Ask Fortuna Admissions : Ask Admissions Consultants - Page 11

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AbdulWasey1 wrote:Target Schools: HBS, Wharton, Stanford, MIT Sloan, LBS, Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas, Yale, Duke Fuqua, Said, Judge, NYU Stern, Insead, HEC Paris, ISB

All in round 1 in October for September 22’ intake

Nationality: Indian

Age: 27

Education: Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from a State University

Grade: 63.5/100

GMAT: 730


Work Experience: 4.5 years of experience (3 years in a MNC and 1.5 years in 2 start-ups)

Current Role: Deputy Manager at a HCL Technologies (A Technology services MNC)

- I am currently working in Product Management. I have seen exponential growth in my career as the role. I am currently working in requires an MBA and an average of 8-10 years of work experience at my company.

- My previous roles have been: Product Manager, and Product and Presales Consultant

Extracurriculars:
Been in leadership roles since my childhood. Held leadership roles in school, and was the General Secretary and Fashion Club Head at my University.

Additionally, I am a State level Cricket and Handball player

I also am a Director at an NGO aimed to help underprivileged children get access to basic education, and have helped more than 500 children till date.

Start-up Experience:

- I am Co-founder of a start-up that is a platform/community for Product Managers across the globe

- Recently, I have set foundations of a start-up that includes a mobile app and wearables that could help ensure a Safe and Secure society to live in for Everyone.

Post MBA Goal:
Work in a Technology/Consulting role for a F500 and get well versed with the nuances of Business.

Long term goal will be to focus on creating Social Startups, aimed to bring changes in the society.

Hi Abdul, thanks for sharing your profile. It looks like you are a strong candidate for a top school. For the international schools like INSEAD it will be important to convey your international experience as well, I’m not sure if that’s part off your profile?
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Name : Saswat Singh GMAT: 710
Nationality: Indian male
Age: 25 years
Undergrad Information: B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering
GPA: 8.84 CGPA
Work experience: 2 years 9 months currently, By the Aug 2022 it will be approx 4 years
Function: Senior Systems Engineer, Basically Software Developer responsible for Development of Application
Graduation: 8.84 CGPA; 12th: 88.8%; 10th: 95%

Extracurricular: Performed Hosting in Office annual events multiple times,
Community and others: Teaching kids in my hometown village and conducting events for them
Played Cricket, Basketball and Badminton in various Interschool, Intercollege and corporate tournaments
Target: NUS, NTU, ISB
Post MBA goals: Transition to Leadership/Managerial roles in Management Consulting.

Can you please suggest to me what are the chances of getting into these top B schools.

Hi all, Caroline Diarte Edwards from Fortuna here, happy to answer your questions! I was previously Admissions Director at INSEAD and work mostly with candidates applying to the top international business schools.
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sk2020 wrote:GMAT: 700 (Q45, V41)
•Nationality: Indian Female
•Age: 25 years
•Work experience: 4 years in corporate HR and recently made a shift to HR consulting in a leading professional services firm
•Post Grad: Diploma in HRM (6.11 CQPI)
•Under Grad: Psychology Hons (76.4%)
•Extracurricular : President - theatre club, Mental Wellness Advocate,
•Schools: Oxford, Warwick, Vanderbilt, Emory, Cornell, Darden, Smith (Queens), Manchester
•Short term goal : continue working in HR consulting, geographical change

Questions-
1. Between Cornell and Darden which would be better suited for my post mba goals? Both of them seem to have their pluses
2. I’ve extremely debt averse so are there any other schools I should consider where I have a decent shot at scholarships and good employment options
3. Are there any safe schools I should look at given my profile?
4. Since I have no international experience apart from working with international stakeholders, would I be better applying to Cambridge than Oxford given the latter’s exposure to int. exp?

Hi Sk2020, I think you’ve chosen some good schools based on your profile. and both Cornell and Darden are great options but cornell might be a bit competitive for you. Why not aim for both? It’s always nice to try for some some reach schools and more safety schools. I would try and sit in on some info sessions and speak with students to get a better sense of which is right cultural fit for you and you can also ask them about your post mba goals and what they can provide for you. .
2. All schools will provide scholarships - some you have to apply for, others are just given by teh school based on merit or academics. If you are admitted to various schools, you can decide then, which ones will offer you more scholarships and choose the one giving you the best offer. i can’t really say which school will offer more and more easily as mos schools offer so many.
3. I would say that wwarwick, vanderbilit, Emory , and Queens would be more safety schools. Darden and Oxford and Cornell more competitive for you.
4. Cambridge and oxford definitely look at more in’tl backgrounds so might be tough if you don’t have that experience. But you can always focus on your in’tl motivation
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apurvapotturu wrote:Hi,
I am Apurva, 23 yrs old female Indian citizen.
GRE: 313 (taken in 2017)
Suggestion-1 – Should I take GMAT/GRE again?
Target schools – HEC, INSEAD, NUS, IES & ISB
Education – Undergrad (IIT Gn) – 7.67/10 GPA,
12th – 97.1% & 10th – 9.7/10 CGPA
Company – Packaging film manufacturing
Role – Product development & Technical services manager. (3yrs exp till date)
Responsible to establish its products in market by analyzing difficulties faced by customers along the way. Diagnosing the issue & collaborate with product development team to make products robust in all working conditions.
International ex:
1) Summer research intern – Washington University (Academic – 3 months)
2) Egypt – Business development visit (one week)
3) Indonesia – Client problem analysis visit (one week)
Other details:
1) Yuwaah – Young warrior – UNICEF recognized organization
2) Volleyball - university level representation
3) Interested in Case solving – cases over coffee member
4) Blithchorn (cultural club) – Organizer (2016-2018) in undergrad.
Post MBA:
Management consulting in MBB’s or Big 4 firms.
Suggestion -2 Are my target schools ambitious? Can you suggest safer schools?
Suggestion -3 Any profile building activities with will improve my probability into B-school admission & Management consulting?

-- Some amazing experience here, Apurva. Like to see the international components . I would sit for another GRE or GMAT as you’ll have a competitive group of test takers coming form your pool. Another important component will be strong LORs from supervisors who can speak to your career trajectory and progression at work, leadership skills. You can also aim to build leadership outside of your day to day activities -- think about where you can get involved at work socially or on initiatives that will help you mentor others or support the culture of your workplace -- these are good things to engage in to profile build (plus can help with LORs!). School choice is quite personal but you have some great options and range presented here -- network with them thoroughly!

GMAT: 760
Indian, Male, Lawyer

Went to one of the top law schools in India and started working at a PE/M&A team at a top law firm right out of college. 3 years’ work ex. (4 by the time I’ll join). Have represented US mega funds on several acquisitions in India. Closed transactions worth more than USD 1bn. Was active in co-curriculars in law school and have represented the law school at many competitions in India and abroad.

R1 schools - Wharton, Booth, Columbia, NYU, Tuck

Short term goal – IB, Medium term - PE

1. In terms of growth, law firms in India have pretty rigid promotion structures (as do firms in the west) and there’s no possibility of a promotion before 4 years. How do AdComs judge transactional lawyers in terms of growth and what aspects should be highlighted to them.
2. While I was active in co-curriculars at law school, I have not been able to do anything substantial after I started working. How detrimental can this be and will recent non-profit experience (after I gave the GMAT) harm my prospects instead of improving them?

Hi Brittany, Shreyasee here (Indian female, 29 years old).

• I am currently preparing for my GMAT. I’ve taken three mock tests so far and am consistently scoring between 730 – 740. My target is 760+.
• I have been working in Analytics for the last 5 years. I currently work in Customer Analytics at a large global bank, in the Wealth and Personal Banking department.
• Prior to that, I was a consultant in Marketing Analytics at one of the top 10 market research companies.
• I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Economics (Undergrad CGPA: 8.23 / 10; Postgrad CGPA 9.77 /10).
• Extracurriculars include volunteer work throughout Undergrad, participation in employee engagement committees at work and core member of the Diversity & Inclusion employee resource group in my current organization.
• Awards: Gold Medal in Economics (Postgrad), various performance awards at work, winner of global competition in current organization to drive revenue growth & customer acquisition.
• Post MBA goal is to move into Management Consulting.

My question is really in terms of understanding whether I am a good candidate for a top school (seeking guidance in terms of which schools to realistically target). Would really like to apply to Wharton and Darden for sure. Any suggestions on which aspects of my profile to highlight and / or further work on?

Hi Jistel, thanks for sharing your profile. You’ve definitely got a good profile for business school. My question is about your professional experience - with 6 or 7 years of work experience, many candidates would have reached a level beyond analyst. Do you expect any promotion before submitting your applications?

jistel wrote:Target Schools:
-LBS, Insead, IESE, HEC Paris, Bocconi
All in round 1 in October for September 22’ intake

Nationality:
Argentinian

Education:
-BA in Business Administration from a prestigious university in Argentina (well known locally)
- Public Accountant degree in the same business school
-Postgraduate in Management at the same school
-CFA LEVEL 1 EXAM passed above the 90th percentile

Grade:
8.1 (scale 1-10) graduated with honors

GMAT:
690 Q46 V38 IR6
6 years of experience (7 when I start the program)
Current Role:
Equity Research Analyst at an international bank (1 year)

Previous Work Experience:
-4 years as a Credit risk analyst at the same bank
-1 year as a Trainee at the same bank

Extracurriculars:
- Helmsman, I love sailing.

Skills:
Excel, office, financial modeling

Languages:
-Spanish
-English
-Portuguese

Others:
-28 years old
-white male
- I hold a Spanish passport to work in Europe afterwords


Post MBA Goal:
- go to a more commercial role in a fintech in Europe.
my long term goal would be to start my own company to a more strategy oriented role providing consulting for startups

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Note: Please send in your questions only once All questions will be addressed. If you post your questions multiple times, it will complicate the process

Also forgot to mention that I have international work experience (worked in New York for 5 months in my previous role).

1. 2 years Q = this is fine, but it is always nice to connect with the schools directly to ask specific questions like this one/good way to network

2. Also I have left my job since 2020. Currently I am learning Artificial Intelligence. Will it suffice to cover my gap year.?

I might work on test pre as GMAT/GRE will be very important. You will also want to explain why you left your job and consider an internship or another role to build your profile

3. Suggestions you want to give for my profile? = test prep so important! never fun but I would use your time now to work on this while looking for another role.

Best wishes!

Requesting Profile Eval for MBA 2023/2024 Intake

Age: 29
Sex: Female
Ethnicity: Southeast Asian (US Citizen, Immigrant, 1st Generation College)
Schools: HBS, Wharton, Sloan, Columbia, Booth, Haas  

GMAT
Not yet taken, aiming for 690-710

Academics:
-BS in Mechanical Engineering from HYPSM
-Theatre minor
-2.9 Cumulative GPA, downward trend (It’s my weakest area, I know... It was hard adjusting to college, I was dealing with depression... I plan to explain in optional essay)

College Leadership/Work Experience:
-Executive Board Member at Diversity Group 1
-Community Engagement Chair at Diversity Group 2
-Part-time jobs
-Study abroad in Germany

Work Experience:
- 4 years in F100 Aerospace – Mechanical Engineer, Program Manager, Promoted 1x, Given Program-level award, $1-2million projects w/ international clients, process improvement initiatives saving company $500K
-Lead my office Employee Resource Group (ERG) focused on Community Engagement  
- 1 year in FAANG – Mechanical Engineer, $50-70million projects

Extra Curriculars:
-Volunteer for national organization focused on Education enablement and College Prep for first-generation students of color - Teaching STEM classes, CS TA, resume workshops
-Ski instructor (2 years)

Goals:
-Short term: Work in Tech - Product Management or Operations
-Long Term: Expand my venture focused on Mental Health and Wellness, Head of Product at Tech company

Questions:
-Other than GMAT, any other ways to mitigate my low undergrad GPA? Do you recommend HBX Core? Would enrolling in a Master’s in CS help or detract from application?
-Any other US B-schools you think would be a good fit?
-Any other International B-schools would be a good fit and would potentially give scholarships given my background?

CarolineFortuna wrote:

AbdulWasey1 wrote:Target Schools: HBS, Wharton, Stanford, MIT Sloan, LBS, Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas, Yale, Duke Fuqua, Said, Judge, NYU Stern, Insead, HEC Paris, ISB

All in round 1 in October for September 22’ intake

Nationality: Indian

Age: 27

Education: Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from a State University

Grade: 63.5/100

GMAT: 730


Work Experience: 4.5 years of experience (3 years in a MNC and 1.5 years in 2 start-ups)

Current Role: Deputy Manager at a HCL Technologies (A Technology services MNC)

- I am currently working in Product Management. I have seen exponential growth in my career as the role. I am currently working in requires an MBA and an average of 8-10 years of work experience at my company.

- My previous roles have been: Product Manager, and Product and Presales Consultant

Extracurriculars:
Been in leadership roles since my childhood. Held leadership roles in school, and was the General Secretary and Fashion Club Head at my University.

Additionally, I am a State level Cricket and Handball player

I also am a Director at an NGO aimed to help underprivileged children get access to basic education, and have helped more than 500 children till date.

Start-up Experience:

- I am Co-founder of a start-up that is a platform/community for Product Managers across the globe

- Recently, I have set foundations of a start-up that includes a mobile app and wearables that could help ensure a Safe and Secure society to live in for Everyone.

Post MBA Goal:
Work in a Technology/Consulting role for a F500 and get well versed with the nuances of Business.

Long term goal will be to focus on creating Social Startups, aimed to bring changes in the society.

Hi Abdul, thanks for sharing your profile. It looks like you are a strong candidate for a top school. For the international schools like INSEAD it will be important to convey your international experience as well, I’m not sure if that’s part off your profile?

I am currently working with the Leadership team of HCL. My whole team is based in London and US, and i have been working with folks across the globe all round my career. Since i joined in the mid of pandemic, relocation wasn’t possible, hence i wasn’t able to move to London.

The chat moderation is on. Your questions will be queued and will be released to maintain pace. Please keep sending in your questions

mankotiag wrote:GMAT: Will be taking soon, Target- 720
•Nationality: Indian male
•Age: 37 years
•Work experience: 2 years in sales and operations in the retail brand in global setting. and now working on a startup locally.

•Under Grad: BE Mech Engg 70 %(top 10 percent of class)
•12th: 68% ; 10th: 79%(ICSE)
•Extracurricular : High involvement in extracurriculars, (state level sports and cultural events, spearheaded student union etc.
farming, ad voluteering
•Target: Sloan, Stern, Ross , Tuck IMD and NUS
•Short term goal: In product management in consumer products and energy domain.

Hi mankotiag, I’m curious about your years of experience sinc eyou are 37. How many years of work exp. total? You are quite ’senior’ for a full time MBA and will be quite challenging to get into a full time mba program. Have you considered part time or maybe even an EMBA? You are kind of in the middle and could consider the fellows program at MIT (MIT sloan fellows). But that is a very competitive program and I worry about your undergrad degree marks. IMD does have a higher average but more like around early 30s so it could also be an option. That’s great about your extra curriculars. any leadership roles in extra curriculars and at work?
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cshreyasee wrote:Hi Brittany, Shreyasee here (Indian female, 29 years old).

• I am currently preparing for my GMAT. I’ve taken three mock tests so far and am consistently scoring between 730 – 740. My target is 760+.
• I have been working in Analytics for the last 5 years. I currently work in Customer Analytics at a large global bank, in the Wealth and Personal Banking department.
• Prior to that, I was a consultant in Marketing Analytics at one of the top 10 market research companies.
• I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Economics (Undergrad CGPA: 8.23 / 10; Postgrad CGPA 9.77 /10).
• Extracurriculars include volunteer work throughout Undergrad, participation in employee engagement committees at work and core member of the Diversity & Inclusion employee resource group in my current organization.
• Awards: Gold Medal in Economics (Postgrad), various performance awards at work, winner of global competition in current organization to drive revenue growth & customer acquisition.
• Post MBA goal is to move into Management Consulting.

My question is really in terms of understanding whether I am a good candidate for a top school (seeking guidance in terms of which schools to realistically target). Would really like to apply to Wharton and Darden for sure. Any suggestions on which aspects of my profile to highlight and / or further work on?

--Makings of a strong application here! Some notes:

-Aim for 760+ GMAT this is very important for top schools
-Can you take on more of a leadership role in the D&I group at work? That is a nice way to scaffold the leadership elements of your profile
-Work on getting strong LORs -- these, like test scores, are very important!

FortunaAdmissionsMJ wrote:

vinnyray wrote:•GMAT: 740
•Nationality: Indian
•Age: 28 years
•Work experience: 6 years as a Software Development Engineer(1 year as Web Developer, 2 years as Mobile App Developer, 3 years as a Machine Learning Engineer and a Lead Product developer)
•Promotion : 1
•Role:
•Under Grad: BTech Electronics and Communication Engineering 8.0
•Extra-curricular : Represented my school at various dance competitions (practiced an Indian folk dance for 8 years)
•Target: Tepper, UCLA Anderson, Oxford, HEC Paris, Yale SOM, NYU Stern, Fuqua, LBS
•Short term goal : Work at a consultancy firm

Hi Vinnyray, Congrats on a great GMAT. That is definitely needed to compete in your competitive applicant pool as an Indian Engineer! You’ve had some nice career progression, any major accomplishments/results you can speak to in your apps? That’s great about the dance competitions. List any awards you’ve won etc. Did you have any leadership roles at school, other clubs etc? Anything now in terms of extra curriculars and hobbies or since you graduated? these will be really important for all the schools you are applying to. The schools will also want to know why consulting and why the switch and how you can contribute as a consultant. So make sure that is clear in your apps.

vinnyray, your questions has been answered already

Age: 27
Sex: Male
Citizenship: South Africa (Indian heritage, but was born in South Africa as was my family for several generations)

GMAT:
740: 49Q | 41V | 6 AWA | 8 IR (taken once, June 2020)

Academics:
- Bachelor of Business Science, dual major in Finance and Accounting at highest ranked university in South Africa/Africa
- 1st class pass, Dean’s Merit List all 4 years, graduated with Honours, finished top 1% of class, faculty scholarship all 4 years
- Tutor for several university faculties: taking 2-3 tutorials of 20-30 students each semester for 3 years across economics and information systems courses - also supported faculties with test/exam administering and essay marking
- Member of a number of on-campus societies; project leader for a business/finance-related society and responsible for coordinating its largest ever intake of new students in a year

Work experience:

3 years MBB consulting:
- Broad industry experience (telecoms, FMCG, marketing, insurance, retail, oil & gas) focusing on strategy and operations, projects mostly based in South Africa. 1 promotion over tenure.
- Extras: volunteer in the recruiting team - speaking at campus presentations, judging case competitions, holding briefing calls for applicants

3 years senior data analyst (current role) at international big data analytics and consulting firm. 1 promotion to date:
- Senior team of the retail consulting team, delivering consumer and market reports to clients across multiple industries based off consumer banking data - a first in the local market. Indirectly managing 2-3 juniors per project
- One project highlight was recently delivering a population-risk model to the National Department of Health of SA to help with their covid-19 vaccine program by identifying locations of at-risk populations and algorithmically determining optimal locations of vaccination sites
- Extras: introduced new L&D system to better track development of analysts and consultants; developed new consulting skills training curriculum which I now deliver on a bi-annual basis

Other EC:
- Pro-bono consulting work for a local social development NGO (2020 to date)
- 2 month exchange to the Palestinian territories to teach english at a local education center (2016)

MBA:
- ST goals: product manager in tech-innovation space (think Google X) to learn how to commercialize and bring niche tech innovations with social focus to market
- Schools: Stanford, HBS, Wharton, MIT, Booth, Berkeley, Michigan, Fuqua, Tepper

Background and Nationality:
I am an Indian male(25 years old) currently working in the manufacturing sector(Tata Steel) as an Operations Manager.
Undergrad Information: BTech in Mineral Engineering (7.78/10 CGPA) with honors from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, 12th: 92.40%, 10th: 10 CGPA
GMAT: 760(V42,Q51)
Professional Work Experience: 2 years: Manager Operations, Tata Steel
I, alongside my team, worked towards stabilising the operations of a newly constructed 2MTPA capacity coal preparation plant and succeeded in doing so.

Volunteering Experience(during Undergrad):
2 years: Team Leader at AIESEC India: I worked in following portfolios: Event Management(5 events during college), Content marketing, Graphic Designing: local entity won 3 national awards, created graphic content for Tourism Industry of 2 Indian states
3 months cultural internship at AIESEC Krakow, Poland
Digital Experience Manager: AIESEC Russia (6 months)
Tata ProEngage volunteer program
Secretary at University department societies
Represented India as a delegate at International Conferences

Extracurriculars:
Attended and won at multiple inter-college sports meets
National level Table Tennis Player
National level Squash Player
State Level Badminton player
Marathon Runner: Started Running and Physique Transformation club in college
Post MBA goals: Social Entrepreneurship(in the field of sports), Strategy, General Management, Leadership

Target Schools: M7, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Michigan Ross