Ask Ivy Groupe MBA Admissions Consulting : Ask Admissions Consultants - Page 6

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Hi hpandey,

Thanks for your message and for sharing your background. I think it would be easier to chat to address your questions - feel free to fill out the following form so that we can schedule a free 20-minute consultation: https://www.ivygroupe.com/contact.

Best,
Shaifali

Hi delain,

Thanks for your message and for sharing your background. I think it would be easier to chat to address your questions - feel free to fill out the following form so that we can schedule a free 20-minute consultation: https://www.ivygroupe.com/contact.

Best,
Shaifali

Note: This post first appeared on Ivy Groupe's blog

The Importance of Personal Branding in MBA Applications

A common misconception of applicants is that gaining acceptance to the top MBA programs comes down to having strong statistics – in other words, a high GPA score and high GMAT/GRE score are the key factors that will drive their success in the process. Unfortunately, given this assumption, many academic achievers are disappointed when they are denied admission to the schools of their choice (and surprised when those with more average scores are admitted).

So, what is the difference between those who are more successful versus those who fall short? Those with strong statistics no doubt have a strong shot, but those who are accepted likely took the time to develop their personal brand.

What is a personal brand? Essentially, it’s a picture of who you actually are – your qualities, characteristics, and values. Successful candidates are able to demonstrate their personal brand in a compelling way throughout their applications.

Below are three reasons why you should take some time to develop your personal brand before delving into the applications.

Your personal brand is the foundation of your story/strategy

Your MBA applications are an opportunity to tell the Admissions Committee about you in a cohesive way. Too many times, candidates jump into the process and start working on the different parts of the applications without any clear goal or purpose in mind. This results in applications that are “all over the place” with no clear message.

Your personal brand will dictate the story/strategy of all of your applications and become the core foundation. It will be the compass that will make it much easier to determine in which direction your applications should be shaped. Each piece of the application – your essays, resume, recommendation letters, short answers within the applications – will be driven by your personal brand. It’s not easy to develop one’s personal brand, but by taking the time to do so, you will already be ahead of your competition.

Read more here.

Applying in the near future? Contact us at https://www.ivygroupe.com/contact or info@ivygroupe.com to request a free 20-minute consultation with our Founder, an HBS grad and MBA admissions expert!

Hi

Would you be so kind as to give my profile an evaluation? I’m still a couple of years away so I’ll just share achievements up to now and maybe add just overall “where I’ll be at that point in time” stats (i’m 2-3 years away from applying as an average applicant).

BACKGROUND
-Male, 26 YO, from a southern EU country
-Attended a top US public college (think top 30) for undergrad, GPA not great unfo, a 3.0, majored in Econ & PoliSci (plenty of extracurricular stuff
including but not limited to investment club president, student gov, tons of philanthropy)
-Interned in NYC, London, Tokyo all at top boutiques in AM and S&T during Ugrad (all FO roles)
-Took a year off between end of Ugrad and beginning of first FT job for variety of reasons; tldr is travelled then got an offer and had to wait to start
-First job: 1YR of FT S&T exp in a “big commercial bank” in a different southern EU country where I learned the language fairly well.
-Took GMAT once, scored 650
-Decided to attend a top MFIN program (think ESSEC/ESADE/ESCP/IE), Master’s thesis grade 3.7 GPA, class rep, international case comp finalist
- Second job: Went back into S&T at a top EU trading house where I’ve been promoted to Associate a year early (2YR FT exp vs usual 3), led roadshows by myself
-Overall I am bilingual and speak two other languages reasonably well.

MY STATS WHEN APPLYING
-28/29 YO
-I’ll have 4 years FT exp in S&T across two firms, all in equities and plenty of good accomplishments like big IPOs, roadshows, different trading strategies etc soloing with being ranked by different buy sides and with an early promotion under my belt.
-I will retake the GMAT and hopefully get 720 or above
-Two degrees, maybe some progress done on the CAIA (always seemed super interesting to me)

MY POST-MBA GOALS
To be honest i’ll be pretty tired of S&T at that point so I’d probably like to try my hand at IBD or MBB. Locations wise i’d only target NYC and London (no visa issues for either)

TARGET SCHOOLS
Wharton (1st choice)
Booth
Tuck
INSEAD
UNC
Yale

Thank you!

Hi,

1) I am confused with the GPA conversion system of Indian percentages to U.S GPA (4.0 Scale). what is Indian Bachelor's 59.5% to U.S GPA(4.0 Scale).

2) How likely a profile like this will fetch me an MBA from top Business Schools in the U.S/INDIA & is my GMAT score good enough for me to secure a seat?


Profile

Xth - 82 %

XII th - 81.3 %

B.Tech - Dropout (2009-2013) RVR & JC College

(U.G) B.A - 59.5% (2013-2016) BR Ambedkar Open University (in Top 10 out of 120 students)

M.B.A - Dropout (2017-2017) JBIT

Graduated from ISB-C.B.A - (2.6/4 GPA) (2017-2018) Indian School of Business.

Trained In Advance Business Analytics from IIT Hyderabad


GMAT: 640 (Q47 V32)


Experience: 3.5+ (from 2016)
Founder: OffersWave ( started in UG - 2014) (Sold out to Surya Sol - 2014)
Coupon Aggregator
Founder: LocalWalt (Failure -2015)
Local e-commerce
Founder:FIXU (Raised Funds From : FACEBOOK, KHUSAKI, KP INVESTMENTS) (2016-2018) Merged With ZOBIT.
Handyman Aggregator
Co-Founder: Block-Z-Labs (2018- Present)
Blockchain
Co-Founder: EVISONV2- Technology NGO (2018-Present)
Smart Glasses for the BLIND


Awards:
Karmaveer Chakra - 2019
Global Young leaders Fellow instituted by ICONGOs & United Nations - 2019
Nominated in top 3 ALL INDIA for Rising Star Awards in AI/ML category 2019 by Nasscom
All India Top 100 Startups by The August Fest - 2016
Table Tennis 2nd price in College Championship - 2012
Carrom board 1st price in class-X


Extracurricular
Mentor entrepreneurs : given Guest lectures in 25+ Institutes & 1500+ Students ( VNR, ICFAI,CGCHS, etc)
Started a Technology NGO for the blind and helping 500+ people from Devnar School
Conducted 3 blood donation camps in my village
President of the college's annual cultural festival
Cryptocurrency Investor/trader.
Building a Tech Innovators Community.

Preferred colleges

ISB
Ceibs China
Kellog
university of Chicago
Columbia business school
MIT
TUCK
LBS
UCLA: Anderson
university of Michigan ross

Post-MBA goals
Career acceleration in the current Startup.

PROFILE EVALUATION FOR CANADIAN MBAS FOR FALL 2020.

DEMOGRAPHICS : Indian Male, 25 years old.

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE : B-Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from SRM University, Chennai (2017)
CGPA – 8.6/10 OR 3.44/4

WORK EXPERIENCE : 2.5 years in Software consulting from Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai

LONG TERM GOAL: To become a Marketing head in a Canadian/International company of repute in Sports/Music/Travel/FMCG/Retail/Consumer Electronics industries AND To settle in Canada with a PR.

SHORT TERM (post-MBA) GOALS : entry-level marketer/Marketing manager in the above industries OR join Management Consultancy for a few years then become a marketer in those industries.

I’ve taken a few UG-level credit courses and online courses in MGMT, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship to help me facilitate my transition from Software to Marketing.

TEST SCORES:
GMAT – 710 (Q48, V40, IR 5, AWA 5)
IELTS Academic – 8.0 (L-8, R-9, W-7, S-7)

EXTRA-CURRICULARS:
1. Committee Member & Marketing Head of the SRM University Cycling Club
2. Cleared with distinction Grade 5 exam in “Drum-kit” conducted by Trinity College of Music, London, 2008.
3. Successfully completed BRM-200 (Brevet d’Audax), a 200 km cycle race conducted by Mumbai Randonneurs division of Brevet d'Audax, France in 12 hours and 10 minutes in February 2018.
4. Since 2015, have been a regular member of The Indian Stammering Association (TISA), a not-for-profit organization by and for people who stutter. Since 2018, have been the Co-coordinator for the organization’s Mumbai chapter. Website: https://stammer.in/.
5. Regular participant and host of Mumbai Drum Circle, a community drum circle specialising in Djembes (South African hand drums).

**Interested in only 20+ months MBA program to get 3 year Work permit after graduating. Hence, IVEY, Queen’s, Simon Fraser, uOttawa, etc are OUT.
**NOT interested in colleges in Quebec due to liabilities of not knowing French. Hence McGill, Concordia, HEC are OUT.

TARGET PROVINCES: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta

Colleges Applied so far:
1. McMaster (DeGroote) Co-op MBA -> Interviewed; awaiting final results.
2. UCalgary (Haskayne) Daytime MBA -> Submitted in R2
3. York U (Schulich) MBA -> Submitted in R1

Profile Evaluation required for:
1. University of Toronto Rotman – MBA
2. University of Alberta – MBA
3. UBC Sauder - MBA
4. Brock University Goodman – MBA ISP
5. Carleton University Sprott - MBA

Could you help me understand my initial profile evaluation for these above 5 programs?

Hello and Happy New Year!

If you could spare the time to evaluate my profile, it would be greatly appreciated! Any and all feedback and comments are welcome.

Age:
23 (Plan to apply in 3-4 years)

Ethnicity:
Korean-American

Academics:
Top 10 U.S. University (not known for engineering)
GPA: 3.61 (Majored in Mechanical Engineering and Minored in Finance)

GMAT:
740 (49Q, 41V)
(2nd attempt; thinking about retaking the GMAT again to achieve a score of 760+ due to my demographic)

Experience:
Engineer
100% in the aerospace industry (including internships)

Current Job:
Engineer at Fortune 100 Aerospace Engineering Firm

Intended Post-MBA Career:
1.) Management consulting (MBB), using my experiences in the engineering industry (both small and large firms) to help clients with problems unique to the intersection of business and engineering.
Or
2.) Program Manager at current company, using my engineering background, industry experience, and business education from an MBA.

MBA Schools:
Reach: HBS, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Booth, Columbia
Target: Kellogg, Haas, Ross, Stern

Thanks in advance.

Hello Team Ivy Groupe,

Kindly review my profile and share your valuable inputs.

Profile: INDIAN, Male, 28 years. I completed my graduation in Computer Science & Engineering from India in 2014 with a CGPA of 8.30.
I have one year Education gap after my Class 12th and Graduation.

I have been working with TCS,India for past 5 and a half years, out of which for the last one and a half years in Germany. My current role is Developer cum Solution architect.

Extra-curricular: I have won few Star of the Months and top programmers awards within the company.
I have experience of teaching school kids from government school and Security gaurds as part of CSR activity.

Areas of interest : 1) Consulting, 2) Finance

I am planning for the below colleges:
1. Kellogg,
2. INSEAD,
3. TUCK,
4. Yale,
5. ISB

Can you please let me know if my profile fits these colleges and what should be my target GMAT score?

Kindly review the above profile and please let me know if you need more info on my profile. Thanks a lot!

Hi,
I'm interested in doing an MBA. Kindly review my profile. Sharing a snapshot of the same below.

Bio: Indian, M, 24yo
Undergrad: Comp Sci from top 5 colleges in India(IIT)
Undergrad GPA: 5.6, It is on the lower side bur from a very prestigious college.
GRE: 329(Q166 V163)
Current Role: Project manager
Current Sector: Finance & Investments
Work experience: Worked in a MNC for 2 years where I worked abroad a project of 3 months duration. Got a promotion from a junior level to a Cloud lead. I worked with cross functional teams in India and US heavily- going to show teamwork and adaptability.
Post this, I Moved into an equity Research firm as a Project lead. Currently working as Project lead since 5 months. I currently lead multiple projects standing as a common ground between the investments team and the tech side.
Total work experience: 36 months by the time of Joining.
Short term goals: Move into an investment firm and work on Portfolio research in the equity markets(Sell side).
Long term goals: Move into a Private equity firm/Hedge fund in the buy side.

Extras:
Worked as a volunteer for differently abled
National level chess player
Lead departments in national level Fests.
Worked on an incognito startup(Failed)(Not sure if I should mention this)

Referees: Manager and colleague
Target Schools (R2): Any of the top 25 in US

Profile Evaluation for MBA 2022 Intake-
GMAT: 760
Duolingo: 145
Undergrad: 9.7 CGPA in Bachelor of Commerce(WES-> US Equivalent Undergrad).
University: Lovely Professional University, Punjab
12th Grade: 92%
Work Experience: 2.5 yrs as Finance Associate in Largest Infrastructure Company of India- Promoted Twice in the period currently leading a team and managing finance of Two National Projects in India under the direct control of PM Office.
3 MOnths as a Process analyst intern in Telecom Company.
EC's - Hosted many events in Undergrad, District level Hockey Player won prizes in Undergrad, Been a part of Charitable organization for the past 5 years.
Certifications: CFA Level 1, CPMP and Online MOOC's over Analytics and Data Science.
Post-MBA goals - Want to transit in Product Management in FMCG.
Hope for the Comments.
Also, Please let me know if pursuing MBA in India or in Abroad is correct for my profile.
which schools can I apply for?