acemeister29 wrote:
Hello Experts!
I would like your valuable thoughts regarding my admission prospects to various MBA programs in Europe (LBS / INSEAD / Oxford). My profile details are provided below.
Background: Indian Male, Age 36
Class X: 80.5%, State Board
Class XII: 82.8%, State Board, 20th rank in the state
Undergraduate Education: Bachelors of Technology, IIT Kanpur (2002-2006, CGPA 6.8/10), one of the top undergraduate programs in India
Pre MBA Work Experience: 2 year experience with Knowledge Process Outsourcing companies in India. Worked in the domain of Business Research and Intellectual Property Research
Post Graduate Education: MBA from Management Development Institute (2009-2011, CGPA: 6.9/10), one of the top Business Schools in India, major in Finance and Economics.
Post MBA Experience: ~ 9 years in top tier private sector banks in India
Job 1: Worked as a Manager for 5 years with the largest private sector Bank in India in the Investment banking division. My job entailed execution of the debt financing mandates for Indian and overseas clients of the Bank. Worked on >30 transactions aggregating > USD 1 billion in value. Received a promotion after 3 years. Worked across geographies and with cross cultural teams including banking and legal teams in Singapore / Hong Kong / Canada / USA
Job 2: Presently working as an Assistant Vice President for a leading private sector bank in the Investment Banking division. Involved in the origination, execution and monitoring of corporate finance transactions for domestic and overseas clients of the Bank. Worked on transactions aggregating ~ USD 500 million. Received my promotion in ~1.5 years
Post MBA Qualifications: Cleared all 3 levels of the CFA program administered by the CFA Institute USA.
Hobbies and Interests / Extra Curricular Activities: Avid marathon runner, completed several editions of the Mumbai and Delhi Marathon. Practicing Value Investor. I have been supporting various charities like Helpage India, Child Help Foundation through the years. Participated in various clubs and volunteered for student festivals during college.
GMAT: 720 Q48, V40, IR 6. (I may retake the GMAT as I believe that my performance in Quant is not up to the mark, I was consistently scoring Q50/49 in mocks)
Previously, I did not think about an overseas MBA earlier and I was content to finish it from a good Business School in India. At this juncture in my career, I have gained corporate banking experience across the best banks in India along with exposure to the best banking practices. I am now seeking international opportunities in corporate finance / banking and I believe that an international MBA program would help further these objectives.
I am a little sceptical of my prospects as I am older than the average applicant for these programs and that I belong to an over represented applicant pool (Indian Engineer – Go figure!). It would be very helpful if the experts here can provide me with realistic insights regarding my admission prospects.
I earnestly thank all of you for your time and consideration!
Warm regards,
Abhinav
Hi
acemeister29,
From the first glance itself, you have a very unique and strong profile given the fact that you are applying for a second MBA degree. To begin with, your undergraduate GPA of 6.8 is a bit on the lower end of the spectrum, however, having graduated from IIT will definitely help overshadow your low GPA score since schools do pick out applicants from the top 10 colleges of every country. You can also talk about your percentile or rank in the class to supplement the low GPA score. Coming on to evaluate your performance in your MBA wherein you’ve earned a GPA of 6.9 and have graduated from a fairly decent university, posing the right alibi for the low GPA is a must. You can be highlighting your extracurricular participation or any other practical experience you were involved in.
Talking about your extracurricular participation, you have definitely shown your true worth and skills through the diverse sects of areas you have been involved in some way or the other. These activities highlight your proactive attitude and your socially responsible personality which can easily vouch for you being a great future leader. Furthermore, you can add more value to your profile by digging deeper into the various endeavours you undertook and how you went above and beyond to excel in the same by elaborating on the kind of events you organized, duties you performed, and most importantly highlight what were your major takeaways.
Coming on to your work experience of altogether 11 years when you have held noteworthy positions of responsibility and executed huge scale projects, in my opinion, you have a strong professional front, however you will still be facing a lot of competition from applicants who have worked in the big four companies like KPMG, EY, DELOITTE, etc. Having said that, to set yourself at par with your competitors, you ought to focus on highlighting the kind of projects you handled, the value you added to these projects and the major takeaways you were able to gain from the same.
Moving on, you have also mentioned that you have cleared all the three levels of the CFA program which is very impressive given the fact you are inclined towards the field of investment banking and finance and it also showcases your constant thirst to upgrade yourself in order to always stay in the competition lane.
Moving forward, your GMAT score of 720 is definitely very impressive which will allow you to target most of the top-notch B-schools. Furthermore, you have mentioned that you are a little skeptical about your QA score of 48 coming in the way of your overall selection chances which is not really true because the overall GMAT score is what the schools really focus on. Thus, if you are absolutely sure about boosting your score by 40-50 points, only then consider going ahead for a retake, otherwise, a GMAT score of 720 is already pretty competitive for you to bag admission in the top tier colleges of the world.
Most importantly, you need to connect the dots and pose a very strong reason for why you want to pursue a second MBA degree. Moreover, you have raised some concerns regarding your late admission in the MBA program most specifically related to the age factor. Well to put it straight, you don't need to worry about this since an MBA is a managers degree the more work experience you have, the more you can resonate and give back to the program.
Coming to the schools you can target, you can look at a mix of dream and competitive category schools:
Under the dream category (schools where the chances of acceptance are 50%) you can target- HEC, LBS, WHARTON, LSE and NYU.
Under the competitive category (schools where the chances of acceptance are 70%) you can target - USC MARSHALL, ESSEC, FOSTER, FSFM, ESCP and IE.
All in all, what you need to highlight is your profile USP’s and how you can be a great addition to the school whilst posing the right examples to legitimize your claim in your SOPs and Essays. Additionally, you need to ensure that your LORs and Resume, equally depict the strengths of your profile. All of these form an important part of your application where we will help you in presenting the proper justification for your purpose of pursuing a second MBA degree right now.
Lastly I would advise you to Book A FREE consulting session with one of our expert consultants who will run you through the whole process and also help you with personalized suggestions and upgradation that you can do to further strengthen your chances of acceptance by a minimum of 3x!
Below you will find the link to our Book a FREE consulting session.
https://www.mim-essay.com/book-an-appointment-form/Hope this helped!
_________________
Abhyank Srinet
Founder & CEO
(MiM-Essay)