Can I get entry into a top MBA school

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black_label

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Hi,
I am 30 year old Indian Male.
- Cleared all levels of CFA
- GMAT of 730/4
- Already a MBA from one of the top Indian school in 2005
- Working for a back office of a MNC investment bank for 5 years
- extremely poor academics
- nothing in terms of extra currics/community service
Thanks
 
Whats your definition of top?
Id say no to top 5 based on your work experience primarily.
Your GMAT is fine and probably negates your bad grades but you and the other billion Indians who study quantitative aptitude tests their entire lives are all going to have high GMAT scores. Doesn’t your family own a publicly listed Indian company? All the Indians I know like that have no problem getting in.
Your lack of extra curriculars is also really lame considering the general unsexiness of your job. I would say you should make something up. Claim to start a charity that gives shelter to some impoverished group. Make a cheap website. That ought to help. Odds are they won’t do any checks.
Once you get out of thhe top ten you are in good shape probably.
Also I can imagine a lot of schools wondering why they should take you seriously if you already have an MBA in 2005 from a “Top Indian MBA” program. Why do you need to go back if you are already so special? They might wonder this.
I get resumes from guys just like you each week. Massive test scores, mbas, qualifications. They usually have almost no people skills and nothing interesting about them. From what i have read MBA programs are flooded with Indian applicants just like that. While that is useful in many jobs, admissions programs probably want to see you as more dynamic. So try to sell yourself a little better. Its all BS in the end, bit its important.
Im not
 
BTW good luck. I’m gonna apply this fall too. I bet if you could give me your GMAT and I could give you my work experience we’d make a great candidate.
 
Thanks…I was particularly interested in INSEAD France as that is of one year and has the potential to put me into a mid managerial position in a non finance company.
As far as GMAT is concerned I was not very happy with my appraisal this year and applied for GMAT at the earliest possible date. Didnt study at all. When I got a decent score, I thought maybe I can get admission too. But increasingly it looks difficult.
 
I got three friends there now. They all scored in the 700’s on GMATs. One was in PE, another cccounting, and a third in sell side research. All had good experience at home as well as in India. They had strong undergrad Universities. (one went to Oxford). The accountant had a 750 but was weightlisted initially. Yikes.
I got another buddy who is Indian and went there. He’s just your typically hardworking Bombayite. But it didn’t hurt that he worked overseas before he applied in a buyside role.
I wonder, if you’re being paid an Indian salary or not? If you’re making a good Indian salary and it’s something like 20k US per year (which is a lot of money here) I wonder if most MBA programs will take you seriously. The big important stat after the GMAT is to show is how much peoples bases are before and after that. I can imagine they won’t like putting 20k into their average pool. Most of those schools have avg bases before of around 70k and they would expect finance people to make more than that. If you were running an orphanage I think they would understand, but you’re not.
 
Man I can’t believe you got a 730 without studying. That’s wonderful. Id kill to get a score like that. :-)
 
- extremely poor academics
How bad is extremely poor? GPA isn’t everything for bschool, but you still need a strong GPA to be considered for the top schools.
 
@chuckrox8: extremely poor means just passed the course, in the lowest decile per se but that was 6 years ago and I am a changed man. I cleared FRM, CFA just to prove that
@tikka: I earn around 70k
 
black_label Wrote:
——————————————————-
> @chuckrox8: extremely poor means just passed the
> course, in the lowest decile per se but that was 6
> years ago and I am a changed man. I cleared FRM,
> CFA just to prove that
>
> @tikka: I earn around 70k
Unless you passed CFA with all > 70 on all 3 levels, you have no chance.
 
black_label Wrote:
——————————————————-
> @chuckrox8: extremely poor means just passed the
> course, in the lowest decile per se but that was 6
> years ago and I am a changed man. I cleared FRM,
> CFA just to prove that
>
> @tikka: I earn around 70k
The CFA and FRM are nice additions to your resume, but the cold hard truth about them is that most adcoms don’t really care all that much.
Bschools care about:
Work Ex (Where, How Long, Progression, Leadership, etc…)
Undergrad GPA/Strength of School
GMAT
Essays
LORs
Industry Qualifications and Designations (This falls as a distant 6th item)
 
Again, depends what you consider top.
I got into Rotman (U of Toronto, ranked 45ish on Financial times mba rankings), which I was pleasantly surprised about.
gmat 640, undergrad A- average, 4 years work experience in, 3 in sales, 1 in back office of global bank, passed CFA level 1, and had a designation called Canadian Investment Manager. Also glowing review from one manager, and what I imagine was a so-so review from another.
would I have gotten into Wharton/Harvard? hell no.
 
I dont think undergrad grades will matter so much - especially considering your strong GMATS Although your bad grades were in your MBA 1.0 not sure about that.
 
magicskyfairy Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Again, depends what you consider top.
>
> I got into Rotman (U of Toronto, ranked 45ish on
> Financial times mba rankings), which I was
> pleasantly surprised about.
>
> gmat 640, undergrad A- average, 4 years work
> experience in, 3 in sales, 1 in back office of
> global bank, passed CFA level 1, and had a
> designation called Canadian Investment Manager.
> Also glowing review from one manager, and what I
> imagine was a so-so review from another.
>
> would I have gotten into Wharton/Harvard? hell no.
Something doesnt seem right here. Unless your work experience of “sales” was selling lawnmowers in rural Alabama I think that you either write terrible essays, interview terribly or are leaving something out of the picture.
 
ASSet_MANagement Wrote:
——————————————————-
> magicskyfairy Wrote:
> ————————————————–
> —–
> > Again, depends what you consider top.
> >
> > I got into Rotman (U of Toronto, ranked 45ish
> on
> > Financial times mba rankings), which I was
> > pleasantly surprised about.
> >
> > gmat 640, undergrad A- average, 4 years work
> > experience in, 3 in sales, 1 in back office of
> > global bank, passed CFA level 1, and had a
> > designation called Canadian Investment Manager.
> > Also glowing review from one manager, and what
> I
> > imagine was a so-so review from another.
> >
> > would I have gotten into Wharton/Harvard? hell
> no.
>
>
> Something doesnt seem right here. Unless your work
> experience of “sales” was selling lawnmowers in
> rural Alabama I think that you either write
> terrible essays, interview terribly or are leaving
> something out of the picture.
640 gmat is pretty low. Definitely not good enough for a top school, unless you’re a legacy and Pops is a big donor.
 
I think you have a decent shot, but I am a bit baffled here.
You want to spend a year or two of your mid career and spend about $150K and forgo annual salary of $70K for a mid managerial position in a non finance company? Aren’t you already good for that? No?
 
^Applying is the first dilemma. Second is taking admission. But sort of stuck here. Was looking ways of things get going. Its almost impossible to get a job with a decent responsibility/pay in a new field without doing something new.
 
In india it can be really hard to convince people that you should be anything other than what you have already been doing or even what your father was doing. Black Label is up against the wall there.
Also the 70k salary is a nice salary for India, I’d say am excellent one. Hes gonna have a really difficult time making that in most other fields if he switches. Am I right?
Are you looking to work overseas? Not a bad idea. Seems like that’s the cool thing to do. Work overseas and come back on a western salary.
 
I am not really fascinated with working overseas. Have traveled there and have friends/cousins who are settled there. My spoken english is not all that good and i struggle to crack/understand jokes in English and what is life without humour.
While writing this I realized that after doing foreign MBA I would have to work overseas. So one more reason for not applying.
 
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