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Question

Hi,

I am an Indian engineering senior, at a top 10 engineering college in India.
I just took the GMAT a few days back and scored a 760 (Q49 V44 IR8). 
My GPA is ~7.7, which causes me a bit of concern. The lower GPA is due to the fact that I focused more on extra-curricular activities in school. 
I have interned with one of the MBB consulting firms, and I currently have a job offer from another one of the MBB.

Will I have a realistic shot at schools like Harvard/Stanford/Booth/Columbia/Wharton if I work for the next two years and apply? (I'm also applying to a few of these schools right now via the deferred admission channel, are the odds of me getting through higher right now than if I apply later?)

Admissionado · Answer

Just to confirm, your job offer is in a consulting role & not an analyst role, correct? There is a big difference in the two when it comes to b-school admissions; schools definitely view consultant roles in MBB much more favorably than an analyst role. Analyst roles are just not as strategic & they're also not client-facing (and they're also not nearly as hard to get).

Assuming you are in a consultant role & rack up some impressive accomplishments at work in the next few years (might improve your candidacy to wait & apply when you have 3 years of experience instead of 2 so you can show more accomplishments & ideally gain more leadership experience), I think you'll have a shot at top 10 schools, but given your demographics, top 5 is still going to be a bit of a reach. That's not to say it's out of reach - I think you will have a good shot. But you're coming from the toughest demographic out there when it comes to b-school applications & any weakness at all (in your case your GPA) is even more challenging than it is for the average applicant. The good news is that even though your undergrad is in engineering, your work experience will not be. The vast majority of Indian male engineering applicants are coming from very technical careers. That said, there are quite a lot of applicants as a whole coming from MBB so that will present its own challenges in terms of making sure you stand out against the consultant crowd. You can do that via your accomplishments at work (ideally with quantifiable results), leadership experience, extracurriculars (ideally driving meaningful results & demonstrating leadership here as well), any unique personal experiences that have shaped who you are, and by having strong post-MBA goals. The most common goals among your demographic are product manager in a tech firm or consulting - so if have goals that are not one of those two, great. It's not the end of the world if one of those is your post-MBA goal but it will be critical to have some sort of unique twist, and a lot of that comes by being specific: what problems do you want to solve, what opportunities do you want to take advantage of, why is THIS the career path that will let you do that & why is it your passion?

In terms of whether you have a better shot now, I actually think it will be easier for you once you have the consulting experience under your belt. Deferred admission is for candidates who b-schools don't want to "get away", which typically means really unique candidates they know will be in demand across top schools. I also think in your case really strong work accomplishments will help you outweigh that GPA.

Hope that helps!

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