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

Accepted

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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

Hi, Sudhir. Unfortunately, I don't really know enough about what you've done to tell you whether you have a chance at the schools you mentioned. I will say that those are very competitive programs: you will need to exceed their average GMAT (as an Indian applicant) and demonstrate that you are dynamic – unlike many accounting applicants, who are seen as boring and cautious. You will definitely also need to demonstrate how finance is a continuation of your background and how you are prepared to thrive in this industry based on your experiences.

One thing that I noticed about your self-assessment is that it doesn't include any specifics or impact. Impact is the key to proving your worth to these top programs. We need to see you motivating others, recruiting them, and thus making an even greater impact than one person usually can.

Other finance schools you may want to consider are Simon (Rochester) and Georgetown. I believe they are a bit less competitive in admissions – especially Simon's January program.

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
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Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

Hi, CubanPrinces. IT programming is a hard sell to the top MBA programs. If you are interested in moving to NGO management, I recommend that you focus your application on your NGO involvement and leadership instead of on the IT things every other IT applicant will be talking about. We need to see you leading and motivating people to make an impact, and if your full-time job is not going to show that then don't discuss your full-time job in the essays. If your future NGO role is international, then yes, I would suggest you pursue a program with an international emphasis.

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
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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.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by 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

Applicant,
I have seen Indian applicants with absolutely no international experience gain acceptance to HBS – no it is not a pre-requisite. What you need to demonstrate is that you have a good reason for wanting this international education and have the ability to get along and work with a diverse range of people (in addition, of course, to demonstrating your exceptional level of leadership and management experience).

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.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

Hi, Nishant. I like the fact that you manage 40 people in 3 different teams; this shows that you have authority and impact. You will need to demonstrate that this is not just three teams of staff answering customer service calls, though, because that may be less exciting than managing teams that are actually producing something. In other words, your job in your application will be to excite the admissions committee about your industry and your future goals – which you didn't even mention here. I advise you to select MBA programs for which your GMAT surpasses their average – so in your case programs with a 670-690 average.

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.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by vikas130678

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

Regards

Vick

I apologize, Vick. I try to check the forum once a week and reply to everything, but I have been known to fall behiiiiiiiind! In the meantime, feel free to hammer those questions at me!

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
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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.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

Hi, Ashish.
Your academics sound fine. I do think the CFA is a great place to start to demonstrate that you have finance acumen and knowledge of the industry. It could only help to back that up with experience, even if the experience comes in a volunteer capacity since your biggest challenge is proving that your future goals stem from your past experience. Without that connection, it will be difficult to convince the programs that you as an IT guy are a prime candidate for the MBA.

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.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by p_jez

Hi Jennifer,

First, my profile in brief:

# Indian, Male
# 30yrs, 8.5 yrs work ex when I join next year
# Acads - avg, from NIT Nagpur (erstwhile REC Nagpur)
# Working in IT, on ERP/CRM. Will have been a Project Manager for almost 3 yrs in April 2009, PMP certification in 2007
# GMAT 740(Q-49, V-41)/AWA-6.0 (2008 )
# Have managed initiatives that have directly impacted the bottomline of the organization
# Have managed development of dashboard that enables the CEO to assess Sales VPs' performance (interacted with the directorate office for this)
# Have managed sunset of an organization application

I'll be applying to ISB-PGP and IIMA-PGPX for the class of 2010. The only weak link in my application package would be my employment history - I've had 6 jobs in 8 years (though I can back it up with reasoning and evidence how each change has in fact advanced my career).

I intend to use the optional essay to elaborate on my job changes; I woud like to have your opinion on two counts:

1. Should I go for this optional essay?
2. If yes, what should be the tone/outline of this essay? If I start with my career progression and how my job changes complemented it, I will only end up with a lame conclusion "and this is how I can justify my job changes" or "and thus my job changes have complemented my career progression". I'm not too sure about this!!

Cheers

Hi, Pjez. I like the idea of using the optional essay to explain how you moved around and why, but don't make the mistake of detailing each job's responsibilities in this essay since that will be in the application form itself or your CV. Instead, create a theme for the essay and then bring highlights from each role to support your assertion that you learned and grew much faster by moving around than by staying in one company. This is essential to demonstrating that "the brand called you" is a well-developed product worth accepting.

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.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by saketverma24

Hi Jennifer,
I am a 27 yr old MBBS, MD Indian doctor from a very reputed medical school of India, 4 yr work ex, excellent academics, some community work, student council representative in college and nil international experience.

GMAT score- 750.(first attempt)
I want to do MBA from an asian university(US will be my last resort) with first choice as NUS and ISB.
however, I don't have much information about HKUST, HKU and Nanyang.

I want to MBA to achieve either of the two goals-
1. get a good job in health care(pharma, biothech etc.) industry.
2. or to switch career to equity research and hedge funding(or some
other challenging field) in which I have a lot of interest and
aptitude.

with ISB, I will be able to achieve both my goals, but I wanna go to a
better place such as Hong Kong or Singapore.
with NUS, I will be able to achieve only goal 1.

I want to know if I enter HKUST, Nanyang or HKU, will I be able to achieve any of my goal.
though they are very good universities, but will I be able to switch
career and get a good job in finance (or healthcare )in Hong Kong or
Singapore after a MBA from HKU/HKUST/Nanyang.

In which countries, If I do MBA from a top B- school of that country, WILL I be able to 1. get a good job at healthcare.
2. switch career to a job in finance such as equity research.

I do not like USA because in USA a lot of MBAs are from pharma, biotech backgrounds and companies will prefer them rather than an Indian doctor.

thanks a lot,
I will be highly obliged to you
Saket

also I would like to ask one more question, if 2 persons with a similar profile like mine with a better resume are applying to a B school in round 1. should I apply in round 1 or let them get an admit in round 1 and apply in round 2.

Hi, Saket. The best source of information about recruiting success from foreign programs is the programs themselves. The admissions offices are usually very open with their recruiting statistics and even in providing the names and contact details of current students and recent alumni. These are excellent resources for you – and all applicants – and I encourage you to tap them. My sense is that Singapore is more welcoming to foreigners, but Hong Kong's financial industry is more developed.

My advice is always to apply first round if you can do a good job of it, i.e., your GMAT score is good, your letters of recommendation are ready, and you have written essays that differentiate you and excite the admissions committee about where you have been and where you are going. If they have another applicant with a similar background but better statistics, they may accept him and waitlist you, but if you wait until second or third round, they may already have enough of your profile on their waitlist.

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.

IMD2BI2IMA

Hi Jennifer,

Just a gentle reminder. Am awaiting an answer to my earlier post.Hope it was not missed

p_jez

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accepted

Instead, create a theme for the essay and then bring highlights from each role to support your assertion that you learned and grew much faster by moving around than by staying in one company.

I clicked the "Thanks" button after reading your reply, but I guess I got the point of your message only on the third reading. I can't but agree with you...

Thanks!!!