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philman91
Joined: 28 Nov 2017
Last visit: 06 Feb 2019
Posts: 3
Given Kudos: 13
Location: Indonesia
Schools: Cambridge"20 (A) LBS '21 (II) Oxford"20 (A)
GMAT 1: 750 Q49 V42
12 Oct 2018, 09:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi,
would be great if you could provide some inputs on my chances at the following schools:
Target Schools:
-LBS, Cambridge, Oxford, INSEAD
Background:
-Nationality Indonesian (~10 years), moved to Australia for a while (<1 year) but spent most of my life in Singapore (>10 years).
-Speaks English, Chinese, Japanese and Bahasa Indonesia fluently, but most comfortable with English.
-Age 27, 4 years working experience upon matriculation.
Education:
-Economics major & History minor at the National University of Singapore (is this school actually well-known outside Singapore?)
-Relatively lower GPA, but 2:1, around 4.1/5 CGPA - first year GPA was extremely low, but pulled grades back up towards the end, and university dean's list (top 5%) in one of the academic years. My school is also infamous for imposing a harsh bell curve, should I explain this in the optional essay?
-Also did a 6 month exchange in Tokyo, Japan, national top 10 university in the country.
GMAT:
750 (Q49,V42,AWA6.0)
Work Experience:
-(1st job) 1 year at at a startup providing AI-based ERP solutions, as IT/marketing consultant. Job was too technical and decide to move out of the role.
-(2nd job) almost 3 years as management consultant at a large, but regional (& therefore less well-known internationally) Japanese consulting firm. typically involved in go-to-market/strategy projects for Japanese clients into emerging countries, most notably Indonesian geography considering my background.
-Several examples as project leader for smaller projects, and also examples on managing up and taking leadership as task leaders in many projects.
-Career progression from business analyst - associate consultant - consultant in 2.5 years, also awarded top analyst award last year on basis of average project quality scores in FY2017.
-2 internships during university, one in Singapore government organization, and the other in Shanghai, China (3 months overseas internship).
Co-curricular activities:
-Publicity head in Economics society, but unfortunately no other significant leadership roles during university.
-However, as I've always been interested in history and cultures, I've been volunteering at the national museum of Singapore for almost years (on monthly basis, on average), mostly helping out and managing galleries for visitors to the museum, guiding tours at museums, basically enhancing visitor experience there!
-avid trekker, basically trekked many mountains in the region (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand etc.) and also other countries such as New Zealand, Everest Base Camp etc.
Post-MBA goals:
-either continue consulting at other consulting firms, but preferably on projects involving technology or real estate,
-OR going into internet retailing firm in the region. This space has gotten very exciting in Southeast Asia (with many Chinese, Japanese, local players trying to get a slice of this E-commerce pie), so I'm excited to be able to utilize my background/languages/consulting to shape this landscape. Especially considering that Indonesia is projected to be one of the largest Internet economies by 2022!
Realistically speaking, what are my chances at the schools? possible for partial scholarships as well? Thank you very much in advance!
would be great if you could provide some inputs on my chances at the following schools:
Target Schools:
-LBS, Cambridge, Oxford, INSEAD
Background:
-Nationality Indonesian (~10 years), moved to Australia for a while (<1 year) but spent most of my life in Singapore (>10 years).
-Speaks English, Chinese, Japanese and Bahasa Indonesia fluently, but most comfortable with English.
-Age 27, 4 years working experience upon matriculation.
Education:
-Economics major & History minor at the National University of Singapore (is this school actually well-known outside Singapore?)
-Relatively lower GPA, but 2:1, around 4.1/5 CGPA - first year GPA was extremely low, but pulled grades back up towards the end, and university dean's list (top 5%) in one of the academic years. My school is also infamous for imposing a harsh bell curve, should I explain this in the optional essay?
-Also did a 6 month exchange in Tokyo, Japan, national top 10 university in the country.
GMAT:
750 (Q49,V42,AWA6.0)
Work Experience:
-(1st job) 1 year at at a startup providing AI-based ERP solutions, as IT/marketing consultant. Job was too technical and decide to move out of the role.
-(2nd job) almost 3 years as management consultant at a large, but regional (& therefore less well-known internationally) Japanese consulting firm. typically involved in go-to-market/strategy projects for Japanese clients into emerging countries, most notably Indonesian geography considering my background.
-Several examples as project leader for smaller projects, and also examples on managing up and taking leadership as task leaders in many projects.
-Career progression from business analyst - associate consultant - consultant in 2.5 years, also awarded top analyst award last year on basis of average project quality scores in FY2017.
-2 internships during university, one in Singapore government organization, and the other in Shanghai, China (3 months overseas internship).
Co-curricular activities:
-Publicity head in Economics society, but unfortunately no other significant leadership roles during university.
-However, as I've always been interested in history and cultures, I've been volunteering at the national museum of Singapore for almost years (on monthly basis, on average), mostly helping out and managing galleries for visitors to the museum, guiding tours at museums, basically enhancing visitor experience there!
-avid trekker, basically trekked many mountains in the region (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand etc.) and also other countries such as New Zealand, Everest Base Camp etc.
Post-MBA goals:
-either continue consulting at other consulting firms, but preferably on projects involving technology or real estate,
-OR going into internet retailing firm in the region. This space has gotten very exciting in Southeast Asia (with many Chinese, Japanese, local players trying to get a slice of this E-commerce pie), so I'm excited to be able to utilize my background/languages/consulting to shape this landscape. Especially considering that Indonesia is projected to be one of the largest Internet economies by 2022!
Realistically speaking, what are my chances at the schools? possible for partial scholarships as well? Thank you very much in advance!
12 Oct 2018, 13:47
Kudos
Bookmarks
philman91
Hello philman91
Target schools are best in Europe.
Sure you should explain local GPA issues in essay.
GMAT score is awesome, just based on that you are in, for all schools on list
Work experience is great and relevant, I particularly like AI involvement and top analyst award
Your international exposure in education, work/interships and 3-4 languages fluency is big plus.
Extracurricular activities and sport adds value to application in terms of your personality.
Your post MBA goals are interesting and realistic.
In short you will most probably be accepted in all schools on list, LBS and INSEAD have average GMAT score around 700, Oxford/Judge have less, which is not that important anymore, once you are way above
I suppose you satisfy requirements for GPA when you translate that to British scale, pay attention to that.
I would go to LBS or Oxford, maybe Judge, but that is just me
I expect to hear good news from you soon !
12 Oct 2018, 22:41
Kudos
Bookmarks
A few more reflections on your profile philman91:
Hope this helps some.
Cheers,
- The academic story can be interesting and that, together with the GMAT should ideally make this a non-issue. About the optional essay point, one could argue that why you were not on the better side of the bell curve - tough to justify I suppose? Best to keep it objective instead of accusatory basically.
- The work trajectory looks a bit eclectic. The tech interest seems disconnected with your undergrad experience at first. It would be important to understand the nature of your engagements in the consulting firm. Has that been on the tech side? If not, how would the ecommerce change happen? Think about some of these to make sure you come up with a compelling pitch overall.
- The career acceleration you have written about looks phenomenal - is it fair to say that on a relative scale too?
- The ECs arc is a bit modest compared to the overall profile. But still, some interesting elements there so make sure to exploit those well.
- For reasons mentioned here, we do not speculate on school selection. While I understand your regional preference, but why not consider a few US programs? The brand of the top programs there does carry far here too. Other than that, you already have the usual suspects in there.
Hope this helps some.
Cheers,
