Profile Evaluation

[pratikagarwal85]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions you give as it really helps in attaining a proper perspective for a potential GMAT candidate.

Just gave my GMAT and received a 680 (desired more, but could not attain :( )

I wanted your feedback if I could consider any top B school with my profile-

GMAT 680
Work Exp- 50 months
Graduate-Accountancy (Top Division)
Post Grad- SP Jain GMBA- A largely Indian centric B school in Singapore (Deans' Medal Winner for outstanding academic achievement in Finance)
Current Job- Sell Side Analyst in a boutique firm
Part Time- Associated with NGO for serving the education needs of poor children.

Your reply will be highly appreciated as currently in a fix that should I apply to any top school. Also please give your advice regarding chances at INSEAD.

Thanks and Regards

Pratik

[mili]

Hi Pratik,

Glad to provide input! Congrats on being done with the GMAT - even if you didn't achieve your desired score, you finished and you did quite decently.

At a high level glance, it seems that you could be competitive at a school like INSEAD, but it's difficult to say without knowing more about you. My initial read is that you have strong professional and academic credentials, but not strong community or extracurricular activities (I could be wrong - just going based on the info provided). Let's peel back the different layers:

- Professional: You say you are a sell side analyst at a boutique firm. That is great and should put you in a competitive position. But it's unclear to me whether you have made a lot of job jumps or whether you've built your career at this firm, whether you've been regularly promoted... basically, you can start to see that the story behind the current role is also important. You'll need to demonstrate that you have strong leadership capabilities/skills that you use in your career, that you work with teams (ideally), that you take initiative, improve the firm, etc. But overall, your finance career and work in international markets should position you well.

-Academics: Your accounting background and performance in undergrad is good. Your GMAT is just slightly below the target 700 that would put you in the 'safer' zone at top schools, but you have to remember that the median and average scores the schools publish (usually in the low 700s) do not represent the whole class. Half the class gets below that score, so you could still be in the running. Now, you already have an MBA. I know that most top business schools in the U.S. allow students with MBAs from smaller foreign universities to apply; I am not sure about INSEAD's policy. Be sure to call and find out. If they allow it, then it shouldn't be a problem or disadvantage, but I do think you'll need to make a very strong case in your career narrative for why you need another MBA.

-Community: Looks like you are involved in an NGO; that's great. Without knowing your level of involvement, though, it's difficult to say how well this will serve you. If you're quite involved and in a leadership role, you'll have great stories to tell and can make this a significant part of your profile/application. If not or if your experience is more ad-hoc, then this might not count as much. So, it's good that you have some community experience, it's much better if it's substantive experience. If it's the latter, that better positions you for top schools.

- Extracurricular/Personal: I didn't see anything listed here in the way of extracurricular (post-college) activities. Right now, I think this is a big gap in your profile that could lower your chances at top schools (as could lack of serious community leadership).

To summarize, the answer to your question is... "it depends." I would say based on the information provided, you are an average candidate for a top bschool. Based on the info provided, there's no reason you should not apply to one or two top schools (perhaps INSEAD and one other), but I don't see anything that will make you a stand-out candidate at these programs. I'd suggest that you should add more realistic target schools like UVA, Yale, etc. to your list.

I hope this helps!

Mili
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[pratikagarwal85]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and it was a really quick one. Just wanted to inform a few facts of community work and job profile so that it could help you to evaluate the overall application-

Job Profile- Joined the firm in 2007 as an analyst and received two promotions and currently Senior Research Associate with four analysts reporting to me.

Community Work-Involved since 2004 on a permanent basis with classes every weekend and organising certain activities like Children's Day, Independence day festivities for children.Just to add also participate in Blood Donations camps as a social activity.

Hope this helps you in evaluation!!

Thanks for your time..

Pratik

[mili]

Hey Pratik! Thanks for the additional context. I would say that the work experience is great and the fact that you have 4 direct reports is really going to stand out - that's not typical for someone a few years out of school.

The community work sounds pretty substantive -- but doesn't sound like you have a core leadership role in the organization. Still, you'll probably be able to tell some community leadership stories about the events that you organized.

All in all, I think my evaluation stays pretty much the same - you've got strong professional experience, but average academic and community experience. I still think you should go for it and apply to INSEAD (you should be in the running), but like I said, I'd focus mostly on schools in the UVA range.

Best of Luck,
Mili