Pre-MBA industry: Manufacturing
Post-MBA industry: Consulting
Undergraduate: Mechanical Engineering from tier 2 private college in India with an average cgpa of 7.5/10. Quite a lot of leadership experience through clubs, events and competition participation. Won a big Government sponsored competition with cash prize.
Professional: exp in sales for 1 year. Then shifted to sales support and ultimately marketing for next 3.5 years . Heading the Marketing in a small business with quite a few big achievements and projects considering the company size. Have team management experience, handling budgets and a short analytics responsibility in past. Industry is Manufacturing in construction product with a luxury niche.
Short term: shift to consulting, specifically to companies with a marketing track. Region agnostic.
Long term: Head/establish a global marketing consultancy.
Backup: management consultancy or sales/marketing in short term and global marketing for an FMCG. Region agnostic for long and short term. Prefer US, EU.
Gotten a reject from maximum applied collleges. 2 waitlists. Confused as to what is wrong. I had applied to T30 ish colleges only, no M7 or even T10. I was above all their average parameters still haven't even gotten an interview invite from most.
AppliedJan 11, 24
DeniedMar 22, 24
AppliedJan 4, 24
DeniedMar 29, 24
InterviewedJan 26, 24
AcceptedMar 22, 24
Scholarship50%
AppliedJan 4, 24
InterviewedFeb 5, 24
DeniedMar 21, 24
AppliedJan 4, 24
DeniedMar 20, 24
InterviewedMar 9, 24
AcceptedMar 19, 24
ScholarshipNone
AppliedOct 2, 23
InterviewedNov 12, 23
WaitlistedDec 7, 23
InterviewedJan 17, 24
DeniedMar 11, 24
AppliedJan 4, 24
InterviewedFeb 2, 24
AcceptedMar 1, 24
Scholarship50%
InterviewedJan 30, 24
AcceptedFeb 29, 24
Scholarship75%
AppliedOct 9, 23
InterviewedNov 15, 23
WaitlistedDec 15, 23
I understand it must be hard after receiving so many rejections inspite of a good GMAT Score! I would like to help you with your application!
Please send me an email on contact@involve-consulting.com & I'll get back to you immediately!
We have seen a Haas waitlist for a Harvard admit.
It’s really annoying. I’m sorry 😥 and I’m not sure what the problem was for those individuals… I would persevere and try again in January.
One thought perhaps is that your background and goals were not matching very well and you were considered a risky admit. I’m just guessing here by the way.
I too had originally thought that maybe there is a gap in my goal and experience but speaking objectively (also through discussions/interviews with MBa students and Adcom, where they gave a positive response for my line of thought) the story while not air tight is honestly not very bad... I would have thought many schools like IESE, Cambridge would've called me for an interview, but that didn't happen. I had worked with a consultant who helped me with building the story in a very personalized and individual way.
What was supposed to be a 6 month process, from preparing to admit has become very overwhelming now. I had hoped to target T25, but that seems like a distant dream right now. Not to mention how it has felt like Indian profiles are held at a very high standard even by the college's level.
Any thoughts on which colleges I should think about? Or if I should work on building my profile for a year and apply next year?
Since consulting is the most (over)used post MBA goal, having a strong rationale, linking your transferrable skills (if any) could help the case. I'd like to understand your profile better to advise though.
Feel free to reach out through the link(s) below for a deeper discussion.
Regards,
Arvind
Founder, admitStreet
W: https://admitstreet.com | L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvindkvenkat/ | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com
In terms of improving your profile, if you feel your goals are good and real, that's awesome and instead perhaps you can consider what you want to do. Probably not much you can change about your score for R2, but you can retake and send an update to WL's and also R2 schools. Try UNC. it is decent for consulting, though I am hearing that consulting internships and hiring are really challenged this year due at many top schools even.
Does it help? What are you thinking?
While I agree that an updated GMAT might definitely help, I'm unfortunately not sure if I have it in me to prepare again and try a 4th time. Might sound a bit defeatist but the 3rd time was to be my last attempt even if I had scored worse. While my mocks gave me 780, 760, I am sure I'll score much lower in my next attempt.
I'm planning to apply to T40, + top colleges at Alternate countries (eg Australia (not sure with their changing immigration policies though)) . Worst case I'll wait for next year and build my resume up with a promotion and few big projects. Maybe give GRE a try... Don't know. But one thing is for sure, all this talk of "holistic" decision making keeps us in the dark about what is wrong and what to improve. I see candidates with weaker profiles from other countries (avg & under represented) getting scholarships where I am unable to get an interview. UNC is on my list for R2 with tepper, darden, mccombs (maybe), Emory, Vanderbilt (maybe), and a few more maybe. My main focus however is to find the motivation to be in the game after such a dismal R1 result.
Thanks for your reverts BB, I think I speak for many on Gmat club forum when I say that you've been like the friend I've never met and can still talk to comfortably and most definitely would enjoy hanging out with. 😊
I don't know that GRE is an easier route these days... potentially but none of these would be really feasible for R2 deadline.
Here is a crazy idea for you - if you are not busy on Sunday, take a GMAT Focus mock and see if you can get a decent score. It is only 3x45 minutes and has ALL New questions and it will give a pretty reliable result. This wont' be enjoyable but it is just 2.5 hrs that will give you an answer that may change the course of your life or at least make you not regret not taking it. Focus works differently and covers less material than Classic and the algorithm is not as punitive for mistakes in the first part of the test (very punitive for leaving questions unanswered). Anyway, check it and see if youave it (or maybe next weekend or some other day within a week when you feeling OK. Don't take it if you are a mess mentally though; the result won't be good). Why take the test? See if you can eek out a quick gain due to scoring changes. You won't know until you try. (not suggesting a prep grind)
Feel free to connect if you would like to take up some Mock Interview sessions with our consultants who could give you some tips and approach of presenting yourself during these precious interviews!
Regards,
Mrunal Deo
E : contact@involve-consulting.com
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrunaldeo1509/