Mr. M7 Aspirant

Well, a 760 GMAT makes people stand up straight. Add in a Big Four job, which is much harder to get outside the U.S., and you are sitting pretty. The fact that you are not another male Indian engineer is also in your favor. And yes, your poet side is very well represented by your extras, including your novel (I wonder what it’s about), and your involvement in a theater group. The only thing holding you back from HSW is your undergraduate institution which as you point out is not a feeder school. It’s important to perhaps explain why something like that matters to admission officials. It’s largely because you are competing in separate pools with other Big 4 people, bankers, product managers, consultants and many of your competitors will check every box. They have your numbers, job experience and extras as well as a degree from IIT or an Ivy League or a near Ivy or a public Ivy. When schools turn down eight of every ten applicants, they are often making decisions on subtle differences. All that said, your first choice is Chicago and I think they would go for this, given your jumbo GMAT (30 points over the Booth class average), your superb GPA 3.79 vs. the 3.6 class average), your work experience (at a Big Four outside the U.S.) and your extras (animal rights involvement plus poet stuff) which really take you out of the pile. Booth currently accepts 22.5% of its applicants. Your odds are twice as good as that.

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. Congratulations on a very good academic record and also you have gained respect from me based on your work to promote veganism. It shows that you have a passion for something bigger than yourself. You have a very interesting profile therefore but your chances can improve dramatically if you can execute well on the following 1) explaining the “why now”. You are on younger side and seem to be doing interesting work in deal advisory team. So Booth would be interested in knowing why you see need for an MBA now and not a year (or two) later. It will be incumbent on you to show that you have learnt a lot in 3 years and have a very clear idea on what you want to do next and why. 2) Ensure you show some big wins at work. Have your recommenders mention how you took initiative and showed leadership that belied your age. 3) Show an international orientation ie ability to work with people who come from a background very different than yours. 4) Why Booth answer – you are in a minority of applicants on MBA Watch in a way that you are only targeting one school. And am wondering why Booth is that school considering its average experience of incoming class is 5 years and average age is 28. Booth generally gets a slightly older cohort so am wondering why is the school your first and seemingly only choice. Good luck

Hello Mr. M7 Aspirant! Thanks for posting. Krista Nannery from mbaMission here.
If your goal is the M7, my advice to you is to try this year and see what happens but if you’re not successful, wait until you have four years of work experience under your belt. B-schools consider things like “What type of value can this candidate add to the classroom?” And while certainly not impossible to add value at any age, the sheer competitiveness of this process — especially given your background — means that they may feel that you have more to offer in a few years.
In the meantime, one thing I’d suggest focusing on is gaining international experience. This doesn’t have to be traveling all over the world, but when you have opportunities to work with international teams, go for it. I find that my clients from India who have this sort of international exposure tend to do a little better in this process.
Now, if you’re telling me you MUST get your MBA ASAP, my recommendation would be to add one or two schools outside the M7 to your list. Your stats and profile will be rarer there. I’m thinking schools like Tepper, UNC, Cornell, and Stern.
I hope that helps!
Krista