Ask Jennifer@Accepted.com: Application-writing advice for the best global B-schools

[sudhir18n]

Hi jennifer,

need your help on my profile...

I am a Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant ( both First attempt) by profession, i have around 44 months of workex till now and plan to apply 2 following schools in fall 09.

Giving my GMAT in Aug 08

harvard//wharton/GSB chicago/columbia/NYU stern/ISB/LBS/TUCK

I am also a certified assesor by CII ( confederation of indian industries) and a certified treasury manager by catalyst consulting group.

Work exp

Was into treasury and forex, financial planning and Analysis, derivatives, product control ( from manufacturing company to TOP I banks).
Has around 8 months of international work in whole Europe and Newyork helped in migration of processes from abroad.

Extra curricular/Community service

Was a school leader and college leader.
represented my school and college in inter college cricket

Stated a group called "Mavericks" consisting of all F1 fans . i was the one of the guys who started it in 2000

helped our office staff to effectively use the paper.

Is a member of our society committee which helps in the day 2 day management of things in our apartments,

Community service

worked with an NGO - sponsored by our company, during the Tsunami ( nagapatanam )

Stated a group in our locality to help people understand the effective and efficient usage of water and helped in putting thru a rain water harvesting plant in the locality.

working with underpriveleged children for their rehabilitation and education.

Post MBA goals.

I want to get into front end Investment banking/PE/hedge funds,work in M&A . Hence i want to apply to schools which are good in finance.

Please let me know which are there areas in need to work and how to i stand applying to these schools.

Regards

Sudhir Nemani

[TheCubanPrinces]

Hi Jennifer -
It would be very kind of you to answer my queries..

I am an MCA (Master of Computer Applications) from a small town in India. I have around 6 years of experience in IT - from a big services company and I am currently in a mid size IT company. I come from a lower middle class background.

What I want to do: I was interested in social work from my child hood and I could get around to voluteer only since last two years. I have been pretty active in community work during those two years. I had an option to go abroad and gain some international experience, but instead I opted to settle for India since I wanted to have some community work experience for real. I think an MBA in international relations or an MBA - one year from India would be good for me to get a management job in an NGO. (If not immediately, I would like to get into NGO sector after 4-5 years working post MBA)

My questions are:
1. Would an MBA in "internation relations" - dual MBA like the one offered by Chicago GSB help me in achieving my goal?
2. I have only total 2 months of onsite experience - US and Europe for some assignments. Will that be a negative for me when I apply for an MBA abroad?
3. My current work assignment is not a typical IT project. Its basically creating concepts/demos for ideas in a particular field and demonstrating them to clients for getting business.
Would this kind of experience compensate for literally no onsite experience?
4. If I opt for an onsite assignment now (somehow manage to), will it be better than my current job profile mentioned in point 3.

I am sorry, too many questions.

[applicant]

Hi,

Some colleges (such as UNC, emory) have an optional essay on International Experience.

If someone doesn't have an international experience, does that mean that his chances of gaining admission are low to such schools? Is there anything a person can do to counteract that?

Regards,
Applicant

[nishant_tyagi47]

Hello Jennifer,

Right now I'm working with a MNC in ITES sector, my profile is as below:

Xth- 73%
XIIth- 69%
B.Tech- 72%
Work Ex- 2.8 years
GMAT-700
Designation- Sr. Quality Analyst
Handling 3 different teams- total 40 associates under me.

Apart from this I have lot of achievements and initiatives on my name along with many motivation drives run by me as part of my leadership skills in my organization. And for social participation I've been awarded by my VP for initiatives that I've taken for our society as part of CSR.

Along with all these, I'm have good comand over basic management concepts and subjects.

Being in ITES sector, I hope i fulfill the demand for diversity in terms of experience as required by most of the international colleges. My field of interest for MBA is Service Marketing/International Business.

Though I never had a foreign trip, but am good in handling international client. Right now I'm dealing with one of the Giant telecom company in Canada. And I can have recommendation from them as well.

I'm planning to apply for 2009 batch.

It woud be great if you could comment on my profile and show me the real picture. Also can you suggest me some colleges and any other area where I should excel myself.

[vikas130678]

Hi PS ,
I have seen no replies in this thread since last three four days?Is this thread closed?

Regards

Vick

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by gaurav.inf

Hi Jennifer,

I am 27 years old male engineer from India.
I am aiming for top business schools (Preferably 1 year) outside India. I would highly appreciate if you can review my profile and suggest which colleges I should target.
My profile:

1) GMAT: 690
2) UG: Excellent acads - Silver Medalist (From one of the Top Engineering colleges in India)
3) Extracurricular: Average
4) International Work-ex: More than 2 years in UK
5) Total Work-Ex: Around 6.5 years by Sep, 2009 (Working in Infosys Technologies)
- Working as a team leader from last 2.5 years
- Rapid Promotion to Project Lead's position
- Received couple of awards
6) Involved in community work.
7) Learning French

I am working in projects related to Manufacturing services (Aerospace & Auto Domain) and want to work in Management Consulting post-MBA in same field.

Could you please evaluate my profile and suggest me the right colleges?

Thanks,
Gaurav

Hi, Gaurav. There are very few programs with specializations in manufacturing – Ross, Kellogg, and MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing program are a few that come to mind but they are two-year programs. I believe you should also target strong general management programs with good recruiting in the manufacturing industry (Tepper, HBS, etc.). You may find professionals in the field a helpful resource. You can contact them and find out where they did their MBA, what they found the most helpful about the education, and what they wished they had studied more of. These may be the most helpful insights of all.

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by paritoshagarwal

Hi Jennifer,

I have recently graduated from India's top ranked undergraduate business school and have taken up a job with a big four consulting firm in the Advisory division. I have 2 questions:

1) Most top ranked business schools in the US now mention that they do consider early career applicants (even recent graduates) for a place, to what extent does this hold true?
Would you suggest an early application, say within the next 2 years with this profile?

2) If not, as a potential aspirant for a top ranked international business school, what can I do in the next few years to increase my chances of getting accepted?

My profile is as follows:

high school-89%
college-82% BBA
consistently ranked amongst the top 2 percent of the university with a few appearances in top 3 ranks.

extra curriculars:

Initiated the college year book tradition from year 2007 onwards which was widely appreciated and applauded.
Managed 2 large scale college events leading a team of 40+ people.
Won distinctions in debate and western freestyle dance in both intra and inter university competitions.
Winner of most innovative business idea and runner up for best sales pitch in a business fest.
Elected student representative.
Led a team of 7 from college in a national level management fest and was All-India runner up for the best manager title.
Runner up in an inter university group case study competition.
college personality contest runner up.

distinct achievements:
elected youth leader of a 50,000 strong ethnic community organization while in freshman year.
participated in a government anti-incumbency movement while in school.

regular blood donation and participation in social causes through clubs and societies.

Hi, Paritosh. In my experience, that desire for younger applicants isn't necessarily true for foreign applicants. It would be especially difficult to prove exceptionality at a young age for an Indian applicant to a US program - competing as you are against all Indian applicants for one of a few spots in the class.

The key would be to demonstrate a continuous level of exceptional leadership - not just involvement - at work and in the community. We need to see you motivating others, finding ways to generate others' involvement, and achieving quantifiable impacts. That, of course, holds true for young and old applicants!

The second aspect is demonstrating that you are ready now for the MBA - you have gained a rare level of business insight and would benefit fully from the MBA. The lower-ranked schools would be more easy to convince of this, and in my experience ISB is less caught up with age as a pre-requisite.

Best of luck,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.

[Chiraggupta_86]

Originally Posted by Accepted

Hi, Paritosh. In my experience, that desire for younger applicants isn't necessarily true for foreign applicants. It would be especially difficult to prove exceptionality at a young age for an Indian applicant to a US program - competing as you are against all Indian applicants for one of a few spots in the class.

The key would be to demonstrate a continuous level of exceptional leadership - not just involvement - at work and in the community. We need to see you motivating others, finding ways to generate others' involvement, and achieving quantifiable impacts. That, of course, holds true for young and old applicants!

The second aspect is demonstrating that you are ready now for the MBA - you have gained a rare level of business insight and would benefit fully from the MBA. The lower-ranked schools would be more easy to convince of this, and in my experience ISB is less caught up with age as a pre-requisite.

Best of luck,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.

Hi Jennifer,

I have been waiting for your reply for pretty long. I would really appreciate if you could reply back to me as soon as possible.

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for your time at PG.

Like others I am also a hopeful MBA aspirant.




My Profile:

• Current Age - 22 [Will be 23 by Sept'09]
• Current work-ex - 2 years [Will be 3.3 yrs by Sept'09]
• Currently working at research arm of McKinsey&Company in India (since Mar'07)
• Had a unsuccessful stint at entrepreneurship before joining the company.

Education:

• Bachelor of Business Studies, University of Delhi (Batch 2003-2006) - was in top 15 out of a batch of 120 students - 67% [admission to this course was based on written, GD and interview. Around 15,000 applied only 120 could get thru]
• Class XII - 83%
• Class X - 71%
• GMAT Score: 700 [Q-51 (i.e. 99%ile), V-33 (i.e. 68%ile)]
• TOEFL Score: 108

Achievements:

• Rewarded as most influential analyst in my division of the company (out of 160 people)
• Currently manage the workflow of a team of 15 analysts
• Little bit of community involvement
• Created and presented a comprehensive business plan during a international business plan competition [ plan was chosen among top 20 from a pool 430 ideas] - Jan'05
• Some other organizing and participating achievements as well

Goals post-MBA:

• Work for I-Banking or management consulting company till I repay my loan and earn a decent living standards (4-5 year)
• Entrepreneurship

Target B-Schools:

• Indian School of Business, India
• NUS Singapore, Singapore
• Melbourne Business School, Australia
• Oxford University (Said Business School), UK
• Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania), US

My Questions:

• I am planning to apply for Sept'09 session in the B-Schools mentioned above. Is my target achievable?
• Should I wait for one more year before applying?
• Should I also think over Carnegie Mellon University? (I do NOT have a US Co-signer)
• Should I think about NYU Stern as well??
• Considering that my GMAT score is skewed higher on Quant side and lower on Verbal side, should I re-appear for GMAT?
• Would you suggest any other B-School that I should apply for?

I look forward to getting your answers.

Warm Regards,
Chirag Gupta

[paritoshagarwal]

Originally Posted by Accepted

Hi, Paritosh. In my experience, that desire for younger applicants isn't necessarily true for foreign applicants. It would be especially difficult to prove exceptionality at a young age for an Indian applicant to a US program - competing as you are against all Indian applicants for one of a few spots in the class.

The key would be to demonstrate a continuous level of exceptional leadership - not just involvement - at work and in the community. We need to see you motivating others, finding ways to generate others' involvement, and achieving quantifiable impacts. That, of course, holds true for young and old applicants!

The second aspect is demonstrating that you are ready now for the MBA - you have gained a rare level of business insight and would benefit fully from the MBA. The lower-ranked schools would be more easy to convince of this, and in my experience ISB is less caught up with age as a pre-requisite.

Best of luck,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.

Hi again,

Thank you for your response. It was really helpful, especially the link.

[ashish_iitr]

hi jennifer,

i am planning for my GMAT but before hand would like to cosult few questions.
i am IT professional having 3 work ex,working in telecom domain.
academics is graduated from IIT (6.72/10).
extracurricular: descent
current work involves data analytics kinda of work,no leading team stuff and all.
also going to complete my CFA level 1.
post mba would like to work in finance sector but do you see any drawback since i am working in IT-Telecom and doing CFA to show that i am inclined towards finance.will it also help when i apply in b schools? or am i just wasting my time doing CFA?
should i be more focus on domain knowledge?. i want to make my acads strong enough so want to know every possible inputs from you.please advise.