[alphasumit]

Reposting, you seem to have missed it

I am a 2010 fall aspirant. My Profile is as follows:

GMAT: 710(Q: 49, V: 38 )

Exp.: 4+ yrs by Sep,2010 IT

Acads: ok ok
X: 78%
XII: 67%
B.Tech.(CSE): 71.3%

Extra Curr.: Not much. I play a lot of games like Lawn Tennis, Badminton, Pool ,Snooker, Squash, cricket etc. I am an avid reader and read a lot. I was also one of the organizers of the Technical Festival in my college.

Specialization interested in: General Mgmt/Strategy/Entrepreneurship

I have lead a team for around 18 months and was responsible for the training activities of the new joinees in the project.

My USP is the diversity I offer. I have worked for 3 different clients like Bank of America, Wachovia and American Express and many domains like credit cards, Data warehousing, Credit Bureau , Associate application development etc. I have worked for 5 different projects and 6 different technologies . So, I have had to adapt quickly to the technology, people and work culture of the different teams. 4 of the 5 projects that I have worked had really tight deadlines and since my company had got work in those areas for the first time, there was additional pressure to do well to gain a foothold in that area.

Though I have no International experience, I have interacted with clients from different locations like Australia, US and China. Also, I have stayed at 6 states and 9 different cities across India and have had to deal with different cultures and different mindsets of the people. I am a punjabi born in Rajasthan who belongs to Delhi.

I have always been above average at everything but not exceptional at anything. So I would like to pursue MBA in General Management with a focus on Consulting so that I gain insight into the various aspects of running a business as my long term goal is to start my own business in 10-15 years after MBA.

1. So could you please suggest 2-3 Stretch schools and 2-3 schools where I stand a very good chance with a good scholarship. Please take into consideration that securing finances is a big issues for me. So basically I am looking for decent schools with good ROI.

2. Do you think it would be good decision to join an average B-School in the current scenario?

3. Also, do you think I will be able to switch my domain from IT to General Management or Consulting post MBA in this slowdown, even if I graduate in fall 2012?

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by arunsdevine

Hello Jennifer,

I would like to know the top B schools in US for a technology career post-MBA.

Thanks
Arun

Hi, Arun. No MBA program particularly specializes in preparing students to lead in the technology industry per se. Instead, I suggest you seek a strong general management program with a large alumni base in the industry. A few good choices would be Stanford, Haas, Wharton, HBS, MIT, and Tepper.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by hareshvazir

Hi Jennifer,

I intend to apply to schools among the top 15 in US for fall 2010 for an MBA in Entrepreneurship. I am listing my profile below, please let me the kind of chance I stand in getting through.

GMAT Score: 720 M 51 V 36
UG: Civil Engineering from one of the top institutes in India (Good GPA)
Work Experience: 3 years (international), currently working in Dubai with one of the best construction firms in Europe.
Extracurriculars: Good involvements both in work and outside
Post MBA goals: Pursue a venture in the field of real estate and construction

Please let me know. Thanks.

Also, would I be required to take TOEFL given that I my education medium has been English throughout ?

H

Hi, Hareshvazir. Your goals sound like a good progression from your current work, but you will need to demonstrate more than just strong engineering skills to earn a place in the top 15 programs. In particular, I wonder how much leadership of ideas and people you will have had in the three years you have been working.
Each school has its own rules about the TOEFL and you will need to confirm with each one's FAQ page whether you are required to take this test. However, in general, if English was the only language of instruction in your undergraduate institution, then you will not need the TOEFL.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by waiwai

Hi Jennifer,
Here is my profile.
Indian, Male, 28
GMAT : 720 - Q50,V38
Experience - 6 years in IT, Product Development. No managerial Experience.
Acads : 70% - BE in Computer Science, NIT.
ECs - below average.
I am looking for a MBA program with a focus on Product Management/IT Consulting. Would like to move into a product management or a consulting role in IT post MBA. Also I am looking for a one year course, preferably in UK.

Please advice.

Well, Waiwai, without managerial experience of some kind - leading people officially or unofficially, it is going to be difficult to get into LBS, Oxford, or Judge. The other top UK programs will still want to hear about how you work with people and make an impact, but the competition should be less intense at places like Cranfield, Lancaster, Warwick, and Imperial (the Manchester program, I believe, is 18 months, so you may not be interested in that one).
Good luck in the application process!

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by ponds_ggn

Hi,

I'm a project lead with 8+ expr in major telecom software product based organization, handling a team but not as manager only in technical areas.

My profile.

GMAT=710(Q48,V39, AWA Awaiting)
B.E(E&C)=Average(CGPA of 2.5/4.0).
12th=Average.
Extra-Curricular=Few Accolades in Olympiads in schools and paper presentation in college. Little accolades in Sports.No NGO work expr. But donated for Parikrma (Bangalore based ngo foundation)

I'm targeting one year programs, which all schools I should be targeting in Europe and Asia Pacific region as USA have very few one year programs and what are my chances !

Looking forward !

Thanks a ton!

Hi, Ponds. As I've said before, donations do not count as community involvement, so we'll have to count you as having none right now. Add that to the lack of leadership at work and in my opinion you'll have to target the top 26-50 programs.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by binny.gen

Hi Jeniffer,

I have a general query on the essays in applications. Most Bschools give a word limit for each of their essays.
My question is, how strict are they on this word limit? Is, say, a 10% leeway acceptable?

Thanks in advance,
Binny

Yes, Binny, most schools are fine with essays that exceed the limit by up to 10%. They aren't counting your words, but they are certainly used to reading essays of a certain length: if your essays exceed that length by more than 10%, they will just feel it has gone too long.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by tarusardana

Hi Jenifer

I need your help in selecting US Univ. for MBA and giving a first hand view of my profile and standing and areas of improvement. I am interested in
General MBA.

GMAT- 740
Xth---- 84.16%
XIIth--- 79.2%
B.Tech( Info. and Comm. Technology) -- 76.8% (from an rapidly growing in rank private college DA-IICT)

Extra-curricular- Avg. Was member of organizing committee for 1year in college and have organized various cultural and sports events.
Won a few drama contest etc.

Work-Ex: 3years as of today in IT-Software.
Have been a step ahead of my peers. received accolades from customer (i-Pod shuffle). have also trained new joinees.
but the problem is in IT-Software in such time u can't get a managerial profile n experience and to prove such traits that i have displayed there is no tangible proof like certificate etc.

Schools selected:
ISB (India)
Rotman (Canada)

From USA

CMU-Tepper
Michigan-Ross
Texas-McCombs
NC-Kenan Flagler
Indiana-Kelley
Duke-Fuqua

please help me in gauging my chances.
and what do above schools look for.
areas of improvement.

Well, Taru, the good news is that you have another year or two in which you can build up some managerial experience. Don't be limited by just work; think about ways you can lead people and make an impact in the community. You don't need some company or person to label you "manager"; you need to just put your manager cap on and start recruiting and leading people to achieve quantifiable results.
Your GMAT score is good and your undergrad GPA isn't bad (for the Indian education system), but without more of an impact I cannot see how you can earn admission from programs like Michigan or Duke. A year of real leadership in the community should put you in the running for the other programs you mentioned.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by Zeus09

Hi Jennifer and the rest of Accepted.com team,

2 things before I start talking my specific case.

Firstly, kudos and bravo! This thread is one of the best I have come across thus far in many websites on MBA discussion.

Secondly, I have read as many questions as possible and have got answers/more clarity to many of questions/doubts. As much as I have got answers to my questions, I also understood that each candidate is unique and that what he/she requires to do in the way forward also differs which is why I put forward my case to you.

About me:

- Xth class: 80.4%
- Xth class: 94.4% (stood first in the school in commerce and could easily be amongst the top 20 in India cos my score was 472/500)

- Post schooling went to a well known reputed college for B Com but discontinued after 20 days as I wanted to focus on my Chartered Accountancy course (CA). Pursued B Com through distance education and scored 58% overall.

- Performance in CA was good with all the 3 levels cleared in the first attempt with good scores. In the first and the second level called PE-I and PE-II got scores close to all India 30th rank and all India 50th rank resp. In the final secured All-India 38th rank. Here I can probably justify my low score in B Com which really does not carry much value and also given the fact that I wanted to focus on B Com and did so quite effectively. Your thoughts pls...

- I also did my 3 year internship during CA with PricewaterhouseCoopers. The first two have been learning while the third year has been further learning plus managing and leading small teams of 2/3 and small assignments. This meant planning the audit, allocating work to other team members, reviewing and guiding the junior members and liaising with client personnel. Can this be a case for my leadership/managerial skills? You may disagree cos this was merely an internship and was for a short period where I did not build on it and take it forward.
So academically I think I am quite well positioned. Please let me know your thoughts. My only concern is that adcoms might raise eyebrows over my dismal B Com scores which I hope justify through my much better scores in a professional exam, CA. Am I right?

- Post qualification, I have been working with Morgan Stanley for the past 21 months in the investment banking division. However, this is the back office of Morgan Stanley. In terms of the exposure I have got and my acquaintance with the banking world, the work that we do here is exactly the same as any of the front office analyst. Working on live deals, pitches, etc. The one thing that is lacking is client interaction.

- On my professional experience (and I would like to talk about this cos I am looking at a similar career post MBA and thought would make sense to talk about this) I have had a very good exposure when it comes to investment banking and have good transaction experience. Have been a part of and played the role of the primary analyst in 3 IPOs, 3 M&A transactions (2 of them high profile cross border) and several projects. To this end, I have been exposed to all of what an analyst is expected to do but for client interaction (however have had that experience in PwC). And my performance has been acknowledged by my seniors (associates, VP and above) and can get that on my recos as well.

- I have also been selected for a rotation with the front office for a 3 month period amongst 10 candidates who were interviewed. This would now give me the one thing that was lacking ie client interaction. This probably closely resembles promotion and would be exactly that if I can convert that rotation/internship to a permanent role. However I consider this an achievement all the other candidates were quite senior to me (even those who have spent 12 months more than me) and also the fact that I am the youngest to be selected for a rotation in the present market condition. Just to clarify, interviews were not the only selection criteria as feedback from colleagues also counted immensely and the 10 candidates for the interviews were shortlisted based on their work experience and credentials.

- So guess, professionally it has been pretty good and enriching. However the one thing that is nagging me is, despite my work experience and exposure being comparable and close to a real investment banking analyst, I fear that on paper since I have been a with a back office and not the front office might work against me. This has been my biggest concern when I think of MBA as I understand that the quality of workex matters a lot to the adcoms.

- On the community service, been a part of an effort initiated by a group of professional to semi-adopt an under privileged kid studying in a particular school for the last 15 months. This means that I sponsor the education of one kid, follow the progress of the kid, talk to him regularly, motivate him to get higher scores, talk to the school teachers and parents about his progress. In addition, for the group of kids as a whole, we take them out for some special occasions to restaurants/gaming places that they cannot afford and take classes on every weekend. Though we work together we are also individually responsible for ensuring the progress child that we have semi-adopted. Am also a part of the charity committee of our office where we organise various programs/drives.
So been involved in community service only post qualification but guess have done justice.

- Extra curricular has been pretty decent. Been a part of the school football team and was the vice-captain in 11th and then the captain in 12th. No college after 12th and hence limited scope for extra-curricular activities. Have formally learnt chess and have participated in tournaments and won not too many prizes. Have learnt vocal classical music and have participated in many competitions and won a few prizes too. Continued learning vocal music even after 12th for about 2 years when my internship took a toll on my time where I had to discontinue. Keen on keeping my association with classical music cos of my interest, have been learning classical music on an instrument for the last 8 months and hope to continue learning for as long as possible.
So extra curricular to me was football, chess and classical music.

- Finally, GMAT where I am confident of getting a good score that would make the top schools consider me for a moment. 750 is what I am aiming though it is too early for me to talk give a number.

- At the end of the story, and if you have been reading all the way till here a special thanks for that, I would like to know the following:

1. How my profile looks for an MBA finance from the top b-schools?
2. What should I do to improve my chances/compensate for the shortfalls that I cannot do much about like say my B Com score or my back office experience (if at all that really matters)?
3. May sound like a stupid question, yet do u think there is something that I can do which will secure my chances of getting an letter of acceptance? I am willing to take any effort and go the extra mile
4. What do you think is the character/accomplishment/strong point that stands out JUST WITHIN MY PROFILE? Did not mean to brag here. Honestly wanted to know it so that I can leverage on it effectively.
5. Please list the best schools for finance. I am quite passionate about finance and wanna do an MBA in it from a top b school just for the knowledge it provides. Ofcourse I am interested in the money that it brings along with it.

Thanks again if you are still reading it and would be very happy if you could answer my questions above. Happy to give you further details if you want. Thanks again!

Hi, Zeus. Your fingers were probably sore after typing that long message! There are a few points that, in my opinion, you need to work on.
1) Proving your interpersonal skills - your distance learning B Com and your accounting background both indicate a lack of interpersonal skills. I am not saying that you aren't a warm person with a ton of friends; what I mean is that the ad coms will start reading your application with this image in their minds. Your first job is going to be to overcome that image with examples of your relationships with people and how you get things done in groups.

2) your influence at Morgan Stanley - It would definitely help if you could turn that rotation into a permanent position but if you don't you'll need to show - through your essays and application as a whole - that you are not just crunching numbers that others give you but that you have an analytical mind and the ability to devise your own new ideas that others then support.

3) the community work - I like the program you are a part of (adopting the student), but I would like to see more involvement than just on this one-on-one level. One area in which you may be able to increase your involvement may even be through this group: take more of a leadership role in organizing joint activities, recruiting new participants, and even developing new branches of this group in other areas.

You are obviously intelligent and a valued employee - those are your strengths - but the MBA programs are very focused on the interpersonal skills and influence you possess - these are the areas that it appears to me you need to work on. You may also want to consider MSc in Finance programs since they tend to be more focused on the test scores and quant ability of their applicants and less on the interpersonal skills.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[Accepted]

Originally Posted by USS

Hi Jennifer
I aspire to do an MBA and have taken the GMAT recently. I need your help regarding the selection of B Schools . I have gone through many posts and replies in this section and want to express my gratitude to you for painstakingly clearing doubts of other MBA aspirants. Before I frame my question I want to brief on my profile.

Class X - 90 %
Class XII - 76%
B Tech in Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture from one of the premier engineering institutes of India (Indian Institute of Technology).
Undergraduate GPA - 8.65 on a scale of 10
Work Exp - 3 years in the ship building /ship designing sector ( No foreign deputation till now )
My work experience due to the nature of the industry is not strictly
managerial though I m presently holding the position of a Team Lead.
Extra Curricular - Decent , not so striking.
GMAT - 760 ; QA(50) VA(41)
AWA - 6

Now I shall briefly state my difficulties . My first job entailed a good amount of responsibility and I worked in that company for 18 months .
My second job, which is also the present one, has not helped me bag too many achievements mostly due to the cancellation of several projects as an aftermath of recession.I have almost been for 19 months in my second job too. Also , since the shipbuilding industry has the culture of assigning significant managerial roles and responsibilities only to the experienced ones (5 yrs +) it is quite difficult to mould my cv in the conventional B School way. I am currently preferring 1 year MBA course and hence have boiled down to 3 choices ISB Hyderabad , INSEAD and NUS for the approaching session.Do you think that my choices are level-headed considering my profile. I would also request you to state some more B Schools which you think might be suitable for me . Moreover , I am not ruling out 2 year program absolutely and therefore if you feel I should consider applying to a few of them please suggest .

Thanks and Regards
USS

Hi, USS. The top MBA applicants use recessions to take the lead in their companies and help bring in new business as other projects get cancelled. They are not victims of the economy, their age, nor the culture of their industries but masters of their destinies. Your attitude of acceptance is limiting your own growth and progress, so I suggest you try to shake things up a bit. What can you do at work to position the company for growth? Assess the things that are limiting your company now and take one of them on as your own project to improve its operations and market share. Yes, you are low on the totem pole, but it is your ideas, intelligence, and leadership that will make you rise on it. Until you do more of this, I do not believe your chances at ISB, NUS, or INSEAD are strong.
I am sorry to be so blunt, but I do hope that this gives you a much-needed push forward.

Regards,

Jennifer Bloom, CPRW

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[@nee!]

Originally Posted by viren15288

Hello mam,
i hav just passed my B.E degree in information technology and going to appear for MAT,CAT,XAT this year. regarding this i need a better counseling for which branch to select in the B-schools.although i hav done my BE in information tech. i need to know which stream will be suitable for me.......

and one more thing is that how i should prepare so that i can crack MAT this year......

Hi people ,

please post ur queries on relevant threads..This is a thread for queries on Foreign B-schools (US UK et al-not indian) .Please refrain from posting queries on any other topics other than GMAT and Foreign B schools