hjort, please let me know if i stand any chances?

Question

hi hjort

hope you can evaluate my profile. i am a 24 year old girl with 2.5 years of exoerience, will have a little over 3 by the time MBA starts. i graduated from a premier college in my state with fairly good grades. i always took part in extra curricular activities-debates, creative writing, sports, have been into adventure sports, been camoing, rock climbing and bunjee jumping and have been proactive. i've organized several events in college and also a large inter-college fest.

after my engineering i was recruited into this japanes control systems firm. after several interactions with clients, i realised that i like consulting best and providing business solutions.i did some research and got into one of the four largest IT companies in India as an ERP consultant. i quicky learned not just technology(oracle) but also the domain of Human Resource management and Providing solutions for the clients business needs. i gained the confidence of my seniors and peers and worked for 2 projects with British clients. got a lot of exposure at this and also did one platinum project for the company, which brought in a lot of revenue, the client was British airport Authority.
during this job i learnt that the business aspects ineterests me more than technology, so i decided that an MBA would help me great deal. now i have landed myself a plum project with WHO, as the only HRMS consultant from the company, i dont know if i will take this up as i might not be able to do an MBA in 2006 if i take up this assignment. i have also trained other people in this domain and managed a training schedule for about a team of 30 people.

i have also done some community work-been involved with CRY for a while and am helping the Hyderabad toast masters club be a chartered one soon.

what are my chances of getting into one of these B schools. please tell me if my decision in applying to these schools is right? or should i think of some others?
NYU-Stern,CMU-Tepper,stanford(not sure about this one),Umich-Ross,NYU-Rochester,Thunderbird,Michigan state-Board,yale,ISB,vanderbilt.

what are my chances at these schools now?

thanks hjort :-D

Hjort · Answer

I always love to answer questions with more questions . . . 

Where (geographically) do you wish to work after the MBA program?
Do you wish to change careers or primarily add management skills to your existing career path?
You have an interesting set of schools- what motivated you to include these schools? 


The WHO project sounds like a valuable experience in its own right and a good way of demonstrating your abilities. Based on the information you have provided, I would give serious consideration to waiting a year before starting an MBA program. 

Hjort

shilpa shastri · Answer

hjort, i want to remain in the consulting business and maybe join one of the top consulting firms in the US, preferably on the East coast. my short term goals would be to work in one of the top consulting firms with the skills and knowledge acquired at MBA along with my past experience. 

after about 3-4 years of gaining varing exposure to the work, i intend to be an entrepreneur in a consulting firm.

the reason i have chosen those schools are because: 
i have chosen schools in the top 10 as those are my dream schools, then some in the top 20 as those would be the second rung that i would like to get into. finally, i have also picked a few in the top 40 as after all the effort and time i have invested i would still get into a good B school.

Hjort · Answer

That helps - what specific consulting firms on the East Coast of the US interest you?

shilpa shastri · Answer

well, i would be interested in Enterprise Resource Planning Consulting, or get into firms which consult on issues such as management and strategy of finance and resources and also technology. i have a back ground in technology so that might help provided i get into the right kind of company. i also have some , although a restricted knowledge of functional aspects too. but an MBA should equip me with the weapons for that as well, so i'm guessing companies such as mckinsey, IBM, Deloitte, Accenture, etc should suit what i am looking for immediately after my MBA.

also Hjort, i want to know if you can help me out with the selection of schools. in my earlier posts i have mentioned about 6-7 schools that i have narrowed down on and why i have selected such a diverse range(i want to maximise my chances of acceptance). i will mostly want to learn about leadership, management, marketing and organizational strategy during the MBA. you have already seen my profile, so will the schools that i have picked be a good fit for me? also do you have other suggestions regarding the schools based on the kind of job i am looking for post MBA?

thanks a lot Hjort

Hjort · Answer

For the firms like McKinsey there is generally little recruiting beyond the trans elite cluster. Depending on the demand for consultants, even some of the elite cluster schools will place only a handful of students at McKinsey. 


I would take a closer look at closer look at UNC and Texas. They are both trans elites with pretty strong records in consulting.

shilpa shastri · Answer

hi hjort

thank you so much for your suggestions. i was looking at the acceptance rates for UNC, and they are quite low especially for the international students.
what do you think of Vanderbilt and urbana champaign in terms of my needs?

hjort, please let me know if i stand any chances?

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