Profile Evaluation

[SavithriA898]

Dear Manhattan Team,

Would appreciate if you can help with my profile evaluation. I took the GMAT on 5th May 2015

Any constructive feedback are welcomed! Here is my profile:
-Demographic: Indian Female

-Age : 24

- Mid term goal: consulting in strategy

- GMAT: 730 (Q49, V40, AWA 4.5, IR 8, first attempt)

- Bachelor of Technology Electronics & Communication GPA 7.84/10 from National Institute of Technology Calicut.

- 2 years of working experience in IT.

- Volunteer experience: regular volunteer at a local charity organisation for Intellectually disabled children and also at an organisation which supports disadvantaged communities.

- International exposure: born in India, did most of my schooling in UAE.

Targeting Schools: Tuck, Yale SOM, Sloan, Tepper, Kellog, ROSS

Thank you!

[mbaMissionKate]

Thanks for sharing your profile with us! Congrats on the recent GMAT score, that's a very strong overall score and nicely balanced between your Quant and Verbal too. Beyond that, your GPA seems strong too so I think schools will look at your academic profile very positively. It's great that you have some exposure outside India too.

Since you're coming from a technical major and an IT role, make sure that your applications demonstrate some of the "softer" skills that business schools value too...like effective communication and interpersonal skills. Since you only have 2 years of experience, be sure to highlight any leadership experience you've had - this doesn't need to be people management but can come from managing a project or new initiative at work or even from your regular volunteer work. It sounds like you're very passionate about the work you do there, so that will be great to highlight your leadership there, especially since it ties in with your long-term career goals.

The only concerns I have are that you have a bit less experience than most MBA applicants and you're aiming to make a very difficult career transition from IT to strategy consulting. It's definitely not impossible but just make sure you show that you've logically thought through those goals, why they make sense for you, and why now is the right time to make that switch.

Because of those concerns, I'd recommend adding at least one safer school to your list. I like the ones you've got but they're all of pretty similar competitiveness - though Kellogg will likely be toughest. Since you seem to be drawn to mostly east coast or midwest schools in the US, perhaps consider adding a school like Georgetown, Cornell, or Notre Dame.

Good luck with the process and keep us posted if we can help with any more questions!

[SavithriA898]

Hi Kate

Thank you for the evaluation. As per your advice I have added Cornell to my list

I have one more concern regarding the chances of getting financial aid. I have read that many schools do offer full tuition. Let me know my chances for scholarship/financial aid in the schools I have mentioned.

Thanks
Anju

[mbaMissionKate]

Hi Anju,
That sounds great! Good question about scholarships. I believe all of the schools on your list will consider all applicants for both merit-based and need-based scholarships, without any separate application (you should double check this though with each school). Criteria for and amounts of those scholarships vary. So it's hard for me to know your chances - but it does look like Tepper and Ross have slightly higher %'s of students receiving aid, according to this article - http://poetsandquants.com/2014/11/20/mb ... s-schools/.

One other resource you might want to check out - our sister company M7 Financial has a Student Loan Reduction Primer where it discusses different sources of funding, including scholarships from sources outside the school. You can download that for free here - http://m7financial.com/resources/.

There are also student loan programs available and most schools have set up programs for international students that don't require a US co-signer. So that's always an option if you need it.

Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out again if we can help with your applications!

[RolandC394]

cool information