MBA Handicapping: Indian Applicants NOT From IIT

Handicapping your MBA odds is always tricky business because there are a lot of unknowns about every candidate. Yet the chances of an elite MBA admission for Raunak, a 25-year-old analyst in New Delhi seem pretty darn good. Since graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology in Jalandhar, he landed a job in the R&D department with Honda Cars India. After a year and one-half, he engineered a career switch to consulting, landing a plum job with ZS Associates in India.

Work experience in both manufacturing and consulting helps to take him out of the most overpopulated part of the elite MBA applicant pool and will help him differentiate himself from the thousands of male Indian software engineers who apply to business schools every year

But no MBA candidate for a highly selective business school is perfect, of course. Raunak will still be competing against others with higher GPAs from the elite Indian Institutes of Technology with higher standardized test scores as well. His GPA is a bit on the low side, a 7.41 out of 10. And while his GRE score of 326 is pretty much on the mark for the schools he is targeting, it may be below other male Indian engineers. One compensating factor: he did place in the top 0.5 percentile of some 222,000 students who took the country’s Common Admission Test in 2022.

In this episode of Friday’s with Sandy, HBSGuru.com founder Sandy Kreisberg assesses his chances at INSEAD, London Business School, Chicago Booth and Northwestern Kellogg. Kreisberg and P&Q Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne provide advice on both his application strategy and the elements of his MBA application.

If you would like to participate in a future Fridays With Sandy webinar, you can contact Sandy and Poets&Quants Founder John A. Byrne here.

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BLOWING AN HBS INTERVIEW: SANDY POINTS OUT SEVERAL WAYS IT CAN HAPPEN

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THIS SUPERSTAR APPLICANT NEEDS TO POLISH HIS STORY

IF THIS DING, DING, DING RE-APPLICANT CAN GET AN 80/80 GRE, HE IS GOLD 

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MOCK INTERVIEW: HOW TO ANSWER THE MOST COMMON MBA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

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30-YEAR-OLD, AFRO-AMERICAN, NAIROBI-BASED, 5 JOBS — SANDY SAYS TOP 10 CAN HAPPEN

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MINORITY CANDIDATE, 550 GMAT, WAIT LIST AT MIT — ADVICE ON SEVERAL FRONTS 

APPLYING FROM MYANMAR WITH A 3.26 FROM San JOSE STATE

BIG 4 CONSULTANT: 33, 2.9 PGA….KEEP READING\]\

HBS WITH A 2.9 & AN INDIAN MALE? WHY THIS GUY COULD BE THE ONE  

DOA? DOES THIS TED TALK SUPERSTAR SOUND SCRIPTED?

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SURGEON JOINS FAMILY BUSINESS — BE PREPARED TO EXPLAIN WHY

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EGYPTIAN VC GUY — GREAT START FOR H/S/W . . . AND THERE IS MORE

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SANDY TRIES TO FLUSTER THIS SUPER START 3.9/770 CHINESE PR WOMAN WHILE JOHN GOES GA-GA

H/S/W ADMIT TIPS FOR FINANCIAL GUYS 

2+2 SUPER APPLICANT — CAN HE GET AROUND A LOW GRE

H/S/W TIPS FROM THIS DESAI AT EXXONMOBIL 

SANDY’S TOUGH LOVE FOR A SUPER STAR WITH A 650 GMAT

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HOW DO ACCENTURE CONSULTANTS GET INTO WHARTON?

APPLYING FOR HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL’S 2+2 FROM ABROAD

HBS WITH A 3.4 & A 770? WHARTON?