What are my chances? - Profile Evaluation for Stanford

I saw your 3.37 GPA in your reply.

I realize that aerospace engineering is a hard major and one that at most schools has relatively little grade inflation.
However the combo of below average GPA and low quant score is going to be tough to overcome at Stanford even though your work experience is impressive. Would you consider retaking the GMAT. Do you think you can raise that quant score?

You may also be interested in the webinar I'm giving tomorrow, Get Accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business.. You're welcome to attend.

Best,
Linda

Linda
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Hi trying to get some evals for my profile:
1) Age: 30
2) GMAT: 650 (V32, Q47)
3) Country: Singapore, Undergrad: Top Business School in Singapore. Studied Quant Finance. GPA 3.0/4
4) Work: 4 years: Worked as an Algo trader in Tier 1 investment bank. Moved to mexico, where I worked in FinTech (raised 85 million USD, highest for Mexican FinTech till dec-2018) for 3 years. Currently working for a ride hailing company (from China) where I lead the payments team in Mexico and head all decision making for our launches. At the same time, working as a CFO for a startup to launch our own digital bank in Mexico
5) Extra curricular: spent 2 years in the Singapore army, where i was a lieutenant. Also, i'm a standup comedian, having performed in San Francisco, New York, LA and every major club in Mexico city. Fluent in 3 languages (English, Hindi and Spanish)
6) MBA goals: want to transition towards VC/growth equity to help Latam startups raise capital. Long term goals: move towards management at a unicorn startup

Planning to apply to M7. Every suggestion/comment is welcome. thank you!

Would you consider retaking the GMAT? Two more point on both the quant and the verbal would really strengthen your profile. Do you think you can do it?

Your experience is really impressive, but your academics could give M7 schools pause.

Best,
Linda
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Thank you, Linda!

I'm definitely in 2 minds about it. it took me around 2 tries to get to 650 (first time was 640). Given that im running short of time and I really want to get some apps out, is there any other way you reckon? Also, should i explicitly address my academics in my essays and how it's not an issue?

Thank you

You're welcome startupguy!

Both your GPA and GMAT are significantly below average for M7 programs. Your experience, however, is outstanding and highly competitive. If you think you can get that GMAT up, I would encourage you to do so because it will remove a possible reason to reject you.

If you don't think you can raise it (did you work with a tutor when prepping last time?), then apply with the current score and do try to address both, but it is a tough sell -- especially the GMAT. Also consider other programs that are strong in entrepreneurship and have ties to LatAm, but are easier to get into. UCLA, USC, and UT Austin come to mind. Consider applying R1 to M7 and if not accepted try my suggestions R2.

In terms of addressing the GPA, please see 5 A's for Your Low GPA.

The GMAT is much harder to address effectively because you can always retake it.

Whether addressing the GPA or the GMAT, you don't want to sound like you are whining or making excuses.

Good luck with it. If you'd like help with your MBA application, please let me know.

Best,
Linda Abraham
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Hi experts,

Need help in evaluating my profile!

10TH-89%
12TH-90.4%
Graduation(Engineering)- 7.1/10(not a top tier college)
Gmat: yet to appear

WE- 36 months as of now in TCS
Role: Software developer, leading a team of three people
Active participation in CSR community of TCS.
Got two appreciations and an award for on-time delivery and other activities.

Extra Curriculars:
Red belt in Taekwondo.
Represented university in All India Inter University Taekwondo Championship(national level) for 2 years and won in many other tournaments(university level)
Part of NSS community in my university
Working with an NGO to bridge gaps of education in government schools.
Guitarist
Intern in joshtalks

Post MBA Goals :- general management with major in Marketing(since this will be closely aligned with enterprenuership(long term goal) - which requires the entire perspectives of customers/markets)

Just wanted to know whether i could target M7, with this profile and with high gmat score like 750(hope i could make it)?

I think that with a 750 you'd be competitive just outside the M7, unless you can show real impact both on the job an din your roles off the job. The Taekwondo is impressive, but the M7 will want to see significant impact. You may have it, but I'm not seeing it above. Stanford is particularly difficult.

Best,
Linda
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Hi Id like a profile evaluation

30 Male Pakistan National

710 GMAT

3.6/4 GPA mechanical engineer. Honor roll student top 5% of class.

Wireline Product and Service Delivery Manager at Schlumberger (largest O&G services co)
75 direct/indirect reports. 20$ million annual revenue generating location. Responsible for revenue generation, operations, sales, training and coaching, supplier management and new technology introduction for Pakistan’s Wireline business. 8 years in the company. 1.5 years in current role.

International exposure in Saudi Arabia working with Saudi Aramco as field engineer.

Passionate about cycling and photography. Lead corporate initiative for local communities (school) where Schlumberger operates in Sindh Pakistan. Been volunteering consistently since high school.

Strong academic and extra curricular background.

Thanks.
Ahmed

Posted from my mobile device

What do you want to do post-MBA? Why do you want an MBA?
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Background and nationality - Indian
- Working as a credit risk analyst at Moody's Analytics
- Working in the domain of Regulatory Technology
- Have got one promotion in the past 2 years in this company
- Prior to that, I was working in analytics for 2 years
- 10th - 92%
- 12th- 90%

Undergrad Information - BS in ( Mathematics and Information Technology), Delhi University, 80%
GMAT: 750
Work experience and leadership - 4 Years,
- Led IFRS9, the new Basel regulatory requirements, projects for Tier 1 banks in Middle East
- Company is sending me to Canada to lead similar projects on CECL guidelines, US-specific regulations, for tier-1/ tier 2 banks in US.
Community and others - Started a Waste management startup during my college, led a team of 10 people and received decent funding to develop a prototype. Had to close it down, wasn't profitable and sustainable on its own
Post MBA goals - Would want to pursue in Risk and regulatory domain only

Awards
- Spot Award in the previous company
- First prize in paper presentation at undergraduate level

Hi,

Can you please go through the below and provide me your valuable inputs? Specific questions I have are listed at the bottom.

Bio: 1994 born, Indian, Engineer, Male

GMAT: 770 (Q 50 / V 46)

Intend to apply R1 for 2021 intake.


Education: Top 15 Indian School (non-IIT) GPA 8.11/10 Electrical and Electronics Engineering (no official figure on rank. The gold medalist had 9.84/10 GPA). (Note - Got selected for ISB Young Leaders Program but I dropped out)

Full time work Ex - Total 4+ years (at the time of applying in Sep 2020)
1. 2.9 years in a Consulting division of a Big 4 Accounting firm. Worked with Fortune 500 clients in insurance and hospital industry. Mostly on Cost Optimization, business Process Restructuring and Project Management consulting assignments. Worked at Office of the Managing Director for a year. 4 awards. Few months of international client facing experience in US (had to come back due to immigration issues).
2. 1.5 years in top tier non-profit (think Gates/Dell/Clinton Foundation) where I work with national govt on a high impact project in digital transformation & leveraging AI/ML for public health systems.

Part time work ex (pro bono):
1. Worked with a Member of Parliament (Upper house) to create a strategy to make Bangalore a tourist hub.
2. Worked as remote volunteer with a national award winning documentary film maker for his new project around families residing along borders of India
3. GMAT tutor online

Extra curricular:
School
Ambassador for a top tier international education NGO. Co-founded its school chapter. Taught English, Math to 30 children for 2 years.

Undergrad
1. Organizer (1/15, led Revenue Dept) of one of the largest college cultural festivals in the country. Led team of 80 to generate revenues of 65K USD+ and footfall of 30,000+
2. Volunteer with top tier national education NGO for 3 years in various roles - Teacher, fundraiser, career counselor, Mentor
3. Social Entrepreneurship venture with Enactus to create livelihood for 6 widows in rural India. Raised 6K USD as funds from Walmart, KPMG. Led 50 member team.
4. Co-founded a college club which was a collab between the college and an MNC. Led 40+ member team
5. Participated and won in 15+ debate tournaments (MUNs)

After undergrad
1. Ambassador for alumni association of college and created the social media presence - generating 20K+ engagement in 6 months.
2. Participated in education related CSR activities at Big 4 firm
3. Completed Certificate course in public policy (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship). Studied under Harvard MPA/Oxford MPP educated mentors.
4. Rejoined the national NGO in (2) above as a Mentor for youth (18+ years of age)

Target Schools: H/S/W/Booth

Post MBA Goal - Deciding between Impact investing in India and International Public Sector Consulting

Added Info - Applied in 2018 with a hurried application (think 4 schools in 1 month) to H/S/W/Sloan. This was when I was still at big 4 consulting. Bad Decision. I know. But that ship has sailed.

Thank you for taking time out to go through my profile. The questions I have are -

1. I have a non-IIT undergrad and not-so-stellar GPA. How do I optimize this aspect for H/S/W? the GMAT is one way. But what else can I do?
2. I have never had direct reportees during professional life. Even in my current role I am directly working with the leadership of the Ministry of Health. I have guided technical/ops teams but its not direct reporting. How do I showcase leadership?
3. Re-applicant. I applied 2018 December. I will again apply 2020 September. What is the potential impact?
4. Are the target schools realistic?
5. What else can I do to improve my profile?

Hi Observer,

Great experience! Interestingly a lot of Indian applicants are taking a career path similar to yours- some corporate experience followed by working at an NGO, while being attached to a member of Parliament. and this lot is increasingly applying to M7 programs. So, I am going to say, you still have the task of differentiating yourself from this competition.
what I specifically like about your profile is your extended experience in healthcare. A lot of your co-curricular activities also tie in with this and this would help you make a genuine case for your passion toward helping other people.
The non-IIT degree will not hurt and the GPA is not too bad. To strengthen these, you have an outstanding GMAT score. FYI, I have seen non IIT applicants get into top MBAs, so build your application on your own merits and on what you have achieved - you'll be good with that.

How do you show leadership? Well, there are several ways to do that. Working in the Government Ministry, you have to delpoy skills such as persuasion, influence, conflict management, goal setting, sharing vision, negotiations, leading initiatives while working with people over who you have no direct authority (and maybe 10+ years senior to you) - all of these require leadership skills. Infact its difficult to lead people when they don't report to you, so you have a solid case there.

Applying to 4 b-schools in a month was a bad idea, and I hope you will not make the same mistake this year. Most MBAs are reapplicant friendly, but you will end up writing a reapplicant essay. Here, compared to last year, you must show better maturity, more self awareness, any positive changes in your profile and changes in career goals. Be careful though, you should not just apply to the old programs, but also add new ones to the mix.

In terms of profile improvement- well, there's nothing much you can do now and you are in a good space already. Here are a few tips: 1. sort out your application strategy. Deadlines are a month away; 2. get down to application writing; and 3. give sufficient time per application. Also, Reach out if you need help.

MBADecoder

Thank you for the detailed response Namita. This was really insightful and inspiring. You're right about many Indian applicants pursuing this path. I guess its because of the brilliant opportunities this sector offers even to young people. More than 7 people went to M7 programs from my organization this year and that has been the case for the past 3 years.

I am not applying this year. I'm planning to apply 2020 R1. So I have a year to improve the quantitative aspects about my profile. Does it make sense to pursue a certification like HBX Core to build a stronger academic case?

It doesn't seem you lack quantitative aspects in your profile. the only reason you should not apply this year is if you wish to gain more experience in the impact sector.

MBADecoder

Hi Namita,

I currently have < 6 months experience in the current role & org. I will have 1.5 years of experience in the current organization by the time I apply next year. There are some high impact activities planned throughout next year at work.

Also, I am told schools do not always look at your application through a "re-applicant" lens if it is not the immediate next year. Making it easier as a re-applicant. You would, of course, know better.

These are the two reasons I do not intend to apply this year.

Best regards

Ok. I thought you already have 1.5 years at the current organization. 6 months is less experience to build a career goals story on. If there are some impactful projects coming your way, you should work on those and apply next year.
Even if you have to write the reapplicant essay then (which I think you will write), you would have more self-awareness and growth to show.

Bio: 1997, Australian, Engineer, Male

GMAT: 780 (Q 51 / V 46)

Intend to apply R1 for 2021 intake.

Education: Top 250 in the world uni, but nothing glamorous. Course Weighted Average 80% (Approx GPA is somewhere from 3.4-3.7 depending on what you convert with but there's no official GPA used, and Australian marks don't convert easily) Mechatronics Engineering

Full time work Ex - (at time of applying Sep 2021)
1. 1.2 years Technology Strategy and Automation Capability Development for same company as below. Global role looking at multiple initiatives within the business ranging from Machine Automation to Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Decision Automation.
2. 0.7 years as a Graduate Engineer based at a mine for one of the world largest miners and had the chance to work on multiple major initiatives with multi-million dollar impacts.

Part time/Intern ex:
1. 0.25 years full time as an engineering intern at a large mining company in reliabilty engineering.
2. 0.5 years part time internship as an engineering intern at a joint venture between a major networks company, major oil and gas company and govenrnment data authority.


Extra curricular:
School
1. Accumulated 100+ hours of volunteering with many large organisations including Meals on Wheels and Salvation Army.

Undergrad
1. University Leadership Program. Lead organisation of event between 5 people to raise 3.8k through a charity evening for Opportunity International.
The following year, I mentored incoming students to guide their journey in establishing plastic bottle recycling in Western Australia.
2. Volunteered in program addressing Higher Education Access Disadvantage, encouraging students from lower socio-economic areas to consider university or other tertiary education.
3. Volunteer Ambassador for University, helping create a connection for prospective students and enable to discover the right fit for themselves.
4. Volunteered as Treasurer for the university club for my degree, as well as committee member for a cultural club.

After undergrad
1. Ambassador for alumni association of college and created the social media presence - generating 20K+ engagement in 6 months.
2. Participated in education related CSR activities at Big 4 firm

Target Schools: Stanford/Sloan/Berkeley/Wharton

Post MBA Goal - Deciding between Management at a Technology firm vs Pursuing my own Start Up Venture in Automation related areas.

The questions I have are -


1. What do I need to build on in the next 12 months to get to those target schools?
2. Coming from the mining industry, does it impact the MBA application? I can say i've not seen many from that industry at all on these forums.
3. What sort of areas will help build the extracurricular area for a school like Stanford?
4. What else can I do to improve my profile?
5. Is there someone I've overlooked when it comes to Business Schools well suited to technology? Stanford's my #1, and i'd say Sloan/Berkeley are pretty level 2nd.

Given your GMAT you will be given consideration, but you will still be on the low side in terms of work experience. I'd say these programs are stretch programs for you. The good news is that of these programs Stanford is probably the most open to taking younger applicants. Being Australian and having mining experience will help you.

To address your questions:
1. Have impact. Make a difference. All these programs, but especially Stanford, want to admit people who will go on to do great things. The chances of that happening are greater if they admit people who have already made a difference. Also, clarify what you want to do with the degree and how you will use the program to prepare yourself to achieve your dreams.
2. yes. it definitely is a less common industry in the applicant pool. However, it's not just about where you're coming from. To get accepted it's going to be about the impact you've had and want to have in the future -- be it in the mining industry or elsewhere.
3. What's important to you? That's where you should devote the time you have available for an EC. If you initiate something, especially for Stanford, and make change or improvement in some area of your community, however you define your community, that would be a wonderful addition to your application, not to mention your community. Stanford's motto is "Change lives. change organizations. Change world." Show them you've already done it, and you show them you belong at Stanford. They want change agents.
4. See above.
5. Also consider CMU Tepper, Cornell Tech, NYU Stern Koo Tech program. UCLA. and Foster.

You might be interested in:

[*]Get Accepted to Stanford GSB, a webinar recording.
[*]Prep for B-School
[*]MBA Admissions: Application Advice for Younger Applicants


Best,
Linda
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Hello, am curious as to what my chances of getting into Stanford GSB are. Thank you in advance for any and all insight.

1. GMAT: 740 (Q48/44V)
2. Undergrad: mid-tier US private university 3.6 GPA, business major
3. Additional coursework: 1 HBS Online course
4. Experience:
3 years Active Duty US Army (will be 4 when class starts)
-1 deployment to the Middle East
-2 roles leading ~ 20 people each time and responsible for $2M/$15M worth of equipment
-by name selected for a third role to deploy in position above rank
5. 26-year-old white male
6. Additional experience/extracurricular:
Student Class Representative while in college
Army ROTC
7. Post MBA Goal
Work in some kind of startup

Hi bd428,

I just replied to you in the HBS thread. What I said there regarding the vagueness of your goal is even more important at Stanford, which has a required essay question devoted to your post-MBA goal.

Your military experience, international exposure, and leadership, like at HBS, will really help you at GSB, but clarify that goal.

Here are a few Stanford GSB resources and one for clarifying goals:

* Why MBA?
* Stanford Essay Tips
* Get Accepted to Stanford GSB, webinar recording.

Good luck!
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