Mr. Indian Marketeer

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. Lots to like in your profile. Most of all I like your extra curricular activities and how you link your passion with your goals. Also like the career progression you have shown and am guessing you have had experiences with start ups at various stages of their evolution – from bootstrapped companies to VC backed well funded (and highly valued) companies. This would make you a very attractive profile for both MBA programs and for potential recruiters. Also your academics are solid and your GMAT should mitigate any questions re the GPA (which seems a bit low for an IIT ). So far so good. A few aspects that would need to explain / mitigate to make a top 10 admit even more probable are 1) Your advanced age. Choose programs which are more accommodating of over 30 candidates. So a Kellogg 1Y program may work better than 2Y for example and Booth may take a chance on you vs say a GSB where most candidates from India tend to be younger. 2) Explain the need for a second Masters. By your definition am guessing you went to MICA. Technically that is not a MBA program but both GSB and Haas will look at this a lot more closely than others on your list. Which is why I think you have chosen well as Kellogg best aligns with your profile and your goals. Execute well and you are definitely in play. Good luck

Hi Mr. Indian Marketeer,
This is Debbie Choy, Senior Consultant at mbaMission. Congratulations on your T10 and T15 admits with scholarships! I am not surprised that you have had success with the b-school application process. For a marketeer, Kellogg is of course a top program. Your academics and work records are impressive, and I also like that your personal interests mesh nicely with your future career interests in sports and fitness tech firms. You had also mentioned being open to other tech companies like FAANG, Slack, Zoom, etc. As you can imagine, these companies receive a lot of mentions in applicant essays. Given your specific personal interest in sports/fitness, why not make that the focus for you? It would help you to differentiate yourself from the crowd. Overall, I think you have an above average shot at Kellogg (whose average acceptance rate ranges from 20-21%). Wishing you all the best in your application journey!

Hi Mr. Indian Marketer, This is Donna Bauman with Stratus Admissions weighing in on your profile. I love that you want to combine your fitness interest with product management. I think you have some great volunteer and leadership experience as well. Your stats are solid so I see you as a candidate who would get full consideration on all the programs on your list and a lot of your success will come down to how well you articulate your story. I really encourage you to take advantage of the online resources at all these programs so that you can be as specific as possible about what interests you in each program. For Kellogg I could see you looking at the MMM program as grads from that program are a favorite with FAANG recruiters. I could also see you being very interesting to Sloan and Booth. Look at the Kilts Center for Marketing at Booth to get a better sense of some of the resources in product management there. I think the toughest one on the list—no surprise—is GSB but again if you can tell a really compelling story about your background and experience I can see you breaking through anywhere. I’d be glad to talk further if you like. Certainly at home fitness is going to be a great area for growth in light of covid. I’d be glad to talk further if you want to reach out for a free consult.