Profile Evaluation INSEAD, M7

Question

(Taken format from a previous post posted here)

Profile
1. 29/Male
2. Indian

GPA
Engineering with CGPA of 6.52(Out of 10)
PGP Finance from MDI Gurgaon(A top ranked business college in India) with 6.11(Out of 10)

GMAT
Looking to take it in June with a target score of 750 or hopefully higher. (Getting good scores in mocks)

Languages
English
Hindi
French(A2 Level certification done from a coaching institute)- Planning to DELF post GMAT

Work Experience
Pre MDI-
22 Months with a recruitment startup as a senior consultant. Did projects with an end to end delivery
Conceptualized & coordinated the implementation of algorithm-based recruitment portal

Post MDI-
Working for a leading Indian Bank (Since Oct'20) 
Position - Manager - Treasury Dealer
- Pricing of various Derivative products 
- Oversee demo and onboarding of clients with bank's product

Social Impact
Cofounder, Director | NGO1 | August 2020 – Present
o Initiative to provide soft skills training to underprivileged students (class 6 to undergrad)
● Onboarded more than 100 students
● Handling a team of more than 40 volunteers to work as educators for the weekend classes
● Collaborated with a society of a leading Indian BSchool for projects and internships

Senior Coordinator, NGO2
● Led centre development for education of underprivileged kids at nearby place of my college
● Managed funding, team handling, volunteers' selections and their engagement
● Increased number of kids from 20 to 50 within a year's time, classes held 6 days a week
● Managed a team of 30 team members apart from active volunteer and a hired instructor

Certifications-
Cleared CFA Level 1 and FRM Part1
Candidate for CFA L2, FRM P2

Extracurricular Activities
- Completed a half marathon
- Speaker - Gave a motivational talk on a platform having 500k+ views
- Motivating students preparing for competitive exams using social media posts and one-one interactions

Target colleges-
INSEAD- 1 year program looks lucrative to me
Wharton
Stanford
Kellogg
MIT Sloan
Booth
Columbia

After MBA, looking for a career in Finance or Consulting.

Thank you!

MBAandBeyond · Answer

Hi Gaurav92 , Thank you for sharing your profile. Your profile looks good on the surface. Talking about your stats, your undergrad GPA is on the lower side. If you score 750+ in your GMAT, you can compensate for your lower GPA. CFA certification will also add a significant boost to your profile. Your essays, work profile, and how well you weave the narrative would be even more important. On the work front, you will need to bring stories of leadership and impact, and I believe you can present many good leadership stories out of your experience. While listing your work or responsibilities, you will need to pick the most impacting one. Talking about your ECs, they are interesting. The committee’s goal is to fill the class with as many perspectives and as much diversity as possible. You will need to bring diversity to your profile. Start early and take a couple of months just to brainstorm. We have an extensive content gathering process where we just spend hours brainstorming to set the story’s theme and narrative. Overall you have a good profile. But I’m missing impact right now. I am keen to hear more about your story to draw out the relevance of b-schools in your profile and find the USPs. According to your post-MBA goals, booth could be the perfect fit for you. If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and gauge your fit for b-schools. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience. Cheers! Shantanu Sharma Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond Testimonials Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com What s app: +65-97158525 Ask MBA & Beyond - if you're concerned about any of your gaps in your profile & need direction

Gaurav92 · Answer

Thank you for detailed review.
I have updated social impact field in my post and also added a 3rd point in Extra curriculum field.

MBAandBeyond · Answer

That’s really great Gaurav92 , this exhibit a great mentor and leader in you. You should speak about the role and responsibilities you have undertaken and create an impact. Speak about them in your apps, your passion, and the motivations behind these actions as adcoms put a high emphasis on this because it highlights the candidate's ideals of giving back to society. I also suggest that you include your hobbies and interests to demonstrate your diverse personality. This will make your apps very strong and unique. For US schools, to get better insights into what the school looks for and how you can strategise your applications better, you can look into this session If you'd like, we are happy to hop on a call with you to discuss your profile in length and your further chances to b-schools. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience. Cheers! Shantanu Sharma Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond Testimonials Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com What s app: +65-97158525 Ask MBA & Beyond - if you're concerned about any of your gaps in your profile & need direction

PersonalMBACoach · Answer

Hello Gaurav92 , Thank you for sharing. Given that your CGPA is on the lower side, you will definitely want to work to maximize your GMAT. Your target score of 750 or higher is a great goal here. Your work experience and extracurriculars look strong and provide solid examples of leadership and management experience. It’s also good to see that you have a list of 7 target schools, as Personal MBA Coach recommends applying to 5 to 7 schools to maximize your chances of acceptance. In terms of gaps, I would suggest fine-tuning your post-MBA goals. Reflecting upon and articulating your career goals now will help save you time when you begin to write your essays. Currently, your goal to go into finance or consulting is quite broad so you want to really think about how you will be unique and impactful. Pick a set of goals and run with them. While no one will hold you to what you write in your business school essays, most schools will want candidates to have clear plans laid out before they arrive on campus. Goal development is one of the key components of Personal MBA Coach's services . We focus on this early on so applicants can reference their goal statements when developing their MBA essays. Do not hesitate to reach out to scott@personalmbacoach.com if you are looking for help putting together strong applications! Best, Personal MBA Coach

GyanOne · Answer

Hi  Gaurav92

Thanks for posting. You have plenty of strong points on your profile. A few other things/caveats to further think through: 
- Your work history is split up into two phases, and you have just 18 months of experience in banking post your first MBA. You need to think through your career goals (decide between finance or consulting), the rationale for them, and the need for a second MBA. The problem here is not so much pursuing a second MBA (most schools are ok with that) but rather making the case for it so soon after the first. You will need to think beyond traditional reasoning such as international exposure etc. to make this point. 
- Your GPA at the undergrad and post grad stages is not high. This makes a high GMAT score critical. It is good that you are getting good scores on the GMAT mocks so far - ensure that this translates into a strong final score. 
- The social leadership part is really good and will help. Some of it seems to overlaps with the period of COVID lockdowns in India, though, so ensure that your contributions are seen clearly, and your participation is not merely digital. 
- Any international exposure to report? This may further add to your profile.

bb · Answer

Profile Evaluation INSEAD, M7

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