PROFILE EVALUATION PLEASE[HIGH GMAT, LOW GPA]

Question

Profile:

Age:24 
Sex:Male 
Nationality: Indian.

Undergrad: 
B.Tech Mechanical Engineering (from a private indian university), 
CGPA:5.6/10  
GMAT:780

Experience:

At a Top Tier Consultancy firm 
- Started working as Researcher & Investment Advisor

At a Top Tier Indian MNC  
-Hired as Business Analyst and started working in the retail business and was later moved to asset management arm of the company after 6 months, was heavily involved in diversification of portfolio and in just 2 years, i was elevated to the position of Sr.Business Development Associate .

During Bachelors

Founding President and Chair, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Research.  
 #Founded it my 2nd year of bachelors ,this Society was later recognised as centre of excellence in the university, the membership of this society grew from 20-170 in just a year.

Partner and Director for a startup

#Was the first employee and 6% stake holder of a startup started by a bunch of university alumuni which was mainly into retail market and online services, , became its Director for HR and Marketing.
#Provided various marketing and business development strategies which boosted the revenue of the company and was later made CEO of the company's subsidary which sold Tee's, Hoodies and Merchandise, Increased the sales by 75% in a year,did all this in my 3rd and 4th year of bachelors.

Awards and Honors:

Super-performer of the year( For 2 consecutive years from the MNC), 
Best Employee Award (from the MNC)
Pat on the back(from the MNC)
Contribution of the year( from the MNC)

Why MBA?

Planning to start an Asset Management firm.

I'm planning to apply for MBA program at MIT-Sloan,HBS,Stanford,UC:Haas,ISB-Hyderabad,LBS.

What are my chances??

PS: i am particulary worried about my low GPA, will that be a problem?

Would greatly appreciate your advice! Thanks

interviewbay · Answer

Your very high GMAT will offset your low GPA. I don't think you need to worry about it. You might want to use wes.org and convert your undergrad score to GPA. They might show it in good light. Your extensive involvement in startups during college could be one reason for low score. I don't think you should use an optional essay to explain this. You should smartly weave this into one of your essays.

Overall, you have a good profile compared to many engineers in your peer group applicant pool. However, your profile lacks leadership experiences. Most of your roles seem to be individual centric. Let me know if thats not the case. Your target schools look for strong leadership roles.

International experience is another aspect not clear from your profile. If you are targeting LBS, you need to have international experience. There is a separate essay on this topic.

Starting an Aseet Management firm as your post-MBA goal seems very ambitious. Schools like highly ambitious people but with a reasonable thought process to support it. I dont know the scale, strategy, target sector and regional focus for the firm you want to start. It might be better if you could work in an asset mgmt firm for few years. I will be able to answer that question after I understand more about your background, connections, etc.

Good luck!

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Youngjames · Answer

Your UGPA will be a problem for some schools. Specifically, HBS looks heavily at the UGPA and weighs it more than the GMAT. A place like Stanford expects a high GPA AND a high GMAT. If I were you, I'd apply to a range of programs just to give yourself the best shot at acceptance someplace. Your experience in consulting will be very light if you decide to apply this year, since you just started in Feb 2012, and you'll need to describe why you're leaving the firm after such a short time. Most consultants join as part of a structured 2 or 3 year program, so it will be unusual to apply from where you are.

You will also need to be a lot more concise, crisp, and plausible about your career goals post-MBA. There's nothing about your background (based on what youve written) that demonstrates plausibility about your being able to start an asset management firm. If this is longer-term, what's the short term? How will you position yourself to obtain this career goal post-MBA? For some schools, the career focus element is critical, since it's a strong marker for career success post graduation.

Hope that's helpful,
-James Young

Rjenner · Answer

Hey Interview bay,

First of all i would like to thank you for evaluating my profile,

Now about few queries that you have asked me regarding my profile:

Q : "I dont know the scale, strategy, target sector and regional focus for the firm you want to start."

A : a) Our business will be on a regional scale in first few years and then move on to national , we are group of 6 people with each of them having worked in
different sectors.
b) We have been working on the strategy for past one and half year and we are almost at the completion of a fund that targets average annual returns of
approximately 15-26% and volatility of approximately 10-16%. we plan to launch ourselves with this fund and have been working on several others as well
c) Although we will work mainly on telecoms, banking and real estate, currency and bouquet of products ranging from stocks, bonds, ETFs (exchange-traded
funds), commodities, etc, which further adds to diversification in clients’ portfolio and we also plan to expand ourselves to equity,infrastructure, hedge fund,
private equity and also to work out few alternative assets in future.
d) The regional focus would be mainly India.(Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai).

Q: "However, your profile lacks leadership experiences. Most of your roles seem to be individual centric."

A: I didn't mention it in the profile but as a Senior Business Development Associate/Section Lead at the MNC's asset management firm, I handled research team
of 17 employees with 10 being freshers and 4 of them having an experience of 1-2 years and 3 of them having experience of 2-3 years [i.e) more than mine].

Q: "International experience is another aspect not clear from your profile."

A: After working for 6 months as a business analyst i was sent to work at company's Tokyo office for 4 months where i worked in a 12 member team which dealt with banking sector and on my return i was promoted as Business Development Associate and was involved in diversifying the portfolio and lead a team of 4 employees, after working for 10 months i was promoted as Sr. Associate and was asked to relocate to company's office at London and worked there for 13 months after which i was asked to come back to India and was given the duty of handling a team of an extremely talented and hard working people which i successfully did for 9 months.

and regarding rec's : i can get one from Sr.VP of the MNC to whom i reported and a university prof. who was on the board of the entrepreneurship cell and the
the CEO of the start-up that i worked for during my bachelors (that start-up has done reasonably well and is still operating with the current
value over (USD 65M after recent funding), i now hold 5.5% stake in the company which i plan to dissolve and invest in the firm that i am
planning to start post MBA

Regards,
Rex Jenner

Regards, Rex Jenner

PROFILE EVALUATION PLEASE[HIGH GMAT, LOW GPA]

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