senoritab wrote:
Hi,
I would like to get my profile reviewed as I am planning to apply for MBA applications this year.
Please find below the requisite details:
Demographics:
- 25 years old
- Nationality: Indian
- Gender: Female
Work Experience:
- 3 years
- Analytics and data science
- Banking Sector (Citibank India - Assistant Manager)
- One promotion: grade change by one level
Education:
- Masters in Economics
-- Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (One of the most prestigious institutions forEconomics in Asia)
-- Percentage marks: 74% overall
-- Rank: 9th out of 180 students (top 5% of the class)
- Bachelors of Arts (Honours) Economics:
-- Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi
-- Percentage marks: 78% overall
-- Rank: 5th rank in the college (90 students)
Extra Curricular:
- Team management:
-- Part of international student organisation, ShARE: Knowledge Network President for Macroeconomics network
- Editorial:
-- Member of editorial boards of college magazines and newsletters
- Research:
-- Member, research team of college societies
- Social Service:
-- Member, National Social Service, India
-- Volunteer for teaching under-priviledged children
-- Community services
- Public Speaking, anchoring and debating
Internships:
- CRY, Research on child healthcare in India
- RBI, Research project on debt management
Why MBA:
- By the virtue of my previous training, I possess a good understanding of economics, econometrics and statistical frameworks. I enjoy my domain of work, which essentially deals with application of statistical tools and techniques to solve business problems.
- My motivation for pursuing an MBA is to develop a sound understanding of the business and financial world. I see this endeavour as an enabler and a catalyst in my career progression and evolution, which would help me broaden my horizon.
Test Scores:
- Yet to take GMAT
- GRE: 328/340
- TOEFL: 110/120 (planning to retake)
Target Schools:
- Wharton
- Stanford
- NYU Stern
- Booth
- Kellogg
- Other top 20 schools
Kindly review my profile and let me know my prospects of getting into my target schools. Also, let me know what all can I do in order to improve my profile.
Thanks a lot
Hey there!
Good to hear from you.
So overall your profile base is very good. Your test scores are excellent (you may not need to take the GMAT btw. B-schools pretty much all accept the GRE and your score is very good), you are in a good industry and are female! Yay!
However, things will be tough.
The main challenges are that:
- you come from a tough pool - Indian finance - yes, being a female helps, but still.
- you are a non IITer. Yes Dehli is considered very good too. But IIT is IIT.
- You worked for a good bank but not in an advisory/front-office role - meaning there will be a lot more profiles like yours.
Sooo taking all these things into consideration I have two major pieces of advice:
- Make yourself UNIQUE. Right now when I read what you have written here, everything seems good, but relatively standard. Meaning, this sounds like dozens of other candidates I have come across. But if you are to succeed, especially at top schools it is going to be because there is something SPECIAL about you. It could be your story, your background, your goals, your volunteer work, whatever, but it should be SOMETHING.
- Spread out your school list. M7 schools will be "Reach" for you. So from your list, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg. It's too challenging a list. Spread out your schools. So say you apply to NYU and Booth and Kellogg and add Johnson and Tepper and UNC (just for example). That would be a far more reasonable list (that could also help you get ahead in finance) for your particular profile.
Sooo I am hoping this is a good start and helpful for you,
Best,
Jon