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[AdmissionsConsultants]

Originally posted by siddharth78

Hi David,
Could you tell me about my chances of getting into Tuck Business School.

1. I am from India. IT professional. Pretty competitive pool
2. GMAT - 710 (95%) V 39 Quant 48
3. Mech Engineering Degree. First Division ( Aggregate 70%)
4. 3 years of work experience. 1 promotion each year. Currently in a
project leader position.
5. Recommendation from one client (working for Mckinsey & Co) and a
former project manager. Recommendations would be very good.
6. Fairly decent Essays.
7. Not much community work or extra curricular activities.

Really appreciate your time in looking at this.

Sid

Hi Sid and thanks for your inquiry.

You are a little below the average given your GMAT score and demographic pool. However, this can be mitigated if treated properly. I like your career progression based on your comments above.

Most applicants do submit favorable recommendations. Keep in mind that you need them to say favorable things that advance your story, otherwise all those favorable things won’t differentiate you from the other applicants.

You will need to somehow address the lack of extracurricular activities. That will certainly raise concerns at Tuck where the fear is 'one bad apple' who is not open and extroverted may ruin their close-knit community feel.

With a very well prepared application, you would be competitive at Tuck, but probably not a ‘shoe in’ given the GMAT and your lack of extracurriculars. The big key will be finding enough ‘wow’ factor in your story to bump your candidacy into the top percentile of applicants who are going to receive offers this year.

Sincerely,

David Petersam
703.242.5885

www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/

Admissions committee experience from the top b-schools

[raj_for_mba]

Hi David

Thanks for your response. I would like to ask you a couple of more questions -- sorta unrelated.

1. I forgot to mention that am member of local Toasmasters chapter. Would that help as a extra-curricular activity ? I tend to give inspirational speeches on my turns.

2. What do you think about Duke B School ? I know it has been ranked in top 10 consisitently .. but from what I hear it doesnt have the respect what some 'lower' ranked schools like Cornell and Tuck command. Besides, it seems like they have the highest acceptance rate among top 10 and it is not
on the list of a lot of many many applications who otherwise apply to Haas, Wharton etc ? What makes Duke so high ...

No offence to guys at Duke or it's alums. Just curious about this mystical school ....

Thanks,
Raj

[bilu]

Hi David,
Please could you give me some advice about my chances. Thanks alot.

I have a 3.53 gpa from Brandeis University, major politics and minor economics. I had two part time internships while at college (for NGO and Brokerage firm) and also interned every summer .Since graduation I worked in brand management for a US consumer products company in pakistan for 2 years and since march this year I have been working as a project/business development manager (in marketing) for the largest joint venture between india and pakistan to date (a food company)

My GMAT score, on my only try was 710. I have a fair bit of community service; I have been involved with the special olympics here for many years, most recently traveling with the team to ireland for the games; have coached teams, volunteered in many ways and am currently trying to set up an internship program for kids to aid with special olympic programs. I also co-founded a foundation which financially supports law school students (foundation set up after the death of a child hood friend who was a lawyer)
I am also the only brandeis alumni representative in pakistan and also the hon secretary of the Old Millfieldian Association (i attended boarding school in england) which has over 50+ members (currently organizing a dinner between indian and pakistani school alumni)

I am quite sure my recommendations and essays will be very strong and I am interested in working for my family business after mba. One last thing: I am a citizen of both Canada and pakistan (not sure what this implies in terms of my candidacy, if anything)

I am considering all the schools in the top 25, especially schools like northwestern reknown for marketing (and management).

Thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it.

[AdmissionsConsultants]

Originally posted by raj_for_mba

Hi David

Thanks for your response. I would like to ask you a couple of more questions -- sorta unrelated.

1. I forgot to mention that am member of local Toasmasters chapter. Would that help as a extra-curricular activity ? I tend to give inspirational speeches on my turns.

2. What do you think about Duke B School ? I know it has been ranked in top 10 consisitently .. but from what I hear it doesnt have the respect what some 'lower' ranked schools like Cornell and Tuck command. Besides, it seems like they have the highest acceptance rate among top 10 and it is not
on the list of a lot of many many applications who otherwise apply to Haas, Wharton etc ? What makes Duke so high ...

No offence to guys at Duke or it's alums. Just curious about this mystical school ....

Thanks,
Raj

Hi Raj and thanks for your follow-up inquiry.

The Toastmasters experience will help alleviate any concerns about your introversion and communication skills. However, the admissions committees tend to prefer activities that allow applicants to develop leadership and teamwork skills.

I’m not sure what to tell you about Duke. The university has been referred to as the “Harvard of the South” on many occasions. It doesn’t have the Ivy name like Cornell and Dartmouth, but they’ve got some great b-school professors and they’ve established quite a teamwork-friendly culture at Fuqua.

Please bear in mind that all rankings are subjective and you will find people who like Duke more than Cornell, people who like Cornell more than Duke, etc.

Sincerely,

David Petersam
703.242.5885

www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/

Admissions committee experience from the top b-schools

[AdmissionsConsultants]

Originally posted by bilu

Hi David,
Please could you give me some advice about my chances. Thanks alot.

I have a 3.53 gpa from Brandeis University, major politics and minor economics. I had two part time internships while at college (for NGO and Brokerage firm) and also interned every summer .Since graduation I worked in brand management for a US consumer products company in pakistan for 2 years and since march this year I have been working as a project/business development manager (in marketing) for the largest joint venture between india and pakistan to date (a food company)

My GMAT score, on my only try was 710. I have a fair bit of community service; I have been involved with the special olympics here for many years, most recently traveling with the team to ireland for the games; have coached teams, volunteered in many ways and am currently trying to set up an internship program for kids to aid with special olympic programs. I also co-founded a foundation which financially supports law school students (foundation set up after the death of a child hood friend who was a lawyer)
I am also the only brandeis alumni representative in pakistan and also the hon secretary of the Old Millfieldian Association (i attended boarding school in england) which has over 50+ members (currently organizing a dinner between indian and pakistani school alumni)

I am quite sure my recommendations and essays will be very strong and I am interested in working for my family business after mba. One last thing: I am a citizen of both Canada and pakistan (not sure what this implies in terms of my candidacy, if anything)

I am considering all the schools in the top 25, especially schools like northwestern reknown for marketing (and management).

Thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it.

Hi and thanks for your inquiry.

You clear the academic qualifications hurdle and you appear to have a pretty good ‘wow’ factor as a result of your extracurricular activities. I will assume your career is progressing nicely and the work as a project/business development manager is impressive for someone only a few years removed from undergraduate. (No offense, but titles can be misleading and they are often the subject of close scrutiny on an admissions committee.)

If properly handled, the future career goal can be used to distinguish your candidacy and it can make a pretty powerful reason for wanting an MBA. You will need to ensure you don’t come across as privileged however.

Based on what you have stated here, I see no reason why you can’t be a strong applicant at the top 10 schools if you submit well-prepared applications.

Sincerely,

David Petersam
703.242.5885

www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/

Admissions committee experience from the top b-schools

[sranju]

Hi David,
Can you please tell how different are the job prospects after doing Phd in a Management.....am intrested in being a consultant...which option out of MBA and Phd will be better? Is the admission more dificult in Phd programs than in MBA?
Thanx in advance
Shailendra

[AdmissionsConsultants]

Originally posted by sranju

Hi David,
Can you please tell how different are the job prospects after doing Phd in a Management.....am intrested in being a consultant...which option out of MBA and Phd will be better? Is the admission more dificult in Phd programs than in MBA?
Thanx in advance
Shailendra

Hi Shailendra and thanks for your inquiry.

Good question. I know many successful Ph.D. consultants, but they are certainly outnumbered by their MBA counterparts. Unless you are looking to go into a very technical branch of consulting (read: I’m thinking something like litigation support for economic damage cases), I’d probably suggest going for the MBA instead.

Please don’t shoot the messenger for what I am about to say, but there is a feeling among many consultants that Ph.D.s are overqualified and I believe they have a harder time finding jobs in the consulting industry.

Many Ph.D. programs have much lower acceptance rates than the MBA programs. Finally, beware that almost all Ph.D. programs have a “gate”. At some schools, it is an entry gate meaning they let very few people in. At other schools, it is an exit gate meaning they let very few students complete their dissertations. (Transferring is next to impossible.) At some of the top schools such as Chicago, there is both an entry and an exit barrier.

Sincerely,

David Petersam
703.242.5885

www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/

Admissions committee experience from the top b-schools

[sranju]

Hi David,
Thanx for yr reply to my previous mail. Am shortlisting the colleges for applying.Am concentrating on first tier(as per Business week rankings) schools, but want to spread my choices to some second tier colleges too.Was wondering if it is worth applying to a school that has missed the first tier by few ranks? How different will my job prospects be if I graduate from a school say ranked 35th, than from a school ranked 30th?
Thanx

[AdmissionsConsultants]

Originally posted by sranju

Hi David,
Thanx for yr reply to my previous mail. Am shortlisting the colleges for applying.Am concentrating on first tier(as per Business week rankings) schools, but want to spread my choices to some second tier colleges too.Was wondering if it is worth applying to a school that has missed the first tier by few ranks? How different will my job prospects be if I graduate from a school say ranked 35th, than from a school ranked 30th?
Thanx

Hi Sranju and thanks for your follow-up inquiry.

I think you are putting way too much weight on the rankings if you are fretting about the employment differences between a school ranked 30 and one ranked 35. Pick the best schools for you.

Sincerely,

David Petersam
703.242.5885

www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/

Admissions committee experience from the top b-schools

[farooqbh]

Hi David,

I have a few questions for you and would appreciate your response.

I am from India with a bachelors degree in civil engineering. GPA of 3.5.
I have 7 years (2 yrs in India and 5 in USA) of work experience in IT field and have grown in position in all these 7 years.

I havent done much that I can boast of myself with regards to community service "officially"...though I did volunteer quite a bit off the record.

I am taking GMAT in 3rd week of December and is expecting a 700+.

I would like to get into Michigan-Ann Arbor Evening MBA program.
What do you think will be my chances there. I currently hold permanent resident (Princeton Review) status.

Do I still fall under the tough competitive pool of Indians applying or having a Princeton Review will take me out of that pool.

Thanks for your help in advance

Hussain