• Welcome Guest
BW Business Schools
BusinessWeek's comprehensive guide to business schools.
  • Posted: Oct-9
  • 16419 of 16528
Hi Linda,

Thanks for all the great advice you have been giving on this forum. I was hoping you could answer a couple of my questions:
I am targetting Tier 2 Schools(tepper for now Round 2)


Age:22
Gender: Male
Natioanlity: Indian
Undergrad: B.E from PUNJAB ENGINEERING COLLEGE(PEC) chandigarh - 53% (Second class -
GMAT: 710(91%)        (V-37 81%, Q-50 91 %, AWA - 5.5)
 
Working for a small manufacturing firm in OTTAWA CANADA for the last 16 months.The firm has 10 employees and no HR department
I was under the impression that -unless you graduated from the IIT's or other Tier 1 institutes of  other disciplines- the adcoms did not care which college you graduated from.But after skimming through various threads on this forums and others , My opinions have changed.
Ques 1.Am i right in assuming that the reputation of the institutes of non US applicants does matter?
 
MY institute PEC was very prestigious , regularly featured in the rankings, and had an inordinately high cutoff for acceptance.
 
My undergraduate performance(53% second division) was below par and this is causing me a lot of anxiety.
Nevertheless i have done a lot to mitigate the low GPA
Did well on the GMAT(710)
Cleared CFA level 1 exam
Continuous work progression
Ques 2Will this Suffice?
 
I cant take graded courses at university due to professional commitments
 
 
Ques 3: Does working for a small firm with 10 employees and no HR department negatively affect my odds of acceptance?
 
I am working on 2 career scripts right now
 
1 involves getting into operations management
 
in the second script i switch over to finace
 
which ever script i finally use , I will be putting forth the other as a contigency plan.( I am not sure which 1 yet)
 
Assume strong insightful essays and favorable recommendations
 
 
Thanks
Burberry

Burberry,

You're welcome. Before I respond, could tell me some of the schools in the second tier that you are considering? What do you consider second tier?

Thanks,
Linda

Linda Abraham
Accepted.com
310-815-9553

Friend Accepted on Facebook
Follow Accepted on Twitter
Download "Applying to B-School in Times of Crisis"

  • Posted: Oct-9
  • 16420 of 16528

I intend on applying to the following schools

Tepper (dream R2)

Mcdonough( dream R2)

Notre Dame( Reapplicant- Competitive R2)

Tippie(SAFE R1)

Rochester(SAFE R1)

 

I consider schools ranked 15 or above by business week as tier 2

 

Burberry

 

  • Posted: Oct-9
  • 16421 of 16528

I intend on applying to the following schools

Tepper (dream R2)

Mcdonough( dream R2)

Notre Dame( Reapplicant- Competitive R2)

Tippie(SAFE R1)

Rochester(SAFE R1)

 

I consider schools ranked 15 or above by business week as tier 2

 

Burberry


Burberry,

I agree with your assessment of your chances for the schools listed above. with the exception that I wouldn't consider Rochester a safety because of your GPA. I do think that your GPA and CFA will mitigate somewhat at these schools. I am also concerned that your relative lack of FT work experience could hurt you at all the above with the exception of CMU and Rochester.

BTW, we recently posted a chat transcript for Notre Dame.

Best,

Linda

Linda Abraham
Accepted.com
310-815-9553

Friend Accepted on Facebook
Follow Accepted on Twitter
Download "Applying to B-School in Times of Crisis"

  • Posted: Oct-9
  • 16422 of 16528

Linda

 

I was hoping you could address the questions/ concerns in my original post

 

Thanks

Burberry

  • From: tank_I
  •  
  •   Total Posts: 6
  • Posted: Oct-9
  • 16423 of 16528

Dear Linda,

I have a couple of queries.

1. I have a really bad undergrad GPA from one of the IITs in India. I majored in Mathematics and Computer Science, which in a way was responsible for the lower GPA. Also the GPA trended up each year, though marginally. I got a government scholarship in my final year at IIT after passing a test covering entire undergraduate mathematics coursework. I have scored a 780 on the GMAT (Q 94 V 99). This year I cleared CFA Level 1 with >70% in all 10 sections tested on the exam.

I have to address my low GPA in the optional essay. I have a couple of options. Either I go on explaining why my GPA is low (won't sound very convincing) and let the adcom know what all constructive things I focused on or I highlight my final year GPA, scholarship, GMAT and CFA and show how I have changed with time. Or write an optional essay that's a mix of both.

What's your take on this ? I am applying Top 10 (may add 1 top 15).

2. I wanted to apply to Haas, but I read at some forum that they do not accept anyone less than 3.0 GPA (US scale). Can you share your views on this ?

 

  • Posted: Oct-10
  • 16424 of 16528

Hi Linda,

Thanx dor your comment. I'd like to retake toefl, but I've already submitted the schools I listed. So even if I retake it, and even if I have a great S score, i cannot submit it in the first round. Does it worth to retake it? And Is there any way to convince them appreciate my developed S score even if I submit it after R! deadline? By the way I can retake TOEFL in three weeks because there is no opening seat available until the end of October.

Thanx & Best,

Ozge 

  • Posted: Oct-10
  • 16425 of 16528

Hi Linda,

 

I wanted to get your thoughts on my odds for getting into the following programs:

Northwestern (full time), Duke (full time), UCB (part time), UCLA (part time) and USC (part time).

 

Background: 26 year old, female, asian Indian, us citizen.

 

2.9 GPA from UCB, liberal arts, graduated in 3 years – the biggest hurdle. Reasonable story to justify the reason. 

690 GMAT (70% M, 89% V). Took 3 business courses after college – received A’s in all.

 

Have 5+ years full time work exp (6+ years at matriculation). Massive layoff at a bank I worked at –  was expected to be promoted to AVP prior to news. Since then I started my own marketing firm – 15 clients so far. Great community involvement. Good letter of recs from former manager (who can attest that I was supposed to be promoted had it not been for the layoff) and notable city councilmember of the city I reside in.

 

Would like to concentrate on marketing and entrepreneurship in grad school.

 

Thanks.
  • From: kayzeee
  •  
  •   Total Posts: 4
  • Posted: Oct-12
  • 16426 of 16528
...[Message truncated]
  • From: captn
  •  
  •   Total Posts: 2
  • Posted: Oct-12
  • 16427 of 16528

Hi Linda,

     Let me know your thoughts ony my chances for a top 5 admit.

Education:

BostonU Masters in Econ and BA in Math (2001-2003, GPA 3.00<note masters done with undergrad>)
Northeastern U (2000-2001, GPA 3.58)

UC Berkeley (2008-2009, Coursework in math & stats, GPA 3.3)

GRE
Math: 800 Verbal: 720

Professional Exams
Actuarial Exams (of 9) :1,2,3,4,5,6

Research Experience
1.) Developed an arbitrage model under a UC Berkeley professor for the last 6 months.

2.) Worked at a top 5 econ consulting firm for 2 years as a research analyst, associate, and now as a contractor.


Work Experience
1.) Top 5 econ consulting for 2 years (LECG)
2.) Actuarial Analyst for 3 years (Liberty Mutual,AAA)

Languages
German,English

Skills
Excellent Public Speaker
Tae Kwon Do Instructor

Extra Currics

Tae Kwon Do instruction in college

Currently a volunteer math tutor at Berkeley High School

Minority Status: Puerto Rican (for what its worth)

  • Posted: Oct-13
  • 16428 of 16528

Madam.

 i would like to know whether work-ex in a large and reputed corporations like google gives an competitive edge to an applicant during the admission process.

BW Business Schools RSSSUBSCRIBE TO RECENT RSS UPDATES
  ©  Prospero Technologies LLC. All Rights Reserved.