Profile Evaluation - Indian Banker - URGENT

Hi sarveshmehta,

While your rank and marks as an undergraduate school are solid, I would consider retaking the GMAT. As an applicant within the hyper-competitive Indian applicant pool (more on this later) you should definitely aim for a score 20-30 above the school's average GMAT. Since it wasn't stated in your post, I am unsure as to whether this is the first time you have taken it. If this is the best score out of a number of attempts (let's say 3+), then you will instead have to rely on the other facets of the application to improve your appeal to an admissions committee - such as your marks and performance within grad school.

Your 3 years of work experience - especially because it is within investment banking (PE at that) - does set you apart from the traditional Indian IT applicant. With respect to sheer work months, you already know that US programs will likely consider it ample experience. I know you said that you were confused with the what EU programs wanted to see. Don't be, as it is really pretty simple. They want to see an average age of 28 or 29. In fact, a lot of EU programs have a hard and fast minimum work requirement to consider you for admittance; making you the runt of the pack in that respect.

The international experience you listed should not be sold short. It's up to you to leverage those experiences in your essays. Of course this requires you to examine how the programs you are applying to ask you about your work experiences. If the essays lean heavily towards international experience, team diversity, cultural barriers, etc., then you may come up a little short if asked to provide multiple examples. Review each school's current essays and see what stories you can form - without repeating the same international example. Besides the school's average GMAT, that should help you short-list your schools.
Another point I wanted to make regarding diversity/empathy/cultural cohesion is simply this - I would also recommend avoiding making comments about the greater amount of prestige a junior-level investment banker in India is given in comparison to an American one. This is what I call an absolute statement, one that can be viewed as possibly extreme, and as an irrelevant comparison. At any rate, this is not a statement that will win an American admissions committee over because it won't be convincing with any banking recruiters. Consider this - what question could an adcom ask that would illicit this perceived fact?

Your history of social involvement is spot on with respect to advancing your goals. However, what will ensure that it is not viewed as a junket is your personal connection to it. Rhetorically - is there something in your past or present that compels you to get involved? Make sure it does not seem like a contrived means to an end.

If you can do this you stand a good chance of breaking into private equity - which is about the hardest field to get into. Remember that PE is often a red flag with adcoms, as the jobs are hard to come by. But based on what I've read it seems that if anyone is on track to do it, it is you. However, I would encourage you to bring it up a level and focus more on IB. It increases your chances of getting a job and that increases your chances of getting into school.

One more thing with respect to your goals. While your goals are admirable, they make me wonder why you would choose to go to a business school located in the US (and thus rack up a big bill), only to return to pursue a niche industry that is not likely going to yield a salary high enough to justify the expense.

In the end, when considering the hallowed world of private equity, its all about prestige and pedigree. This means your list of schools should be a subset of these 6: Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Stanford, Wharton, and MIT. Examine each school's stats and career center employment reports. Look to see what programs yield the greatest number of graduates that pursue private equity. Outside of these schools, Yale, Darden and Tepper are okay choices. But if you are going to add schools like Duke to the list, you might as well add NYU or Cornell before Fuqua.

Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti