SheaRai wrote:
I understand your concern
Gylmitul.
The situation is still very unclear and while most schools are trying to be helpful, many might not allow deferrals. I know of a few schools that have announced that students either join this year - by starting through online classrooms and joining in-person when they can, or forego their admissions and reapply next year. If that happens with most schools, there might not be as big a pool of applicants deferred from this year.
But all this could change based on how most schools and students eventually make decisions at the end of the admission cycle. I suggest you follow the forums and keep track of how things evolve at your target b-schools and make your decision accordingly.
One thing, in my opinion, could increase the applicant pool in the upcoming Fall and Winter rounds - is the economic outlook which doesn't seem optimistic for the next year and therefore, it might be seen as a good time for many to go back to school.
Hope that helped
Gylmitul wrote:
Hi Shea
Thanks a lot for the feedback. My plan was to apply this year in R1 for 2021 intake. By the time of joining I should have 4 years of work experience. However, there's been a lot of buzz going around about international deferrals and a larger applicant pool due to the COVID19 situation. Do you think that will make things even more competitive. If yes, would you suggest deferring MBA plans to target the 2022 intake?
SheaRai wrote:
Hello
Gylmitul,
Good to know about your interest in Ross MBA.
Looking at your profile details, I'm happy to see your ambition, but also feel that if you apply in Fall this year, you would have lesser than average work experience and it might not work in your favor. While consulting firms generally prefer younger candidates, they also value work experience and I would like to think that you might have a better shot if you apply next year.
Having said that, if you have something extraordinary in your profile or on the extracurricular aspects, then the age and lesser work ex. might not matter as such.
Also, with the recent changes caused by Covid-19, schools are struggling, and might continue to struggle over next few months, to find good candidates, so it might be a good time to take a shot.
For Ross, I'd suggest aiming for a GMAT score of at least 740+. It would also help you in your recruiting for consulting postions.
I'm including the following articles for your help
How do business schools evaluate your profilehttps://vibranture.com/articles/how-scho ... rofile.htmTop 5 ways to build profile for MBA applicationshttps://vibranture.com/articles/build-pr ... ations.htmIf you want to talk to me personally, feel free to email me at
mail@vibranture.com Good luck!
Gylmitul wrote:
Hi
I am an Indian female (24 years old) with a finance and accounting background. I am planning to apply to B-schools fall of 2020 this year .
Requesting for a profile evaluation based on the details mentioned below:
Undergrad Information: B.com Honours at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi University
Target GMAT Score: 730 (looking to understand what it should be to maximise chances of admission)
GPA: 76% aggregate, passed first division (we do not have a GPA/ percentile system at Delhi University, so not sure what the best way to convert the same would be)
Work experience and leadership: I will have 3 years of total work experience by September 2020 which will include:
- ~2.5 years as a Senior Analyst at PwC India in front-end Investment Banking with a focus on the retail and consumer sector. I was promoted last year and received a rating of 1 (scale of 1-5, with 1 being the highest) and was due for promotion this year as well which unfortunately got deferred to next year in the light of the current pandemic situation. I have worked on several buy-side and sell-side M&A/PE transactions in the past two years and have also co-authored few thought leaderships and newsletters published by PwC India in the consumer sector. My responsibilities have included deal origination (development of pitch books), financial modeling, preparation of information memos and assisting in due-diligence. I have also significantly contributed to pitches for two large marquee companies for which we got the mandate and are currently working on deal execution.
- 5 months at EY Global in the Assurance team
Extra Curriculars: I was the President of the Finance Cell in my college where we conducted multiple events and fests like strategy games, mock stocks, Bplans etc., I was also a member of the entrepreneurship cell in my college.
Post MBA goals: I think my primary purpose for doing an MBA is to get positions at leading management consulting and investment banking firms. My limited experience in financial consulting has allowed me to develop a preliminary understanding of the industry and the skills required. While I enjoy what I currently do, I believe that an MBA from a top business school would allow me to grow faster, enhance my - technical, business and management skills further as well as build my network (which I have come to learn is very important in consulting and IB) to advance to the next level in my career. As for my long term goal, I am quite intrigued by Venture Capital because of the thrill and rigour that comes with exploring, understanding and analysing new companies and industries.
So I am attracted towards the prospect of working in that field after gaining relevant experience. However, this is more early stage and may change as my career advances.
I would also like to seek suggestions on what I can do to build my profile further and what my ideal GMAT score should be to put me in a safe space in terms of getting admits from Ross and other Top 10-15 US business schools. Additionally, it would also be helpful to understand if applying next year with 4 years of work-ex by Sep'2021 (total of 5 years at the time of joining), a possible promotion at my current org/or switch to hopefully a better role would make my profile more compelling than applying this year with 3 years of work-ex by Sep'2020 this year (total work ex of 4 years by the time I will join).
Chiming in here as a Ross alum from a couple years ago. Here are my thoughts on your strengths and improvement areas, which include some similar things to what has been mentioned. Also, please note that my feedback may be pretty direct, but it's based on my experience and I want to share what I believe will be helpful for your candidacy.
Strengths
- Type of work experience (not to be confused with amount of experience): Ross tends to have a lot of career switchers and a vast majority don't have as many candidates with stronger business backgrounds. They tend to be engineers, teachers, or more functional roles in business like strictly accounting, IT consulting (not true management consulting), etc. As an IB analyst with a promotion in 2 years especially for a woman applying for Ross, you stand out. That kind of WE is usually what I've seen from candidates at Kellogg, Tuck, etc.
Improvement Areas:
- GMAT: could be slightly higher based on the competitive set you'll be up against
- Amount of work experience: Ross's average age at matriculation is 28, so candidates have 5-6 years experience. In order to be an exception to this case (with only 2-3 years WE), you must be exceptional in all other facets of your application or have some kind of tie to UMich, Detroit, or the state of Michigan.
- Goals: stating consulting and banking together in the same sentence is a HUGE red flag. every MBA knows that you cannot pursue both paths. the recruiting for each alone is brutal. it's completely unmanageable for any human being to do both, since you need to fly to NYC for banks while there are consulting firms at campus the same exact time for events. If you straddle both sides of the fence during recruiting, firms will see it and you won't be getting invites to interview. You also mention VC, which Ross doesn't have as many resources or connections to besides the local VC network in Ann Arbor. Unless you're willing to make a compelling argument for why you want to do VC in Detroit/AA and have the story to back it up, that story won't stick. At the end of the day, MBA programs want to know you'll be employed by industries and companies that recruit there, so it's best to be pragmatic here even if you decide to change course when you matriculate.
- Skills needed from the MBA: I'm sure you'll do the due diligence here, but I'll emphasize certain things here in case. You'll need to be concrete on what exact business, technical, and management skills you want; what classes, clubs, events, etc. will get you those skills to fill that gap for you to excel in your next role post-MBA; and what that exact role is (tying back in the previous bullet point).
The skills, goals, and your story should be seamless and coherent. What would help is finding something you're passionate about and leverage that as your mission for your next role after Ross, which is a place that's both mission driven and action oriented. If you've taken steps and proven to succeed in that passion, that'll be evidence that you can execute on your "business plan" for your career, which is essentially this application. Based on your profile thus far, it's very career and functionally driven, but there isn't enough about a grander mission that you'll do for certain companies, organizations, countries, society. That's the extra compelling story that needs to be told, otherwise you'll look like every other MBA application any school receives.
Hope all that detail helps.
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Updated on: 26 Mar 2020, 04:31
