Profile Evaluation Request : Indian Entrepreneur

Hi Karmesh,

You have a lot going for you - a good GMAT especially for the non-US schools you are targeting (which do tend to be lower), good undergraduate credentials (depends a bit on the school which we don't know right now but generally doing well in engineering in highly-regarded), and serious entrepreneurial street cred. How cool to be featured in an entrepreneurship magazine!

Regarding your question on not having a traditional "corporate" resume, schools generally like to de-risk their student population and make sure that their students are imminently employable since % employed post graduation and associated compensation is a really key part of rankings. That's one reason why they like to see blue-chip pedigree on the resume in terms of corporate employers -> because recruiters can make assumptions on how good you are as an employee if you did well at a competitive place before business school (M/B/B, GS, JPMorgan, Google, Amazon, etc.). That said, a non-traditional entrepreneurial background can really resonate with schools as long as you sell it well. Given your entrepreneurial background, it may be easier to sell working at a start-up or potentially a VC (usually a tough needle to thread but you may be able to pull it off depending on your personal story - especially if you have worked with VCs before) than it would be to sell consulting. Why do you want to be a consultant? How has your prior work experienced prepared you for this role? What can you bring to the school / your employer that sets you apart from other entrepreneurs (some of whom may have worked for corporate employers before breaking away and doing their own thing). You'll need water-tight answers to these questions.

At a cursory glance, I think you potentially have a strong profile for European schools, though that does really depend on your essays and demonstrating leadership, impact and financial value-add. You are a little bit young for INSEAD, though. They typically like students with more than 4.5 years of experience. Although you seem uninterested in U.S. schools (and your aversion based on cost is completely understandable), you are actually more in their sweet spot in terms of age and years of experience. If you did attend business school *AND* land a role with a consulting firm (a giant assumption, since many people go to business school and don't land the consulting roles they want), the signing bonuses, salary and incentive comp are generally enough to pay back loans pretty easily.

I probably don't need to tell you this but competition for business school admissions is incredibly fierce for Indian nationals. Especially at U.S. schools but for European schools as well, here are LOTS of highly qualified, passionate young people from India applying for a vanishingly small number of spots. Merely achieving a solid GMAT score and GPA will NOT be enough to have a fighting chance. You must also have a very solid application package, and that includes essays that have a good admissions strategy in terms of future goals that are supportable with your historic success.

The admissions game for Indian nationals is something that we specialize in. If you'd like to have a free consultation with a top-tier MBA alum on our team to talk about what kind of admissions strategy may work for you, feel free to reach out: https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/ and we’ll get into it. Oh and take your time and really sink into that form, the more stuff you say, the meatier the chat.