Feb 18, 2010
May 13, 2010
May 17, 2010
May 17, 2010
May 17, 2010
TheSituation wrote:Hi Paul,
I know you are generally more used to dealing with students who want to get into the heavyweight programs (HBS, INSEAD, etc) but I was curious to get your thoughts on my profile.
eval-my-profile-creative-ideas-to-strengthen-profile-94251.html
Thanks.
May 18, 2010
shek26 wrote:Hello Paul,
I plan to start applying for September 2011(Fall ) intake. I would like some comments on my profile. Here it goes
Nationality- Indian
Age-24
Gender – Male
GMAT – 620 (Q-48, V-27) AWA-5.5
GPA – There is no GPA system in my university. It is percentage based. However I have good academic records and completed by BE in Mechanical engineering with a distinction(76%) in the final year
Work experience: 2 years(and counting) work experience with SIEMENS Ltd.
Some important responsibilities executed by me include:
Was a part of the team that was responsible for getting Siemens Transformers, India certified for ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001.
One of the coordinators for maintaining 5-S (Quality based system) on the shop floor.
Executing my responsibilities and managing my department alone as a trainee for during the delegation of my superior to Germany for 3 months
Conducting and organising various trainings for shop floor engineers.
Some Achievements
1.Won the Best Project Award during my training period.
2.Submitted a technocommerical paper on a global scale as a part of "Environmental Award 2009" to SIEMENS AG.
3.Software for easy access of training records made using MS Access.
Other Activities:
1.Completed a basic level course in German with an A+ grade.
2.Successfully completed a project titled “Inservice Inspection of a pressure vessel” at Larsen&Toubro Limited, Powai as a part of my undergraduation final year project
3.Stood second in a national level technical paper presentation for the project titled “Inservice inspection of a pressure vessel” held at IIT, Bombay.
4.Have won several accolades in technical paper presentation competitions.
5.Have published around 36 articles on topics of public awareness in Hindustan Times,a leading news daily and 2 articles in JAM, a fortnightly newspaper.
Community service:
•Active member of ~Pankhudi, an NGO that aims at working towards underprivileged children since the last 2 years. Primary responsibility includes teaching slum kids. Have also contributed in other ways to ~Pankhudi.
My verbal score in the GMAT is less but I have done well in the AWA section and my English is also not all that bad considering I have published articles in a leading daily. I would like to know how competitive my application looks and my chances of getting into a good bschool. What can I do to overshadow my low verbal score? I plan to apply to 10 of the top30 bschools in the US. Requesting your comments.
Thanks a lot!
Abhishek Shenoy
May 19, 2010
May 20, 2010
osbornecox wrote:Hi Paul,
I've browsed your websites and read some of your posts, and I'm a bit struck by the MBA equation.
Simply put, I have a reasonably good idea of what my strengths and weaknesses are - there's an element of putting my best stuff forward, and schools will either take it or leave it. My weakness is in the UG record part - it sounds like in your formula, it's one of the earliest screeners (certainly I imagine it is for UCLA and Berkeley), so I feel like I'd be out of the picture. But on your website, a guy with a sub 3.0 GPA got into some of the top NY finance programs.
Considering my school record is something I can't change, how much sleep should I be losing over this?
Thanks Paul, I can tell you care about your craft.
May 20, 2010
TheSituation wrote:Thanks for the response. I appreciate the level of detail in your response.
I graduated in December 2006, I geared down to part-time in 4th year for financial reasons and also to give myself more time to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation. That was a mistake because even now I don’t truly know, with 100% certainty, what I want to be when I grow up. I do have a clearer picture though. The end of my 4th year brought on the LSAT and an unsuccessful application to law school. I scored well on the LSAT (160) but that rejection was a blessing in disguise. I knew deep down that it was not the path for me, law school requires 110% dedication. I didn’t have that at the time.
I make no qualms about my GPA and work experience. I simply am just not that over-achieving kid who had a 3.8 GPA and strolled from convocation right into a leadership training program with a major corporation and has since been promoted once or twice, collecting leadership and management experience along the way.
The funny thing is that I could have been. I am smart and determined enough, but when I was in university (and for most of my life actually) I battled crippling limiting beliefs. You know, when you tell yourself that you CAN’T do something (it can be anything, “I can’t get my drivers license”, “I cant get a date with that girl”, “I cant get a 3.8 GPA”, whatever) and that belief becomes true only because you accept it as an unchangeable reality.
Somewhere around 2005 I began to slowly snap out of it. My transformation from a fat kid to a lean, in-shape, positive young man is the physical manifestation of this shift in beliefs. Limiting beliefs is something I continue to work on, I’ve had ups and downs, but as I continue to make strides in smashing them it fuels my desire to “catch-up” with the overachievers and one day compete with them at the top levels of business. I know, from where I sit right now, it’s a LONG way to go. But I believe I can make it, and that’s the only thing that matters. I truly believe now that I can, so I will find a way to make it so.
Part of the reason I want to pursue an MBA is for redemption. Sure, the career building options and a way to make new doors open are obvious reasons to pursue an MBA. But beyond that I want a shot to be on the dean’s list (for the first time in my life), to be president of the finance club, to network, to build relationships with classmate, profs and alumni, to join/start all the clubs that interest me, to be the first person in my family history with an advanced degree. I’m so focused and determined now I know I can make that happen if I can get into a school.
I’m not delusional, I know with my current stats schools like UofT and Western are out of the question. But I’m not aiming for them, well not yet. I didn’t think you’d be familiar with Canadian schools, but from your last response you obviously are. So my realistic target schools are:
Dalhousie
U of Alberta
U of Calgary
Memorial (Newfoundland)
Laurier
U Saskatchewan
Lakehead (last resort)
Are you familiar with these schools, do you think I’d be a competitive applicant or have a realistic shot at entry?
My one buddy is at Western right now doing his MBA, I’ve visited him a few times. You are right, they absolutely love leadership in extracurriculars/volunteering. He did his undergrad at Western (they love there own) and had 3.8 GPA and 720 GPA with no EC or volunteering and received a $5k scholarship. His friend, whom I met, had 3.1 GPA, 640 GMAT and plenty of volunteering (BoD for NFP’s) and was awarded $40K!!! If I were to have any chance to gain admission there you are totally correct that I will have to step up the EC/V big time. I’ve met several of his classmates, and I didn’t think any of them were leap years beyond me in terms of intelligence or drive but they did have you know, the GPA and the work experience (and often a rich family). Point is: These are the students at a top school and I feel I can hang with them, so at tier 2 school I should be able to get in.
I like your idea about STARTING my own NFP, that is a good example of something that I instantly think … “Oh, no way, I can’t do that. How would I do that?” But, in reality, this is just another chance to work on eliminating a limiting belief.
I also like your suggestion to do some math at a local CC and that its okay to go with something cheap. I was thinking if it wasn’t a pricey university course it would be useless to even bother as adcoms would see CC as inferior. Quick question – what kind of course should I be targeting as it relates to math needed to complete an MBA? Stats, finite, calculus? Any ideas there.
Ok so that’s more that you possibly wanted to know, but from your experience do I have decent shot at any of the above mentioned schools?
Again, I’m long-winded… but I truly appreciate you taking the time to read.
_________________
G.T.L. - GMAT, Tanning, Laundry
Round 1: 05/12/10 handling-a-grenade-thesituation-s-official-debrief-94181.html
Round 2: 07/10/10 - This time it's personal.
May 23, 2010
May 25, 2010
May 26, 2010
nosferatudracon wrote:Hello Paul,
I'm interested in getting your point of view on my profile as well, it’s long and fairly complicated so my apologies but I just feel like there’s too many “unusual” things about my history to leave out details.
My undergraduate GPA from a small state school was 3.26 and I graduated December of 2008.
Graduated high school 2004 and moved to Germany and enrolled in a Gymnasium(German honors high school). After receiving an appointment to the US Air Force Academy I moved back home and enrolled in a small state university(January 2005) to take science and math classes I'd need at USAFA. I was on dean's list this semester.(December 2005)
After one semester at USAFA I decided to leave for personal reasons. I was on dean's list for the semester I was there.
Due to my late decision to leave USAFA the only place I could get accepted was the same small state school I went to before. Immediately after getting back in January 2006 I started working part-time at the Salvation Army. Realized this wasn't enough money and got a part-time job at a pizza restaurant. In May I was promoted to Assistant Manager and quit my job at the Salvation Army. I had this job working 40-60 hours a week taking 18 credits each semester and 4 classes each summer.
I worked like this until the following May(2007) when I had a really bad semester and realized I was letting work get in the way of my studies, left this job and got another part-time management position at the mall for the summer because I then studied abroad in Japan for a semester.(December 2007)
After coming back from Japan I got a full-time job again working in the payroll department of a multi-billion dollar company,(January 2008) and started taking classes part-time to finish my degree. Within two months of being with the company I received my first promotion, and then another month later my second promotion.
In July 2008 I left this company for my current job as a software consultant for a small niche German software company and continued taking part-time classes while training in Germany through November. Presented my senior thesis and graduated in December 2008.
I have since received a promotion at my current job and relocated where I now have more responsibilities with two of our largest customers. In the meantime I have completed a paralegal certificate with a 4.0 GPA.
How much will my work experience during college matter since it isn’t your typical part-time or summer employment and definitely the amount of time I spent working affected my grades. I know I’m capable of better grades(hence my two semesters on dean’s list when I wasn’t working full time), but obviously it’s too late to really do anything about that at this point, I just don’t know if my work experience will make up for it.
The few courses I didn’t do so well in were my econ courses, so I am explore taking a business essentials certificate before applying to take statistics and get better grades in econ. How much would retaking these classes offset my previous grades?
I don’t plan on applying until I have my undergraduate loans paid off which will probably be somewhere around 2014 or 2015 (some time away I know). I also plan in the next few years to get the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and the PMP designation from the Project Management Institute, as these will directly relate to my current job, regardless of B-School Apps.
I currently own one investment real estate property and will be looking at purchasing more as the years go on as well. Not sure if this can be spun off as having an own business or would affect my application in any way positively or negatively?
As far as extracurricular activities, I did a lot in high school (will B-School’s care at all about this?) but since I worked full-time and all through school I didn’t do much in UG. I am a volunteer with the Relay for Life (not just walking on a team, but an actual event volunteer) I am a youth soccer referee, and plan on continuing to do this and increase my referee “rank” over the next few years. I was an amateur bowler for years(Average 220+ and perfect game), but due to the travel of my current job haven’t been active for awhile, but am considering coaching at youth leagues. I am a member of Mensa, the World Affairs Council, and Kiwanis. I do not hold any leadership positions within these organizations though, since my travel has me away on a fairly regular basis I have not been, and probably will not be able to make such a commitment. I’m professionally proficient in German (use it almost every day at my current job) and have also studied, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and am dabbling in Arabic. Since I don’t really speak any of these languages at all anymore, I’m not sure how much it will matter.
I am also considering joining the Air National Guard, I feel I have un unfulfilled service commitment to my country and believe I will further regret my decision to leave USAFA if I do not reenlist (this would put my career on hold likely for 9-18 months while I am in training).
I took an initial GMAT practice test and scored 610 I would comfortable say I could get into the mid to high 600’s and of course wouldn’t turn down a score over the 700 mark either.
I’m interested in either strategy consulting or general management (at least at this point) in either the manufacturing and consumer products industries. My ideal school would be Wharton (and more specifically the Lauder program) which I know is a huge reach for my GPA and expected GMAT, but I’m from Philly so going there would be ideal for personal and professional reasons (will these reasons matter at all in my application?).
Thank you very much for taking the time to read everything here I greatly appreciate it, I know there is a lot here. If you have any other suggestions of schools that I should look into given my background and profile I greatly welcome those suggestions as well as any and all suggestions to improve my profile.
May 26, 2010
Moss wrote:Paul: The information you've provided is great! Thank you so much! Would you mind also reviewing my profile?
Please evaluate my profile:
Nationality: US native, white male
Age: 25, will be 26 by matriculation (will apply this fall)
GMAT: 710 (Q44,V42) 6.0 AWA
Work experience: 2 years
Education: BBA in Finance from an average state school in the midwest region
GPA: 3.7
WE: I work for a fortune 100 diversified financial services company as a financial analyst. I have been promoted in recently and have been working for the two years since my graduation from undergrad in 2008. I have passed levels I and II of the CFA and plan to pass LIII in two weeks!
EC: Significant during college; involved in multiple leadership positions in student government, leadership in college republicans (funded and brought in John Ashcroft, John Stossel, and Ted Nugent as speakers to campus), leadership and smaller rolls in many other organizations. Precinct delegate (elected position, but relatively insignificant) for county political party. Volunteer at city's art museum. Co-founder/organizer of workplace volunteer program.
Post-MBA Goals: ST to work in IB for the ST, LT to work for a HF, Super-LT I'd be interested in running my own HF or getting involved in politics more.
Target schools:
Chicago Booth
Columbia Business School ED
NYU Stern
NW Kellogg
Do you think I will be competitive at my target schools? Thanks in advance for any advice/wisdom/thoughts!
Updated on: Jan 1, 2011
Jun 3, 2010
Jun 5, 2010
Square wrote:Hi Paul. I just posted this in one of your compatriots' advice forum, and I'd love your perspective as well. I hope you don't mind, I'm going to cut and paste as what I wrote earlier is a little on the long side.
Kind regards, Square
When I first started looking into the business school process I asked for advice from these forums, and now that the day is coming closer for actual application, I'd appreciate your take on my situation. My profile:
Thirty-one year old white male, US citizen.
BA (2002) from the College of William and Mary, 3.3 GPA.
[TRUNCATED]
Do you think I'm being overly optimistic. I know some of the schools I've listed above are probably big reaches (as I labeled) but the others I don't know if I should consider them out of reach as well or if they're more within my range.
Alright--this post has been too long! Thanks much for any help you can provide.
Jun 5, 2010
pwee1212 wrote:Hi Paul,
I will graduate this next spring in 2011 and I was thinking about going and getting my MBA after I graduate. I have had multiple internships and a part-time job throughout my years in college, but I am worried about what the MBA admissions will make with my position. I am looking for advice about where I should apply, what round to apply, or any other information/stats from people who have been in my situation.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Hopeful MBA Candidate
Jun 5, 2010
msbroker wrote:Hi Paul, I'd love to hear yuor feedback
GPA: 3.0 Finance, Large State School
GMAT: 700 48Q (83%)/38V (83%)
I was accepted to my school on a scholarship...then because of a couple of reasons i.e. pre med first two years, 30hr work week, but primarily immaturity (went out too much to compensate for lack of high school social life) I have a low GPA.
Have been working in wealth management for 4 years now, started off in a very sales oriented role, succeeded and did well, but realized I was more interested in portfolio management/asset allocation. Focused on learning as much about portfolio management as possible, caught the attention of a senior broker, who asked me to join his team to focus on allocation/asset management. Am now responsible for $250mm in client assets, and am CFA lvl 3 candidate.
After MBA want to continue to work in asset allocation but on larger scale: ideally for large foundation or endowment, or at investment strategy group at bulge bracket, or larger private banking team.
Volunteer/Extra: Helped start foundation that focuses on mobilizing Afghan Americans (my parents are Afghan) to give back via economic redevelopment and humanitarian relief. Focused on fund raising and networking with Afghan organizations in DC area. Have raised $1mm for efforts. Also...semi professional polo player.
I am mostly interested in finance oriented schools..top stretch choice is Columbia (due to value investing program) also stretch at wharton, Booth,...also interested in Stern, Haas, Ross, Cornell, Yale.
I probably won't apply until R1 next year, what do you think my chances are? How can I improve my profile? I was getting much better verbal scores on practice tests, and think I could get 730-740, would that make much difference? How about alternate transcript? Other weaknesses or things you would stress?
Thanks in advance
Jun 5, 2010
PaulLanzillotti wrote:Hi Square:
I don't mind that you cut-and-pasted this at all. in fact, I think that this verbatim is necessary in order to form an apples to apples comparison among admissions consultants.
I will be perfectly honest with you. I feel that you have missed the mark. Specifically, longer-term career goals are a little bit of a mystery to me. If you have read some of my prior posts, you will know that after a low GMAT score, the failure to articulate logically following goals are the second most frequent reason for rejection. Your profile is nothing short of awesome. However, when I got to your stated goals I had to admit that I was a little confused.
So let's think about this constructively. Where did these goals come from? How well do they logically follow your current work experience? What current experience do you have in the energy sector? It's cool that you think that this will be the biggest issue of your generation, but so what? Other than that I can't really see a close connection between what you have been doing, in an out of the office, and the energy sector. So right now, in my opinion, this is wishful thinking. Now, hopefully I am missing something. Hopefully there was something that you forgot to include in your original post. However, I doubt it as your initial post was very robust.this is something that will warn further examination and discussion on your part.
If you cannot draw a logically following path from your Air Force experiences to the energy sector, after the MBA, then you really need to re-examine your short and long-term goals. Remember, that your short-term goals need to be very actionable and tactical. This means that you will be able to get the job you are articulating in your short-term goal immediately upon graduation. Your longer-term goals are little more high-level and wax philosophic to a certain degree. also remember that MBA programs are not places to find yourself or really discover a new career path. You have to remember the current economic environment that we are in. Admissions committees and by proxy recruiters want a sure bet. This means no career changers.
Okay, so if you cannot draw a connection from your current work experience to your current short-term goal you need to come up with a new short term goal. Then you need to come up with a longer-term goal that builds on the short-term goal that also incorporates a personal passion you have a certain type of work. this personal passion, for example, be represented by an extracurricular activity. I know you said you did not have a lot of extracurricular activities but you can find this passion elsewhere, for example, within your military career.
Now once you have determined logical and consistent short and long-term goals then you can see if the MBA programs you listed are scholastically and culturally the right fit. I can tell you right now that Darden will be a good fit. They love military officers. However, and I hate to beat this point to death, you have to get goals that make sense. To be honest, I would avoid schools like Yale and Tuck as top choices. Depending on your message, your military background may not be a strength at the schools. I definitely think that your military background will play well at schools like Harvard and Wharton. The schools demand that you articulated numerous examples of your leadership abilities on their application. You should have this based on your experiences.
there are a number of other points that I would like to make as well in this response. However they require more personal information regarding your background. You will be a competitive candidate once you get your goals in order. I can help you with this. I believe that the best way to vet through these issues and points would be to get on the phone for an hour long call. This of course is at no charge.
if this is something you'd be interested in, please private message me and we can set up a call off-line.
Respectfully,
Paul LanzillottiSquare wrote:Hi Paul. I just posted this in one of your compatriots' advice forum, and I'd love your perspective as well. I hope you don't mind, I'm going to cut and paste as what I wrote earlier is a little on the long side.
Kind regards, Square
When I first started looking into the business school process I asked for advice from these forums, and now that the day is coming closer for actual application, I'd appreciate your take on my situation. My profile:
Thirty-one year old white male, US citizen.
BA (2002) from the College of William and Mary, 3.3 GPA.
[TRUNCATED]
Do you think I'm being overly optimistic. I know some of the schools I've listed above are probably big reaches (as I labeled) but the others I don't know if I should consider them out of reach as well or if they're more within my range.
Alright--this post has been too long! Thanks much for any help you can provide.
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