Hello,
I have to say that we are not familiar with Cardiff University as we do not have a lot of experience working with clients on applications to that school. Similarly, we do not have much experience working with clients applying to business schools in India. Im sorry that we were not able to be of more help to you in that regard!
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
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First, congratulations on your admission to HEC. The decision on where to go to business school is a very personal one and we would not be able to advise you on whether you should take the spot at HEC. If you are concerned about issues of recruiting and job placement, I recommend asking the school to put you in touch with students or recent alumni and speak to members of the Career Services office. The school will want to provide you with this information since you are an admitted candidate and they want you to attend. When you get that information, youll have to make the decision about whether their placement record is appealing to you assuming that you like everything else about the school. I would also remind you that your professional success comes in large part from your actions and is not wholly dependent on the school that you attend.
If you decide to turn down HEC and reapply to other schools this year, you will be taking a chance. Youll have to really consider your risk profile and whether you want to wait another year before going to business school and risk the possibility that you will not admitted anywhere. All of these considerations are very personal in nature. Best of luck on making your decision!
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hello,
Thank you for your detailed description of your profile. Without a set of specific schools that you are targeting and no GMAT score, it is a bit hard to provide a perspective on whether you will be a competitive candidate.
Here are my thoughts on your candidacy in general, with an eye to what you can do over the next year to put yourself in a good position for when you do apply:
- Since you write that you have average grades, I would try to focus on the GMAT and get as high a score as possible to supplement your average college grades. You will be in a good place if you can score at least a 700 in the 80th percentile or better for both the verbal and quantitative sections. Assuming that you have a highly quantitative job, you should emphasize your abilities in that areas in your application (as can your recommenders) in order to supplement average grades. You should try your best, as I'm sure you are, to get better than average grades in the coursework you are doing now. This will also help to supplement your college grades.
- You should work on supplementing your community activity, which you mentioned is a possibility. Very highly ranked schools are looking for candidates who have made a commitment to something other than their work. To the extent that you can take on a leadership role (not necessarily a title) or have a meaningful impact on a person or organization youre working with, you should try to do that over the next year.
- I would also encourage you to think about leadership at work. This does not have to involve a promotion, but consider the ways you can contribute to your company, customers, clients or coworkers. This can take many forms, but I would encourage you to keep your eye out for opportunities to make meaningful contributions at work.
Best of luck on your application next year!
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
hi Jeremy,
I am interested in full time MBA program from California State University Long Beach.
How is the reputation of this college in US?What are my job prospects after doing MBA from this college?
Thanx in advance!!
regards,
Fahad
Hi Fahad,
We have not helped many clients work on applications to Cal State Long Beach. I recommend doing a bit more research on the school before you apply. I suggest researching the MBA programs ranking and reaching out to the Admissions Office (or look on the schools website if it is available) to determine where students work after graduate school, both in terms of industry and geography. Depending on where you want to work after graduation, this is important. My guess is that this program is not very well known outside of the United States and it may be better known in the state of California.
I would also reach out to students and/or recent alumni to ask them your questions about the schools reputation and where graduates work. I would be a bit more specific in your question about work I would ask about the industry you are interested in. For example, if you are interested in investment banking, I would ask them how many students go on to work in investment banking or how many investment banks recruit at the school. That will help give you a more concrete sense of whether the school can help you achieve your professional goals.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hi Jeremy
Have read a lot of posts on this thread and to start with I must say what a wonderful job you are doing ! Saw a lot of guys who are now in schools like CSB/Tuck/etc etc who had taken your advice.
Well, as most of the posts I have seen on this thread, I wanted to know my chances if I applied to the top-10 US schools.
Profile :
GMAT : 700
Under Grad : BTech computer science from top 10 colleges in India.
Under Grad GPA : would be around 2.8(going by the percentage conversions I have seen -- though this seems pretty bad, I am not sure it really reflects the truth -- 69% in percentage terms)
School(before under grad) : Almost always the top student(academically+extra-curriculars) throughout my school life
Age : 30
Work experience : 9 years as of date, would be 10 by the time I join
--> Strong growth during the 2 jobs I have done so far(changed only one job during this period). Lots of promotions etc/ lead my own team since a long time/lots of awards-recognitions.
Extra curriculars :
---> very strong in School time. Debates/extempores/plays etc etc -- loads of certificates
---> Under grad and Work time -- not so much as in School, but the oppurtunities were pretty low. Widely regarded as the best presenter/debater in my under-grad class.
Community Service :
---> Have been sponsoring a child since 2003 under a famous program in India
----> Also involved with an NGO linked with my office
----> Always have had helped(taught etc) students in my school/college days
Sports :
----> To be honest this is my life. Passionate and mad about sports.
----> Good certificates in Under-grad/school days
----> The football(soccer)/cricket/volleyball captain of my office/under-grad class).
----> As I said earlier, mad about sports ... though I have a decent career, did actually try for the job of a sports presenter in 2004, but did not make it :-)
I really want to know your opinion on my chances in the top 10 schools !(for example Harvard would be a dream come true for me).
Would really love to get a honest answer from you. If you could the top 10 schools and the chances in each if I were to apply, it would be really really great for me. Will get into the apping mode towards the end of this month.
Thanks a lot,
Amit
Hi Jeremy
Amit again. Sorry, forgot to post the GMAT breakup last time ...
GMAT : 700(Q47, V39, AWA : 5)
TIA
Hi Jeremy,
I`m looking for a doing MBA from abroad, but having no clear knowledge about the colleges I should go for, with kind of profile which I have.
My profile:
GMAT Score:760.
Grads: Average(From one of the good university).
Expr: 8+(Telecoms Software).
Community Service:None.
Extra-Curricular: Average.
Looking forward for your valuable suggestions on my above mentioned query.
Cheers!
Hello Amit,
Thank you for your post. There are a few things that you should consider as you are applying to top ten business schools in the U.S. - you are a little bit older than the average candidate/student at many of the schools in the top ten. Harvard and Stanford in particular are reaching out to younger candidates. That written, their out-reach to younger candidates does not mean that they are not interested in candidates who are 30. I recommend that you research the average age and the age range of students at the business schools you are interested in.
The second thing that you might consider is that, with nearly ten years of work experience, you may be better suited for an executive education program. You should research whether the schools you are interested in have an executive education program. You may decide to apply to the Exec Ed program instread - and if you don't, in an interview, you may be asked whether you considered the Exec Ed program and why the full-time MBA is the better option for you. Depending on your situation at work, this might not be feasible for you, but you should at least think about this.
Your overall GMAT score is in the safe range for top ten schools, assuming that your percentiles for both the Verbal and Quantitative sections are strong. I am not sure what to say about your college grades because I am not sure that you did the conversion to the U.S. 4.0 scale correctly. A 2.8 GPA in the U.S. is fairly low and is probably significantly below the average GPA of applicants to the schools that you are considering. Even if your college grades are low, you can't change them. And you have been out of school for nearly ten years, so they will be less important than the work that you have done more recently. I would focus on your work experience rather than your academic achievement in college.
You should keep that in mind with respect to your "extra-curriculars" and community service I would not focus on the activities you participated in during college since that was so long ago. In your essays, I recommend focusing on your leadership outside of work, particularly work from the past three to five years.
I hope that is all helpful to you!
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insider's Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hello,
You seem to be at the very beginning of the application process. I would encourage you to do some initial research on the schools that might be a good fit for you in terms of your interests and goals. There are hundreds of MBA programs out there, so I would encourage you to look at a survey of school profiles to narrow down the list of schools that might be right for you. For example, you might want to go to the U.S., Canada, France, England, etc You might want a large or small school, prefer schools that primarily teach using the case method or want to go to a school with significant resources dedicated to real estate. Publications like U.S. News and World Report and Businessweek are good places to start when you are just beginning to explore MBA programs.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hi Akiba Smith
Thanks for the quick reply. Really appreciate your frank feedback. Correct me if I am wrong -- atleast this is what I think "Executive MBA" is not at par with the real MBA. I mean I always thought that Exec MBA does not really help you change your career(and is not as demanding as the real MBA) and generally company sponsored candidates go for it. Firstly I am not sure if my company sponsors that, and secondly the reason I am doing an MBA is to make other fields open to me -- dont want to be stuck with the IT tag forever. I hope you got me, not that I am not enjoying my work, but would be great If I could work in any field I liked Post MBA.
My preference is consulting.
Pls could you give your feedback on my comments ? Also, your reply does not answer my basic question -- do I even have a chance of say getting an interview call(with my GMAT+ACAD+AGE etc) from any of the top 10 schools, or is it a waste of time trying ?
Thanks a lot again for your time.
-Amit
Hi Amit,
Different people use their Executive MBA in different ways. For example, some people are sponsored by their firms and plan to or are expected to return after graduation. Others use the Executive MBA to help them make transitions into other fields. I think that you are correct in your feeling that perhaps more full-time MBA students plan to make career transitions, while many Exec Ed students plan to stay in their field, if not their company. However, it is not impossible to make a career transition from an Exec Ed program. I simply mentioned that you should consider it because, as a slightly older candidate, you may be asked by and Admissions Committee whether you considered that as an option.
To answer your last question, it is very hard for me to determine whether you are competitive at top ten schools because of two reasons I am not sure that you correctly translated your GPA to the 4.0 scale and the 2.8 GPA you listed (if correct) will make things more difficult for you. The second reason is that as a candidate with significant work experience, I would need to have more detail, which is not really fit for this kind of forum, on your professional experiences.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hi Amit,
I saw your inquiry about how you can discuss your profile in more depth with us. We offer a free 30 minute consultation by phone where we can discuss your candidacy in more depth. I recommend that you sign up for that free consultation online at: Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hi,
I want to do one year MBA on general management. My GMAT score is 700 (Q50, V34) and 5.5 in essay. I want to know about the UK schools that would suit my purpose and what is the chance for my profile.
Profile summary
============
Qualification: BE, CSE
GPA: 3.0
Industry: IT
Years of experience: 5 (16 months of international experience)
Extra curricular activities: Biking and some social service.
Worked on critical project. Lead some small teams.
Sports: won awards in school and at work too. Have captained cricket team right from school days till now. Won some tournaments but not a big stage though.
Thanks,
Ram
Hello Ram,
When you are at the beginning of exploring MBA programs that might interest you, I suggest reading publications like U.S. News & World Report and Businessweek that profile a large number of business schools. You will be able to learn about program details as well as information about their students (accepted candidates) so that you are in a better position to determine whether you will be competitive for the programs that interest you. Best of luck as you begin your search!
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult
Hi Jessica,
Please have a look at my profile and evaluate my options.
Age:23
Academics:
10th : 89%
12th : 90%
BE : 83%(Electronics and Communication,2008 passout)
Professional.
1.Working with a semi conductor company for past one year. Have been a part of two chips successfully manufacured by my company.
2. Did a 6 month paid internship in the final semester of my college with the same company i am currently working with.
3. Ran a promotional campaign for a Coaching institute in my city. I had made my own team comprising mainly of students and along with them ran the promotional campaign for 2 months or so. With the help of the promotional campaign the Institute was able to start couple of batches in my city.
4. Design study material for the same coaching institute.
5. Taught Mathematics to MBA aspirants on weekends for 3 months.
Extra Curricular:
1. Won many Mathematics Competitions at district and state level.
2. Have keen interest in dramatics. Have been the member,organizer and event manager of dramatics club in my college. Participated and won many events at inter college level.
3. Participated and won couple of code cracking events in college.
Community Service:
1. Taught the students of Missionaries of Charity for 15-20 days(4-5 years back).
Apart from this there has been no community service involvement as such.
Planning to take my GMAT in August. Target score 730+
I have 1 year of work -ex as of now and will have 2 at the time of joining. What would be my chances if i apply to US MBA (rank 20 to 40) colleges this year itself? Is 2 years of work-ex more enough to apply or should i wait for 1 more year and then apply? What should i do to make my profile more competitive and how would you rate my current profile?
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry. It is difficult to provide a reasonable assessment of your profile without knowing your actual GMAT a score (a target score is not enough) or understanding the nature of your impact and achievements at work. Similarly, it is difficult to assess your chances at schools in the top 20 40. It might be helpful for you to schedule a free personal consultation in which we can discuss the work that you have done thus far as well as your competitiveness at specific schools. You can sign up online at www.mbamission.com/consult.php.
Two years of work experience could be sufficient for a strong application if you have been able to make significant impact in your role(s) at work. There is no hard and fast rule about the number of years of work experience you need. Candidates are accepted to business school with 2, 3, 4 and even 5+ years of work experience. The decision of when you should apply should be based on your personal experience. It seems as though you could strengthen your application by focusing on your community service, which seems to an area that you have not invested in during the past few years.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hi,
I want to do MBA from top B School(US/Europe/Asia). Here's my profile Xth - 93% XIIth - 97% BE - 94% IT WE - 3yrs by June 2010
Extra Curricular - Part of few organizing committees and associations, worked as teaching assistant during my engineering days.
Right now I have been working with an NGO. Organized few events like blood donation camps, fund raising programs..Overall decent extra curricular(I feel..)
I planned to take GMAT by first week of Oct. I'm hoping that I'll cross 700 mark. What are my chances in top 15 B Schools?
I just prepared first list of schools. definitely I'm going to change this list depending on various factors.
Stern, Darden, Yale, Duke, Columbia, Ross, MIT(Not sure whether I'm eligible for this), CEIBS, HKUST, NUS, IESE, Oxford.
I'm really grateful to you, If you give ur valuable comments and help me in modifying this list.
And for few schools I'l be applying in R2, will this lessen my chances?
I have to go for R2 as few schools(say Oxford..) ask for TOEFL score. Can I waive this off
And one last request.. plz make it clear how admission chances differ with R1 / R2
Hello,
You seem to have good grades and have some community service experience. It is very difficult to provide a perspective on your competitiveness at the schools that you mentioned without more detail about your work experience (the number of years you have worked does not tell me much) or your actual GMAT score. Perhaps it will be helpful to you to schedule a free consultation call with us to review your work experience and extracurricular activities to get a better understanding of your competitiveness for the schools you are interested in. You can sign up on line at mbaMission - Boutique MBA Admissions Consulting | Free Consultation.
Many, if not most applicants apply in round 2. You will not be at a disadvantage if you apply in round 2. If you think you will be able to put together a better application for the round 2 deadlines versus the round 1 deadlines, you should apply in round 2 with stronger applications.
You will need to check with the TOEFL requirements for the schools you are interested in to determine whether you will need to take that test. Many schools require the TOEFL for applicants who were educated in a language other than English, but again, you will need to check each schools application requirements.
Sincerely,
Akiba Smith-Francis
MBA Mission
646-485-8844
Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog
MBA Mission Insiders Guides: www.mbamission.com/store.php
Free Consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php
Hello,
I took GMAT a few weeks ago and managed only 710 (QA 50 VA 35) AWA 4.5
My profile goes like this
10th : 81%
12th : 88%
B.Tech , Computer Science and Engineering 7.8/10 CGPA
3 years of work ex in a top semi-conductor company. (ST Microelectronics)
By the time I land up in some B-school,( which I hope I will,) I will have 4 years work ex.
Extra - curricular s .... loads to talk about...
- College Sports Captain
- Best Athlete at college for 2 years
- Member of College Cricket and Football team
- Participated in Inter College Cricket and Football Tournaments
- Lots of intra college sports accolades.
- Class Representative
- Member of Organizing committee of Tech Fest.
- Member of Other College Comittees and Hostel Committees.
- Some Accolades at High School which include sports and academics
- Technical Paper presentations , won 2nd prize
- A few more , which I can't recall at the moment
Questions:
- Will My GMAT score play a spoilsport in my applications? Will it be worth to take GMAT again?
- I am planning to apply to ISB in India, NUS and Nanyang in Singapore, AIM Manila , Melbourne Business School in Australia , London Business School in UK and INSEAD in France. How good is my profile for these schools?
- I have a very little knowledge about B-Schools in US to which I can apply? Can you please suggest me a few.
Thanks