Hi Rcand92,

You have an interesting profile; however, without knowing your post-MBA plans (short- and long-term), it is difficult for us to evaluate your chances, and provide feedback on how you can improve.

If you are interested in having a one-on-one conversation and discuss your goals, please reach out. Otherwise, I look forward to reading your response on this platform.

Susan




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Congratulations on your CFA charter! You seem to check many of the boxes that GSB wants to see - international experience (your work in London, fluency in at least 2 languages), academic excellence (despite not attending a top-tier school in Brazil, it does sound like you outperformed your peers in university plus you have the CFA), employer pedigree (you likely have some good blue-chip names on your resume and that you’ve functioned in the buy-side at these firms, which is generally regarded as the most prestigious), age (at 27, you are in the ideal window of 26-28 that most top-tier US b-schools, including GSB, want to see. It’s a good idea to apply R1 of 2020 rather than waiting if you can help it), and GMAT (although you haven’t taken it yet, an estimated 730 would be good since that’s around GSB’s average. However, if you are a finance person and an international non/US applicant, know that the GMAT averages are a little higher from your demo and you should try to shoot for over 730 if possible).

While it’s true that you may not have much entrepreneurial experience, and it’s true that many GSB students *do* have some impressive entrepreneurial chops, that matters less if what you are planning on doing post-MBA *isn’t* entrepreneurial-oriented. What is it that you’d like to do immediately post-MBA and long-term? This is a very important part of your strategic positioning and candidate eval that you don’t build out in this profile. GSB’s acceptance rates are notoriously low, so to set yourself apart, you need to know what you want to do and make a water-tight case for how your goals are imminently achievable based on your prior successes / experience combined with the Stanford MBA. Stanford wants people who know what they want to do, not “soul-searchers” who aren’t sure, or, worse, won’t be placed immediately after graduation and will bring down average compensation and employed numbers for the school. Depending on your prior experience and your role as a board member / operational leader, I think you could potentially make a good case for VC post-MBA. Would also be a good fit but may have the AdCom wondering what you need an MBA for since you are already doing that. What industries are most represented in your portfolio companies / deal history? If you have a lot of natural resources experience (thinking you might given your geography) and want to go back into that space, that could be interesting to GSB since that’s an underrepresented industry demo for them. Your profile is “conservative” but it’s not “too conservative” unless your most-MBA plans are a radical departure of what you’ve already done.

Strategic positioning (especially what you want to do with your life, and why you have the chops to do it, and how GSB will get you there), will be extremely important, as will be an extremely well-written and from-the-heart essay package. If talking to an admissions consultant about what strategic positioning might work best for you might be helpful, feel free to reach out here: https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/

Hey Linda,

Post MBA goals:
ST goal>> work at reputable global PE/VC company
LT goal>> after 4-5y create my own investment management firm

Kind Regards

Hey Linda,

Post MBA goals:
ST goal>> work at reputable global PE/VC company
LT goal>> after 4-5y create my own investment management firm

Kind Regards

I think your previous experience when combined with a Stanford MBA makes sense. You have a plan and a firm foundation for achieving it. You also anticipate a competitive GMAT, have a high GPA, strong work experience, good community service and a nice international aspect to your candidacy.

Applying to Stanford GSB makes sense. Applying only to Stanford GSB does not. Also consider Haas, Harvard, MIT Sloan, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago.

Try to apply Round 1.

For Accepted's Stanford specific resources, please see:

Stanford GSB Essay Tips
Get Accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business, a recorded webinar.

Linda
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Hi,

Here is my profile for Stanford ( looking for 2021)
Gender- Male Indian
10th-78%
12th-66%
Bachelor of Engineering - 8.6(CGPA) in Mechanical Engineering from Deemed University in India
Work Experience - 4.9 years .Working as Data Analyst in TCS in India. Having Experience of leading team of 10 people for more than 2 years. A active member of corporate social responsibility(CSR) and the active member of toastmaster club and other club that are working for NGOs that mainly deal with student education locally. There is regular interaction with client and management people from company and outside but no international exposure yet.
GMAT- Giving in FEB end(First attempt)

Certification credential - I am Charter Financial analyst(CFA) Level 3 Candidate.
National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) Certified in Derivative and Market
Certified in Financial Modelling.

Courses for MBA- Finance

Please let me know the expected GMAT score also that i should aim for.

any input would be greatly appreciated

Thanks and Regards

Hi all, I'd be grateful if someone here could evaluate my admission chances at Stanford GSB:

Indian male, 31.

Education: I joined medical college after graduating from high school, but dropped out within a year. Right now I've got a bachelor's degree in history from a top 10 Indian liberal arts college, a MSc in economic history from LSE, and a MA in business and economic Journalism from Columbia University (with a full-ride scholarship). While I have indeed spent quite some time in universities, I'm mostly self-taught (I've read over 500 books in the last decade)

GMAT: 690 (Q42, V41)--I know my quant is super-low. Could have done far better judging by my mock scores, but that's the score I have in hand right now.

Work experience: 5 years of full-time experience as a journalist by the time I join classes. I haven't had any promotions at work, mainly due to conflicts regarding "what is the right thing to do" with multiple bosses. I'm too opinionated and straightforward for my own good, I guess.

I currently work at India's second largest English daily as an editorial page writer commenting on the economy, markets etc. Started my career in a business newspaper in Delhi performing a similar role. I have also interned at a couple of news organizations in the US (namely WSJ and Business Insider).

Extracurriculars: Nothing earth-shattering. I held some leadership positions in college and did some decent work. Also participated in various clubs throughout my educational journey.

I do, however, share an exciting story in the 250-word optional essay: about how I helped rescue my family from the brink of bankruptcy (we were going to lose our house to the bank and I had to return from the US to take over my father's loss-making business and salvage some money out of it after he suffered a serious stroke)

I also talk about my family background (my parents are school dropouts coming from rural India) and how it has influenced my participation at work in the personal background section of the application.

Post-MBA plans: I want to start a news business that's run based on some very unconventional ideas.

I discuss my post-MBA business plans in detail in my second essay. My first essay (on what matters most to me) is centered on my pretty harsh personal experiences as a journalist that have driven me to this decision. I'm fairly confident my essays are going to be strong.

I know I'm an oddball candidate. So please be candid about my chances. I don't want to be lured by false hopes. Thank you very much

Can someone please help by rating my chances of admission?

I do not mean to be a jerk at all and hope that this in no way reflects that I think little of your accomplishments - quite the opposite, it sounds like you are an extremely impressive person who has succeeded against difficult odds - but based on your Indian nationality, you being on the wrong side of 30, your far below average GMAT, and you not being an IIT grad (my understanding is virtually all of the Indian nationals at HSW will be IIT grads), I think your chances at Stanford are close to 0%.

hahahaha. Thanks for the honest/blunt answer. So should I simply give up all hopes, or is there anything at all that I could do to improve my chances at Stanford? Also, are there other schools where I might have a better chance given my personality?

Can others here also help me with their respective evaluations of my profile? Thanks for all your time

Hello,

Thank you for opening up this topic. I am really grateful about everything (including this profile evaluation) that the admission consultants and gmat club team and community do to help MBA students candidates like me.

Please evaluate my profile:

Personal background:

32, Indonesian Female, will be the first person from my big family tree who get master degree. Both my parents did not finish elementary school due to some cultural problem. I like to go hiking (reached 7 peaks in Indonesia), play basketball, do yoga. Buddhism is my way of life.

Education:

Bachelor of Law, GPA 3.04, one of the public top school in my country.
GMAT: not yet taken, but my quant is strong, I like math since I was in elementary school, so 700 would be reasonable for me.
Got an A at Telematic Law (this course requires a good quant skill)

Extracurricular and professional experiences:

1. College-wide students organisation with 300+ active members:

a. served as the head of community development department at my second year to manage school funds and weekly tutoring for 20 underprivileged junior and senior high school students.
b. served as the president of the organisation

i. led 10 commissions consist of 16 departments to deliver 3 weekly activities, 1 monthly activity, 7 yearly events, monthly bulletins, 2 bi-yearly magazines
(we distributed 700 magazines per period to public areas and our alumni)
ii. established a new election system for events' project officers that required candidates to do the campaign (prepare a proposal) and QnA sessions with the electors.

2. Worked at one of the biggest financial institution in Indonesia for 4.5 years:

a. received one national award that helped my unit received relevant national award as well
b. led sales team achieved our unit targets
c. hold several trainings for my colleagues that was beyond my job description but the skills were needed to help them improve their performance at work (unfortunately, I did not measure the impact)

3. After resigned from the financial institution, I worked at a small and micro enterprise (SME) center:

a. published a practical book for social entrepreneurs that has been downloaded 500.000+ for free. I was the 4th writer, research assistant, and book promotion program manager.
b. partnered with National Ministry of Cooperation and SMEs to design two days basic social entrepreneurship workshops with 360 selected participants in 3 cities.

4. Currently working at a top private university in one of the big cities in Indonesia:

a. designed a curriculum for social innovation classes
b. influenced decision maker to make my class mandatory for a program study
c. developing curriculum that integrate problem based learning and project based learning. Currently, 7 projects (27%) are still on going after the class ended. Besides, the curriculum is integrated with a specially designed methodology to improve students' mental wellbeing through self reflection session before the class begins, and home assignments. This self reflection integration resulted in improving students' attitude at campus (based on the research conducted by my colleagues, this research has been published in a medical education journal in Indonesia).
d. influencing other lecturer to integrate this self-reflection curriculum into their courses.
e. working on a matchmaking project for final year students' internship at social enterprises.

5. Besides, I initiated a project and now has 9 people in the team (some of the team members work remotely) to continue the project into a logistic technology start-up (early stage) to reduce single-use plastic packaging while also promoting a clean living:

a. received a global open innovation top idea prize in 2017.
b. the start-up selected as a finalist in a global challenge that brought me and one other co-founder to pitch the idea in USA
c. invited speaker at an international business forum.

Goals after MBA:

1. continue to work at the start-up to help people get cleaner personal living habit and environment. Currently, i realise that I need to go back to school to empower myself with the skillset to grow the business and gain more insights and experiences from different perspectives and cultures.
2. develop the curriculum to gain more evidence on its effectiveness to improve students' performance and attitude.

Long term goal:

1. develop a holistic curriculum to improve students' awareness of their own personal mental development and their concern on the problems (social, cultural, environment) around them. Actually, I have special concern on food and agriculture sector, therefore, I want to establish a higher education institution that focus on agribusiness as a whole and integrate the curriculum to the agribusiness sector. I currently have networks in this area but I need a lot of capacity improvement in business management. I want to focus my contribution on this issue at the business and management side since the agricultural side is not really my forte.
2. leverage the impact of the start-up so it can deliver products from many micro, small, and medium enterprise without the single-use packaging. I also want to empower these entrepreneurs to have a clear standard and guidance to have a winning products in the market. Basically, I want to grow the start-up so it can impact more.

Rec:
1. My current direct supervisor who has worked with me for 3+ years.
2. My previous supervisor in a project at work and now my colleagues in the current start-up I mentioned in this post.

What are my chances? Currently, I have secured a full funding scholarship from my government to attend Stanford if I am accepted.

I am really thankful for anyone who help me review my profile.

Have a 'hepi'* day!

*Indonesians say happy with 'hepi'

Hello,

Shortly, I am f***D.

I am from Honduraz and live in NYC. This round I applied to about 10 schools in R2.

Harvard, CBS, Booth, Duke, Wharton, Yale, Tuck, Darden, NYU, Berkeley.

I got rejected from Duke, CBS, Booth, Harvard without an Interview. I also have not gotten a single 2nd round interview(3rd round NYU).

My background. Originally from Honduras, with to Columbia Undergrad and studied Engineering (2.8 GPA). My best GMAT score on single sitting 710, but best quant/verbal combination is 740. I thought my hispanic background with ivy undergrad will compensate for my GPA.

Work experience 4 years. I worked at top IB/PE firms. Think MS/JPM and similar-tier PE firms. I also speak 5 languages and have a very unique background. My guess is I will also get rejected from Wharton this week and since I not received any interview from SOM, it is probably a ding too(since Duke rejected me without an interview ). Only hope maybe Darden or NYU, but at this point I am planning on taking GRE and applying 1st round next year.

This process killed killed all my confidence, mentally destroyed me, and I am at a complete loss. I know I had low GPA/GMAT, but I thought being hispanic from Honduras (relatively underreprestened country) combined with ivy league school, top brand names like JPM and PE firm) and ability to speak 5 languages will at least get me 1 interview.

My best is to kill GRE and apply early somewhere next year. No point in applying 3rd round I believe.

Ouch! I'm so so sorry.
Yes, this is a traumatic event. Know you are not alone.

My questions if/when you are ready:raw/percentile score breakout, access to recommendations, stated goals, leadership inside/outside of work. Tangible positive impact clear in apps? Objective outside feedback on essays?

Anon1600







Posted from my mobile device
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Hi MBAPrepCoach, sorry to bug you, but could you evaluate my profile too? While many say I have no chance, I really want to know how to improve my odds of getting an MBA.

You have no chance if you're applying to US schools. It really doesn't matter if you have the most amazing story in the world. If you have that kind of GMAT score and especially as an Indian and especially as an older candidate. You might think about European schools, where they are cooler with older candidates and the GMAT scores are lower. Still, I think your Quant is in the area of them being worried that you'll not be able to keep up. I would put all of your emphasis on that. . The simple fact, is that even if you have an amazing profile,there is very likely to be another Indian who also has a similarly amazing profile, but also has good test scores. You might consider Ivey,because they are just starting the rounds you could get in early.



Posted from my mobile device
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Okay. So it looks like I've made a terrible mistake by heavily betting on the strength of my personal story. Wish I had known better, because I put in a lot of time and effort into this application

Debating applying in R3 so here goes.

Demographic:
Straight White Male. 33 years old.

Numbers:
3.86 undergrad GPA in electrical engineering from small state school
750 (48Q/44V) 8 IR 5.5 AWA

Work Experience
Navy Submarine Officer five years post undergrad

Enlisted in 2010 after failing out of college the first time. Was unmotivated and didn’t have purpose. Joined to serve something more than myself and found motivation. Selected to go back to school and try again and it went really well.

Goal of MBA:
Transition to consulting or tech management to make transition to private sector, build my own managerial skills, and eventually move into education technology entrepreneurship with a focus on underprivileged and rural Americans.

I know age is a significant factor and failing out of college the first time put me significantly behind my peers. I want to help leave the world a better place than I found it and GSB seems like the best place to start down that road.

Posted from my mobile device

Well you definitely have a distinctive story. With that GMAT and the more recent grades, they're not going to be worried about your initial college experience. You have a chance, but Stanford is tough. I suggest you try other programs too. Look into CBS, MIT Sloan, Haas, Wharton, Yale, and Ross.

Best,
Linda
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Linda,

I applied at some schools R2 and I’m really passionate about those (still no admittance yet), but just thinking about GSB as a Hail Mary R3 app. I also toured at Yale and loved how integrated they are with the greater Yale community as a whole.

GSB has been pretty welcoming in their communications with me (mainly through clubs not admissions though), but just wanted to post here to get an opinion. Thanks!