for your quick answer !

I was considering applying through 2014 to start in 2015 and my GPA is more in the "B" category (around 14/20).

To answer your question about the french school system, the "Engineer Diploma", which is recognized as a Master's of Science in the US, involves 2 years of preparatory classes (theoretical math, physics, ...) and then 3 years of engineering courses, with focus on computer science and statistics in my case.

Concerning the different MBA programs, I am not sure that I would be able to afford a 2-year MBA, so I was trying to get information about either the 1-year program at Kellogg, or even the part-time programs from both schools.

Is a part time MBA a lot less valued than a full time one ? Is it still possible to break into investment banking or consulting in startegy with such a degree ?

I still have some time to apply and I would like to maximize my chances to get accepted. I was maybe thinking that getting CFA level I & II would be a plus, what do you think ? I also like to read philosophy, I am not sure if it is common in the US, but do you think I could leverage that up in some way ?

Any advice is welcomed and I thank you again for your time.

PS : concerning leadership, is setting up and leading meetings with Indians developers something that an admission commitee would value ?

essaysnark · Answer

Thanks for the additional details. Your response actually raised some other questions though - and we need to help you understand the differences in these different MBA programs.

First question: Why are you delaying all of this for a full year? It's great to get started early but if you have your GMAT in hand and you know you want an MBA, why don't you want to get started as soon as possible? Curious as to your reasons there.

As to your questions:
 A P/T MBA is no cheaper (in tuition) than a F/T MBA and in fact it usually takes longer to complete it so you have to consider cost of living for a longer time before you start on your new career, plus opportunity cost of spending more time in school. The Kellogg 1Y is certainly less expensive total cost but you also forfeit the earning opportunity of the summer internship, and it also can be a lot trickier to land that post-MBA job if you're switching careers if you skip the internship. It is VERY (!!!) difficult to get into IB from a part-time program - it can be done but you'd have to do some pretty serious networking and pavement-pounding to make that happen. So that's a lot of tradeoffs. Make sure you're fully aware of what you'd be giving up in either of these cases.

Also remember that the MBA has pretty massive ROI for most people. Getting a loan for the MBA is not usually that difficult; the banks see it as a pretty good investment, as MBA grads have a very low default rate. The cost should probably not be the first factor you use in choosing a school - it should not be ignored completely but it's probably not the most important criteria, either.

In terms of feasibility of switching to banking, you should reach out to the part-time program (and the 1Y program) and see what they say about how easy is it. You're not choosing the simple path for this if you go with either of these, since you don't have existing experience in finance - you've worked in the sector so that's good but it sounds like you've been on the IT side which isn't exactly the same. People do such jumps but they are making things tough on themselves. The traditional 2-year full-time track would be infinitely easier for you.

Yes definitely, these can add value - we actually did a series of posts on the EssaySnark blahg on the  CFA for non-finance candidates  (apologies to be linking to a post behind the paywall - not all our site is protected in this way - this post is particularly relevant to what you just asked so we wanted to include it, we don't expect people to pay for our site though! hope it's not too lame to be including this link for all of you).

Not seeing how this will help your chances of admission to bschool. It's something you would note at the bottom of the resume but it isn't something they make admit decisions on.

That sounds like project management, not leadership. You may want to do more reflecting on what "leadership" means. This will need to come through in your apps.

Hope this helps, let us know your reactions to these points raised.

EssaySnark

Profile Evaluation - French Business Analyst

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