Dinged All over.. Re-application Strategy

Question

Dear All, Was an applicant for the Full time Fall 09 intake.. Brief on my profile: * Profile: Indian Comp Sci undergrad, moved towards business development, Male * GMAT: 710 (AWA : 6.0) * Undergrad: Average * Recos: Very good, my supervisors are very supportive * Work Experience: 2.5 years Basically into a lot of strategy, innovation, problem solving, market research and corporate sales( biggest plus being the rapid career progression with a continuous thrust towards increased responsibilities) * Career Goals: Consulting( I feel at present I am doing pretty much an internal consultants role in my organization and moving towards from a strategy/problem solving focus would be an ideal switch based on my strengths - analytical and reasoning skills) * Essays: Good(But then I could be wrong

) * Extra Curricular: Good, lots of sports and event handling with some socials So anywayz based on all the above, I felt I had a well rounded profile with the right mix of acads, leadership, diversity in my profile to get good responses. But Alas the whole process dint go as planned: * Darden : Dinged w/o interview ( The school was a killer for most Indians this yr) * Ross: Dinged w/o interview * UNC: Dinged, 2 interviews ( Very positive response but still) * Olin: Interviewed, Waitlisted, later dinged * Smeal: Dinged w interview * Emory: Dinged w/o interview * Georgia Tech :Dinged w/o interview Well as you can see it was quite a heart breaking and de-motivating admission process. Have been following this forum for quite some time and wanted some feedback on what could have gone wrong. I have come to the following conclusions: * Work Ex: Though interesting, too low * Indian Pool very competitive * Very Avg. undergrad acads * Leadership outside work ex. not enough Now that I am planning my re-application strategy, any feedback would really help.. Thanks, URSB

Jerz · Answer

You should check out this thread: 2008-zero-admits-where-are-they-now-77761.html

There are several people on this forum, myself included, that went 0-fer last year and have gotten acceptances this year, and they've shared their thoughts on what they did differently in that thread.

ncp · Answer

In your shoes, I would do the following.

Wait for a couple of years to get more work experience. With a fast-tracked career, you will be more desirable to not just schools, but also to MC firms down the road.
Optionally, retake GMAT and get a 750+ score. Will help you again with both admissions and recruiting.
Round out your extra-curricular profile by developing a lengthy/deep relationship with an organization that you like. 
If you can accomplish all three, then you can apply to most of the elite schools - Ross, Darden, Tuck etc.

xenok · Answer

I hate to always play the devil's advocate but perhaps you should try to be brutally honest with yourself.

Your other numbers look good, and you claim your recs were great. 
I can think of two scenarios.

Scenario 1: Your GPA is decent (I have no idea how to interpret average, considering I don't know your undergrad institution)
My opinion is that assuming you have a decent GPA, then considering the schools you applied to, I don't think it's a numbers issue.
While nothing is guaranteed, with your numbers and a decent set of essays, I would think you would have gotten in to at least one of your schools.
It's perhaps time to be take a long hard look at your essays. Were you honest enough? Were you mature enough? Were you specific enough? Were your in-depth knowledge of each school show in your essays?
I would advise revisiting your essays. I don't mean to imply that your essays were crap; you were interviewed, so they probably weren't too bad. However, it seems to me that it's the most likely weakness in your application in this scenario.

Scenario 2: Your GPA is not that good.
In that case, I would advise taking a few extra classes and building an additional transcript to address academic concerns.

IMO you have time, you don't have to reapply next year. You can even afford to wait another year. My advice is to be as brutally honest with yourself and figure out what the biggest weaknesses in your application are, and work on addressing them. Good luck with your reapplications.

scorpioguy · Answer

I would agree with xenok on the reasons of why you might have lost out on the admission front.

One thing that you would need to consider is that Indian male with a CompSci degree working in IT is a very common demographic. I am sure that there would be a lot of applicants who share your profile and have exhibited similar growth over a short period of time.

I felt was that the career goals are a little vague "strategy/problem solving focus would be an ideal switch based on my strengths - analytical and reasoning skills" - seems to be too general.

In case you did not do this already - I would suggest that you tie your goals to your work experience. For example - Apart from my daily responsibilities of (enter daily duties) I have been supporting the Finance Practice with their sales pitch by conductng market analysis of the various products offered by the clients of my company. During my MBA I hope to enhance my understanding of valuation of commodities which will allow me to prepare more coherent sales pitches. After my MBA I hope to join the financial practise of a major strategy consultant to gain exposure to various issues facing the industry and eventually move on to assume responsibilties of...

Disclaimer - I am not a finance expert and used info gathered from magazines

Once you target your industry / specialty - read up the MBB websites to get info on their practice. This would help you to write convincing essays.

Another point - Based on the original post I am not sure if you have had any international exposure. A lot of our IT brethren would have had some Internatioanl exposure. I am not sure if this is possible but to increase your odds of acceptance you can try for a non-US assignment that would provide yuo with a different perspective. Again an Int assignment is NOT a deal breaker in terms of admission but this will increase your odds.

Hope this helps.

bsd_lover · Answer

* Essays: Good(But then I could be wrong

) It is my opinion that your essays were not upto scratch. A GMAT of 710 should allay most concerts with regards to your academic ability. The schools that you applied to were a good realistic set that should have been "reach" schools for you (assuming an average GPA). Perhaps you left the adcom a "red flag" type impression in your essays. I'd highly recommend posting your essays somewhere on this forum (perhaps in the peer review section) - depersonalise them (i.e. change names etc.) and see what others have to say about them. * Extra Curricular: Good, lots of sports and event handling with some socials Perhaps these could be fine tuned to add a community bent to it (e.g. some volunteering / NGO type work) for reapplications. * Darden : Dinged w/o interview ( The school was a killer for most Indians this yr) * Ross: Dinged w/o interview * UNC: Dinged, 2 interviews ( Very positive response but still) * Olin: Interviewed, Waitlisted, later dinged * Smeal: Dinged w interview * Emory: Dinged w/o interview * Georgia Tech :Dinged w/o interview As I said earlier, you should have received at least a few more interviews that you did in this set of schools - this does point strongly to something wrong in your essays. Well as you can see it was quite a heart breaking and de-motivating admission process. As the founder of the zero admits club - I can empathise with your pain. But, dont give up. The final prize are worth the effort. Good luck.

URSB710 · Answer

Thanks a lot everyone for the feedback.. have come to the conclusion that I really need to rethink my essay strategy quite a bit... The GPA is "average" meaning quite low.. so I m taking up a Diploma in Management Consulting which should help get an additional transcript while at the same time pushing me more towards my career goals. I think I was a little too generic in my job roles etc and will look at getting more team based specific examples. Apart from that the additional yr of work ex should do the trick.

Will post my essays on the peer review.. that should really address the key weakaness in my profile.

I really appreciate the honest feedback without the bashing.. unlike some other Bschool forums.. read (BW)

Thanks,

URSB

Will post my essays on the peer review.. that should really address the key weakaness in my profile.

I really appreciate the honest feedback without the bashing.. unlike some other Bschool forums.. read (BW)

Thanks,

URSB

Dinged All over.. Re-application Strategy

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