Second MBA - Profile Evaluation

Question

Sharing a profile below for evaluation for second MBA

29 yrs old Indian Male

Undergrad - Bcom Honors (3.2 GPA)
Graduation - MBA from an Indian Bschool (2.86 GPA)

Work experience:
3yrs as an IB Analyst with the industry leading global IB. Earned stellar reviews and a promotion while working there. 
1yr as a Sr. Associate with a global PE (Indirect investments).
Part of the investment team for a leading startup in India.

I failed at my first startup during my MBA which had a huge impact on my grades.

I have cherished my work experience so far and it made me realize the importance of a holistic business acumen which I couldn't imbibe during my 1st MBA.

Social activities:
Used film making to capture the plight of tea garden workers
PVR Nest "road safety" campaign to spread awareness about road accidents for unprivileged children living on the streets

College cells participation - undergrad and MBA (Co-Founder of finance and investment cell in undergrad. Part of alumni relations cell in mba)
House Vice Captain and member of leadership training club in school

Target schools - LBS, Insead, Kellogg

Kindly share an honest feedback and what I can do to improve my chances.

Posted from my mobile device

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

richaswami1992 , a few thoughts on your profile evaluation and plans:

The academic arc is tough to evaluate without the name/pedigree of your colleges. Are both GPAs converted? If yes, don't as most schools don't ask for it. The   low GPAs   will be a definite handicap. Make sure to push the pedal really hard on the GMAT and write an honest optional essay.  
  The professional profile sounds quite promising though the details are again quite sketchy to do a better assessment. This will also impact your post-MBA pitch since PE/investing roles are tough to break into for international MBA grads. Going back to IB can be a hard sell. Need to find the right pitch there.  
  The   ECs arc   appears to be solid during college. After college is intriguing but tough to say for sure as they appear to be more one-offs. 
    INSEAD and LBS value international experience   on location; anything there? Targeting the Kellogg 1Y?

Hope this helps some. Do reach out directly, with more details, for further discussion.

MBAandBeyond · Answer

Hi, richaswami1992 , Thank you for your post! First, I would like you to understand that all the above-mentioned target schools are not short of stellar profiles; hence, you need to target a score of 730+ in your GMAT to compensate for your low GPA. Moreover, you can back it up with some substantial examples of leadership, decision-making, and analytical skills in your work experiences and ECAs or maybe even mention in your optional essays the reasons for your low GPA. Coming to your profile, you have a relevant amount of work experience and earned a promotion, and worked in diverse roles. Now, you can bank upon them by elaborating more about your responsibilities, crucial projects assigned, examples of leadership, skill-set developed, all about promotions & professional accolades, and the impact generated during your diverse tenure. Also, add any detail about international exposure/experience as they are greatly valued at this stage. LBS and INSEAD look for some international experience in their candidates. Furthermore, you can add your startup with a bit more of a positive aspect by characterizing yourself as someone willing to take risks to stand apart from the general queue. About your ECAs, you do have diverse and quite strong ECAs, which could be very well used in your essays to add additional points to your profile. I would also like you to elaborate more on the new challenges faced, the leadership role you played, the impact created by you, and a bit more about the overall experience. Overall you have a good profile and stand a chance at top b-schools. However, I would like to know more about your profile. Also, as you are a second MBA candidate, you will need to give a plausible reason for a second MBA. You may want to read a Case study of an aspirant doing a second MBA from London Business School- with 100% scholarship , you will get some insights. If you'd like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further help you with your profile-building strategy, feel free to book a free session with us at your convenience. Let's create a Roadmap for R1 Sept 23 intake Cheers! Neha Hadke Profile Analyst & Channel Manager, MBA and Beyond Testimonials Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com

ExpertsGlobal · Answer

Hello  richaswami1992 ,

Thanks for writing in.

The low GPA in the past will need to be compensated for by a fine GMAT score and you must target upwards of a 740 on the GMAT. The same needs to be supplemented by a set of essays that appropriately talk about your need for a second MBA at this point in your career. Information pertaining to your career goals is unfortunately absent from your post but we would recommend that you ensure a strong sync between your experience thus far and your future goals.

INSEAD values entrepreneurial experience as well as international exposure; hence, see if you can highlight your start-up experience in a positive manner. With regard to Kellogg, we would recommend you apply to the 1-year program as your profile is more suited to the same. Besides the 1-year program respects applicants with a prior managerial education.

At this point, getting the desired GMAT score should be your first step. Everything else will follow from there.

Good luck!

MBAGuide · Answer

Hello  richaswami1992  hope you are doing well

There are a few grey areas in the description you provided.

1. Unable to infer the gap between your undergrad and MBA. While the B schools under consideration understand that many Indians pursue PGDM soon after completing college, they may not consider your reasoning for a second MBA strong if you have completed your MBA very recently (in the last 1-2 years). If this is the case, you should look at spending another 1-2 years improving your profile/ gaining international work experience etc. and then applying.

2. Since it is not clear to me whether you have any international work experience or not, I suggest you leverage your entrepreneurial background and PE background to differentiate yourself. But in order to help you pitch your entrepreneurial background as a differentiating factor, we need to know more about your venture (idea, industry/business model, scale, learnings) to be able to holistically understand your motivations and make sense of your decisions. You have also not mentioned what would you like to do in the mid term or long term and how you believe that a 2nd MBA would help you get closer to your goals this time.

In my humble opinion you would have to work hard on creating a compelling narrative in addition to a 730+ GMAT score to increase the odds of receiving a positive outcome in the applications process.

If you need professional guidance on creating your applications strategy feel free to get in touch.

Best wishes

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