Hello Abishek,
Thanks for your inquiry. First, you do not have to provide evidence or proof of your activities. The schools will assume that you are being honest in your submission. While you seem to have been very active in college, in your essays, I would focus on the activities that you have participated in during the last 3-5 years. It would be very difficult for me to provide you a concrete percentage or chance of admission to the ten schools you listed without having a better understanding of what roles you have played at work and in your extracurricular activities. I also don’t have a sense of your career goals or the percentile you scored in your GMAT.
Based on a cursory understanding of your profile, I think that you have selected schools for which you might be competitive, however I would certainly narrow the list of schools to something smaller than ten. I would really need more nuanced information about your candidacy in order to provide you a realistic assessment of your chances at these schools. Perhaps it is worth a conversation. You can sign up for a free consultation with one of our consultants if you are interested in having that discussion (www.mbamission.com/consult.php). I’m sorry that I could not answer the specific question you asked, but I don’t want to give you bad advice.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
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Akiba Smith-Francis, MBA
Senior Consultant
Hello,
Thanks for your inquiry. Please see my answers to your questions below.
1) Your career goal to either work in IT consulting or establish an IT consulting firm in China both seem very reasonable and achievable. In this economic environment it might be difficult for you to transition into venture capital and you should acknowledge that and explain how you plan to achieve that goal in your application essays. If you decide to talk about ultimately becoming a strategy consultant, you will need to explain your rationale for making that transition because it’s not readily apparent given your career history.
2) You seem to have a strong profile, with good grades and significant leadership experiences both at work and outside of work and your international experience will help. You definitely have the basics to be competitive at all of the schools that you mention. I think that your applications will have a greater likelihood of success if you can tell your stories in a compelling way that does not overemphasize your technical skills as an engineer. As I mentioned in a previous post to someone else with a technical background, you should take care to show how you have had a positive impact on the people around you and the organizations that you are a part of, rather than on your engineering prowess. That written, MIT, Yale and Insead might be stretch schools for you. Again, I think that your essays will be the key differentiating factors in your application.
3) It is not possible for me to comment on whether a new job opportunity is worth delaying business school for you. There are many things that go into making a decision about whether to take a job, lots of them unrelated to business school, so it would not be appropriate for me to advise you on whether to take a job or not.
Hi,
I am a 2009-2010 applicant to Wharton/Kellogg/Darden/Ross. I was hoping if you can you please help me with some questions that I have:
1. I am 30 y.o. with 9 yrs. work experience at matriculation. Does my age and length of work-ex put me at a serious disadvantage at my target schools?
2. I was let go from one of my past jobs at the beginning of my career due to motivation related performance issues. I was dealing with huge personal crisis at the time. I was away from the work force for a little over 2 months- the only gap in my work history. Since all the schools ask for reasons for leaving a job; what would be the best strategy to handle this part of the application? My rest of the profile is quite strong and I don't want to jeopardize my application by saying that I was let go and that too at a time when the economy was doing alright.
Any suggestions on how to best handle the above areas of concern would be much appreciated.
Chris
Hello Burberry,
I'll try to address your questions in the order in which you asked them.
I think the rigor of the undergraduate program that you attended does have an impression on Admissions Committees, however, they may be less familiar with the rigor of schools outside of the United States. In terms of your low college GPA, there is nothing that you can do to change that, obviously. But it seems that you have taken many steps to show the AdComs that you are capable of doing the work required in a business school program. You can also ask your recommenders to mention your quantitative abilities and perhaps write about an intellectually challenging professional experience in one of your essays.
Working at a small firm will not negatively affect your chances of being admitted to an MBA program. You should make sure that you explain what your firm does since it’s likely that the Admissions Committee will be unfamiliar with it.
Thanks for the quick turnaround Akiba
Given the information I have furnished thusfar,DO you reckon my candidacy to be competitive enough for Tepper?Could you suggest some schools I could add to my list?{(stretch safety Competitive)
Cheers
Burberry
Dear MBAMission
Would appreciate your help to evaluate my profile and target schools. How about my chances to get into these schools? Are there any recommendations on schools from you to better fit my career objectives? Thanks a lot!
Demographics: 31 age, Male, Chinese
GMAT: 760 AWA 4.0
TOEFL: 105(R30 L28 S21 W26)
Education:
Bachelors in Electrical Engineering in a top university in China
Undergrad GPA: 3.2(10/26)
Master in Electrical Engineering in a top university in China
GPA: around 3.5 (top 10% in class)
WE:
Total 6.5 years in a top international energy company, Marketing & Sales functions in downstream business, including:
2 years as sales director leading a national sales team to develop key account business in transportation sector
2 years as sector marketing manager for metal and power sector
2.5 years as key account manager for power sector in north and southwest of China
Career Goal:
Post my MBA, I aim to get into following roles:
Assuming that you have activities outside of work (from the recent past) that you can write about in your applications, I do think that you would be competitive at Tepper. I can’t really provide a list of schools that you should consider since there are many criteria to consider when determining which schools to apply to. Some of these include location, professional specializations and the size and location of the alumni community. The list of schools that you apply to is a fairly personal decision.