Request Profile Evaluation

[sovina.gehlot]

Hi

I just gave my GMAT today, and well, the result was not so good....Scored 680 (Q 48 V 35) Percentile (Q-83, V-73) Overall- 86.

Below is some background information:

Female/India
Graduation-Bachelor of Business Studies- Scored- 69% - this counts as first rank.

Post Graduation- MBA-Infinity Business School from India- this MBA college is not so well known..far far away from the premier league of IIM's. Good CGPA.

Work Experience- 3 years- in the Financial Sector (specifically- Mutual Funds Industry)-company- Reliance Mutual Fund.

Currently in USA (since Nov 2009)- Pursuing CFP- Certified Financial Planner course.

Can show very good extra curricular activities during my college days. Involved with a start up NGO (in India). Can get excellent letters of recommendations from my previous supervisors.

Given my GMAT score and the fact that I am already an MBA do I stand a chance among top 20 Universities for a full time MBA- specifically Berkeley, USC- Marshall, Foster Business School and Austin...I can provide strong reasons for a second MBA degree.

Also, will the slight advantage of belonging to a minority group( female, India and not IT) help me any way? I have been talking to lot of people who encourage me by saying that Indian female has a slight advantage...Dont know how true it is :))

Iam planning to apply for Round 2 deadlines, so guess I have enough time to build up a good story.

Can somebody from admission dept. evaluate my profile.

Thanks
Sovina

[mbamission]

Hi Sovina -

Yes, there is some slight advantage to your being female and Indian, standing out from the Indian applicants a little bit. It also seems like you have good grades and solid work experience. The extracurriculars may be a little be outdated (some schools prefer you to write your essays about experiences in the last 3 years) but you may be able to use them if the lessons learned have lasting impacts today.

I don't think you need to be excessively concerned about the GMAT. Although you're disappointed, a 680 is still a good score and you have good grades (be sure to identify for the schools in the optional essay that the 69% is first rank.) The second MBA might pose more of a challenge; again you'll need to articulate a very clear reason why you need it.

All that said, Berkeley may be a stretch but the other schools, if they accept a second MBA, seem like reasonable choices. Please do call the schools and ask though - they may tell you up front that they will not accept candidates who already have an MBA and you'd like to know that before you put time into the applications!

Good luck,

Jessica Shklar
mbaMission

www.mbamission.com

[sovina.gehlot]

Hi Jessica

Thanks for the prompt reply and your advice. As you suggested, I have started calling up schools to ask them specifically for second MBA- Berkeley said outright no...so that's out of list. :((
will give it a good try at the other schools..
I have one more doubt...It's going to be a bit long....:)

My MBA concentration was finance...but there as you can see my job experience was not in hard core finance. My job involved selling and distribution of financial products ( specifically Mutual Funds).But after a while the job started feeling repetitive and was not enough challenging. Now i want to pursue an MBA with concentration in management consulting( i also want to pick up 3-4 courses in finance for better understanding of US markets). My previous MBA college offered limited opportunity in terms of core specialization- only Finance, Marketing and HR were available- Should i mention this fact in my application- or is it wrong to undermine you college??

below is the reason that i plan to offer to adcoms for the second MBA . Please let me know your views on it? does it sound convincing?

My short term goal is to work with a consulting firm to gain some ground level experience in this field and ultimately(5-6 years down the line) I want to start up my own consulting company in India- the company would be specifically targeting to the needs of small and mid size companies in India and certain non government organizations. There are lot of companies in India that can not afford the costly services offered by big consulting companies like Mc kinsey and BCG. I want to leverage my experience in financial sector and my understanding of financial products to this end. Also, my husband is in IT and he also has a good amount of experience in SAP consulting. Together, we can offer a comprehensive package of solutions to our target group.

Also, what all schools are good for management consulting - considering my score and profile-- can you throw some light on this??

Your advice would be really helpful.
Thanks

[mbamission]

Hi, thanks for the follow up.

Stating a fact about the school is not undermining it. Making disparaging comments would be, but simply explaining that your MBA met your needs at the time but now you've clarified that you want to go into consulting and need that additional training is not putting down the school.

The only other advice I have is to make the reasons for the switch compelling. Schools are reluctant to accept people who are making radical career changes to fields that they have not at least had some exposure to. You'll want to show why this change is a logical progression or at least something you have been working towards, in order to make a convincing case.

Good luck.

Jessica