Profile review : Ask mbaMission

Demographics (nationality, gender): Indian, Male

· Education (undergraduate institution, GPA, major - high school/entrance exams not needed): Top 5 undergrad schools for Economics in India, GPA: average, major: Economics

· Other coursework or post-undergraduate education: Cleared CFA level 2, Cleared Series 7 FINRA exam

· GMAT or GRE or EA score (include section breakdown): Overall: 660 (44 Q, 37V) : GMAT has fluctuated with the highest raw score of 48 in quant

· Work experience (briefly highlight amount of work experience, industries, roles, promotions, special accomplishments, international exposure):
Investment banking analyst, Goldman Sachs (3 years)
Portfolio strategy, Goldman Sachs(2 years)
Equity research, Goldman Sachs (1.5 years)
Credit underwriter at a Fintech startup (2 years)
Expert consultant, Mckinsey

· Extracurricular activities (briefly highlight notable undergraduate and post-undergraduate ones): State basketball captain, college basketball captain. received a sports scholarship to attend college.

· Post-MBA goals: Stay in management consulting but pivot geographically

· Target schools: LBS, Cornell, Ross, IMD, UCLA, Kellogg (1 year)

Hi demolino,

Thanks for reaching out to mbaMission with your profile.

First, with your economics background and desire to remain in consulting, I think that's a great idea to focus on some of the accelerated/one-year programs. If switching geographies is important to you, make sure you review each school's employment report to determine where most graduates work.

Next, I think your work background looks great. Interesting combo of big Goldman experience + Fintech startup + now building expertise at a top consultancy. Should be a strong combination of experiences, with the only caveat that you'll need to make sure you have a good story about why you left for a startup and then went back to a big firm.

In terms of improvement areas, it seems like GMAT, especially Quant, is the main one. You can submit multiple scores, but only one (presumably the highest overall) will be your official score, and a 660 falls below average for all the schools you list. It would help if you had an above-average GPA, though I'm not sure exactly where yours falls. The CFA does help some, and your work experience, to prove abilities, but it's still hard to predict your chances with a below-average test score. The other potential area to improve is extracurriculars, as it sounds like those were all in the past. Depending on when you're applying, you could restart an activity or start something new, even if it were an extra responsibility/committee at work to show giving back outside your core role.

Hope that helps!
Kate

demolino wrote:Demographics (nationality, gender): Indian, Male

· Education (undergraduate institution, GPA, major - high school/entrance exams not needed): Top 5 undergrad schools for Economics in India, GPA: average, major: Economics

· Other coursework or post-undergraduate education: Cleared CFA level 2, Cleared Series 7 FINRA exam

· GMAT or GRE or EA score (include section breakdown): Overall: 660 (44 Q, 37V) : GMAT has fluctuated with the highest raw score of 48 in quant

· Work experience (briefly highlight amount of work experience, industries, roles, promotions, special accomplishments, international exposure):
Investment banking analyst, Goldman Sachs (3 years)
Portfolio strategy, Goldman Sachs(2 years)
Equity research, Goldman Sachs (1.5 years)
Credit underwriter at a Fintech startup (2 years)
Expert consultant, Mckinsey

· Extracurricular activities (briefly highlight notable undergraduate and post-undergraduate ones): State basketball captain, college basketball captain. received a sports scholarship to attend college.

· Post-MBA goals: Stay in management consulting but pivot geographically

· Target schools: LBS, Cornell, Ross, IMD, UCLA, Kellogg (1 year)