Hi Paul, could you take a look at my profile?

Question

I would appreciate your assistance and opinion. I’m going to try for great schools, but am worried about my GPA, experience, and age. I want to work internationally after school, so many of my targets are international. Is my profile good enough to get me into Insead? Or am I dreaming with my schools list? What parts of my profile should I stress, particularly for Insead and IE?

Here's my profile:

American Latino Male
720 GMAT (Lower quant, very high verbal)
3.2 GPA
30 years old

Education:
I received my BBA from 2nd tier state university with a finance and marketing dual concentration. During my undergrad I founded a campus political organization and was very active in a campus parish (everything from leading retreats to hosting guest speakers). In addition, I was an active campaigner and volunteer for congressional campaigns. Took an internship my senior year with the US Senate in DC researching proposed trade legislation. My low GPA was mostly due to my focus on my extracurriculars and job.

Work Experience:
Shortly out of school I left my job at a local bank to be an entrepreneur and start my own business, which was successful for 3 years until the economy went south and I had to close shop. At its peak, the business employed 8, and had monthly volume of over $1mil.

Then went to work for my family's small business where I mostly helped with marketing campaigns/promotions and overseeing finances. Finally decided to work for a large firm with the possibility of a higher career trajectory. Currently, I am working at Fortune 20 healthcare firm as government analyst.

Post-BBA Activities
Hospice Volunteer
Captain of Flag Football Team

Short term goal:
To work internationally as either a strategy consultant or possibly somewhere like booz that does government consulting work.

Long term goal: 
Use my international business expertise and interest in the intersection of business and politics to work for an organization like the State Department, UN, or World Bank.

Dream Schools: 
INSEAD (Consulting job opportunities and global perspective, perfect!)-Round 1 (April Deadline)- This is my first choice by far but I’m worried about my lack of international experience. I have lots of cultural experiences to write about in an essay, however. 
Columbia- Regular decision

Target schools: 
IE- Early December (rolling)
IESE- Round 2/3 (of 5)

Safety
Georgetown- Round 2

PaulLanzillotti · Answer

Hey DukeCityMBA,

Thanks for reaching out to me. him him I do have a few questions about your international work experience, and since I do not have the answers I'm going to have to make some assumptions for this analysis. For the record, I am not quite sure if you are implying that you already have international experience and that it may not be enough, or if you were saying you don't have any at all. To me, it's not clear by the way you phrased some of your experiences. Moving on…

Now whether or not INSEAD this is a good fit for you – given your international experiences – is pretty much based off of how well you can address the questions/essays they are asking you. Most of the questions do not "require" you to provide an international example. Of course, knowing INSEAD we know that you need to at least bring something to the table with international relevance. There is one particular question that the school likes to ask regarding "culture shock". This question requires – for the most part – an international experience, and a slightly awkward one at that. Given your personal background, you could address this essay prompt quite effectively. Remember, if you with a personal example here you are probably going to want to address the majority of earlier questions with your varied work experience. Anyway, addressing this culture shock question with a personal experience you could talk about visiting the old country. Perhaps your parents are immigrants from Mexico. You could talk about visiting where they grew up and address how it completely took you out of your element and life in the United States. How you – at an early age – realized what the other side of the tracks is like. You began to appreciate your parents struggles and efforts on your behalf a bit more. Perhaps you began to get more involved in your heritage or culture. Perhaps you began volunteering at the ESL center down the street or outreach to poor immigrants. Addressing something like this would pretty much satisfy this essay very, very well.

For the most part, everything else appears to be in order. You are a little older than the average but I do not think that is going to be a problem – provided you have a explanation you can work into the essays. I would tell you that your explanation should revolve around the start of your own business, and then having to reset after its failure. That may have delayed your career progression by three or four years, for example.

IE Business School and IESE are both great schools, and are literally down the street from each other. I . both programs this past spring, and both campuses are in excellent parts of the city. As an aside, Barcelona has to be my favorite city in the world. I don't believe that you will have any problems getting into the schools as well. None at all, in fact.

With respect to Columbia business school, if you're not going to apply early decision, do not apply immediately after endearingly decision deadline. Give it a few weeks – possibly a month before you submit. Trust me on this one. I definitely would not wait until after the new year to apply to Columbia.

Georgetown round two should be no problem.

Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti

DukeCityMBA · Answer

Paul,

I apologize about not providing a clearer account of my experience.

I have no international experience whatsoever. Growing up in a military family, I have traveled and lived in all corners of the United States. I have many friends who are first or second generation Americans that come from various regions of the globe. (Seriously, my social gatherings have a habit of taking on the look of the UN General Assembly.) In that respect, I have lots of stories about experiences with cultural differences. Can I substitute one of the more profound of these experiences for Insead's Culture Shock essay? Or would it seem like I am grasping at straws?

Given my aims of international consultancy, are there any schools NOT on my list I should be looking at?

Thanks for your response.

PaulLanzillotti · Answer

Hey DukeCityMBA,

I grew up in a military family as well. I know your pain.

If you plan on writing about your upbringing, and how it shaped you, you want to be very selective about what questions you answer. As a general rule, admissions committees like to see more time relevant examples. They also like to see work examples – in general. I think because you are slightly older, it's okay to speak more about the personal aspects. Just know that if you try to use a personal example to demonstrate how you were five years old and learned a very formative lesson, one that has stayed with you today, that might ring a little hollow. One more thing, the United Nations Gen. assembly metaphor is cliché. I don't want to trivialize your experiences, but at the same time, I do not want you to trivialize your experience as well. Most applicants think they need a hook, but they end up creating a cliché. It makes me want to poke my eyes out every time I read it. So just state how it affected you and move on – avoid the many colors of Benetton advertising campaign. Although I have yet to see an essay draft, it sounds like you could be grasping at straws. But really, it's too early to tell.

If you want to work overseas – let's say Europe – you should really go to a European business school. If you feel this strongly, yet to really consider if Georgetown is actually a legitimate backup school. Or is it just the last person standing in the bar at closing time? Think of it this way, why would her career from the EU flyover to Washington DC to recruit you? I'm sure you are awesome, but there's probably someone almost as awesome right down the street at LBS, or INSEAD. The other thing you need to consider is the state of the European economy – more specifically, countries that use the euro. It kind of sucks over there right now. To make sure you pick and choose wisely, look at the schools employment reports. Right now, LBS probably looks like a better bet than INSEAD.

I can't really answer what schools you should not look at, because we would be here all day. The set of schools you should be looking at contain the criteria I listed above.

Hit me back if you have any questions.

Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti

Hi Paul, could you take a look at my profile?

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards