Overall a decent profile. With a 700+ GMAT you can definitely make it to top 15 schools. Make sure you have some good leadership experience strories for your essays/resume/recos. Your success will depend on how well you craft your essays etc.

CFA will help if your career goal is to move to finance post MBA.

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

Hi, could someone please have a look at my profile?

I'm a Mechanical Engineer from Jamia Millia Islamia 2007 batch.

X - 71.8% (CBSE)
XII - 80 % (CBSE)

B.Tech. - 7.27/10

Worked at Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India from July 2007 through May 2008 (Design and development of press shop dies).

Working in Defence R&D; Organisation as a Scientist since May 2008 (design of Special Purpose Vehicles and site development and management). Nature of work is techno-managerial and is very uncommon.

Will be joining an NGO or two shortly.

Creative content writer for Smile Foundation (NGO)

Technical paper and poster presented at college level. Won award for paper in NSIT fest and JMI fest.

Wish to pursue MBA from only one of the top 15 B-Schools.

Can manage decent recos.

Target GMAT score 750+.

I have one more question. Will clearing CFA L1 before applying have some significant positive impact on my profile?

What is your profile and what are you target schools ?

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

I'm looking for some good admission consultants in india. When I searched, I found a lot of them. Any feedback on these consultants ?

1. Jambooree (They speak very good. But not sure)
2. IMS
3. Manhattans Review
4. C Square (They seem to charge a lot. 60K for 4 colleges)
5. Achievers point (Not very costly- Charging 20K for 4 colleges)
6. Experts' Global (Look like they provide Guarantee for Admission)
7. Princetons Review

Thanks,
Immy

My answers are in-line below. Feel free to contact me or PM me if you need any help.

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

Bhavya,

Appreciate you taking the time to guide prospective students. I had a few questions:

1. The Booth MBA website focuses a lot on their "flexible curriculum". Could you elaborate a bit more on this and your personal experience? Is there an academic commitee that guides students in picking out electives?

Booth has the most flexible curriculum in the world. I chose Chicago for this reason coz I did not want to waste time on subjects that I am not interested in. Other than 3 required core courses, you can choose the rest 17 courses and take them whenever you want over the course of 2 years. This flexibility was a big advantage for me and most of my peers. :cheerio:

2. Who would you say are some of the top professors for students interested in consulting/strategy?

Marc Knez - Competitive Strategy, Strategic Planning
Ann McGill/Sanjay Dhar - Marketing Strategy

3. What would be your advice for interview preparation?

Practise with as many mock interviews as possible. Utilize current students and alums for the same.
Hope this helps!

You have given a very useful tip. I too always keep in mind 3,4 key messages/stories that I would use in the interviews.

All applicants can use this strategy to excel business school interviews.

- Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

The general strategy I follow in any interview is of having the key messages in mind that I would like to deliver...For example, being a sales person, I would definitely like to speak about India's largest fruit export contract negotiated/signed by me. In case the interview gets conversational, these key messages prove extremely useful in defining the framework of the question.

The best way to practice this is by recording your voice and if possible your video. I personally use Video Capture Software - Capture Streaming Video, Screen Record or Webcam Video Capture which works in case you have a webcam. As good as a mock interview, I must say...

R3 is usually the toughest. Also, this round is not recommended for international applicants. My advise would be get a 700+ GMAT and then focus on building stellar application essays, resume and recos.

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

Hi All,

Herez a snapshot of my profile:

Acads: Decent from top indian Univeristy
Work-Ex: Excellent! 5.5 years with an MNC in Oil & Gas Sector in Sales & Marketing.
Extra-Curricular: Fair
Gmat: 560 / Retaking in feb

Planning to apply to the following in round 3:

1.Chicago GSB
2.Duke
3.Darden
4.UNC Kenan-Flagler
5.UIUC

Grateful if someone can throw some insights on my chances and admit!

Cheers,
Kiran

Any reason for ignoring US MBA schools? There are good one year MBA options in US if you have 5+ years of experience...

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

euros Says

Got a i/v call from ISB, Hyderabad. Had applied to only two schools - ISB and INSEAD.

You said it right..it depends on the interview style and your ability to quickly identify that style and then work to your strengths....and ultimately hope for the best :thumbsup:

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

I would very much want to agree with u even though my intrw fell under the other 10% category.
So solemio, in our case of telephone intrvw, i would be very happy in a scenario where i am free to talk as much as i want than in one with curt bombardment of unrelated questions. As bhavya said, it is in such a free flowing situation can u close ur answer with a direction for ur next question.
I guess u will get a hang of the style of intrvwr after the first one/two questions, and mostly (close to 100%?!:-P), this style wont change as u progress.

Whereas if u are in for an answer-to-the point-i cant stand your BS-attitude intrvw, well, i guess I would do just that and hope for the best!
Any views Bhavya?
PS: When's ur intrvw??

My 2 cents:

Quality of work experience matters not the industry. Analytical/problem solving skills are just one facet of the applicant and there are many others (leadership skills, people management skills etc.) that the applicant is evaluated on.

GMAT 700+ is a big plus :cheerio:and you should not worry about low undergrad GPA (unless you were in bottom 20% of your class)

Work on your essays/resume and make sure you have the best application in front of the adcom. Let me know if you need help.

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

hi puys
i am a newbie in this forum.i just want to know about profile of the candidates applying to top b-schools in the US.Is it always that a person with an IT background (who worked for 5 years, for example) prefered over a person with a non-IT background (say,field engineer in a MNC engineering firm with 5 years experience) ?
i know that applications are considered in regard to the career progression a person makes over his/her 5 years of experience as well as the quality of work,but at the ed of the day isin't it the analytical/problem solving skills that are considered the quality of a person applying to B-schools.
also, is having a score of 700+ in GMAT to compensate for low undergrad academics considered good?
i would be thankful for the replies to my post.

Good luck IronLady! I like the schools you have applied to. Can you please let us know your profile and career goals?

-Bhavya(MBA '09 Booth)

IronLady Says

Anyone out there waiting for R2 interview decision from LBS?

I am sorry to hear that. If you need help with application analysis and "what went wrong?", PM me.

-Bhavya (MBA '09 Booth)

Got a Ding mail. Was a R2 applicant. Not even invited for an interview

The applications i invested most have earned me nothing. Need to figure out where i went worng. Waiting for Kelley adn Olin now. These are my last hope now.