Mr. Tesla Manager

With your background, credentials and accomplishments, you should be able to stroll into INSEAD. Seriously. In fact, I would think you really don’t need an MBA degree to land a job at a global consulting firm. You can get there direct from your current position. Nonetheless, given your engineering background, I can see the benefit of an MBA education in all the business basics and then some. An MBA will help you in your ultimate goal to have a leadership role in an SME or startup. The only reason you would get rejected from INSEAD is if you poorly execute on the application (which seems highly unlikely to be given the clear, concise and convincing profile you’ve written here) or you come off as a robot in person who will not do well in an interview (which I also doubt is the case). I am so thoroughly convinced that INSEAD will admit you that I wonder if you should also be applying to Harvard and Stanford. You might consider those two options in addition to Wharton.

Hi Mr. Tesla Manager! This is Talon Rindels, Sr. Admissions Consultant at The MBA Exchange. There’s a ton to like about your profile and I think you have a great shot at getting into INSEAD! Clearly you are extremely ambitious and put a lot of energy into the development of others, a very noble thing to do and something that will demonstrate to AdCom that you’ll likely give back to their community as well. You also have two huge names on your resume (US Army and Tesla) and impressive achievements with both of them, including super quick promotions and sponsored grad studies – that’ll go a long way for you. That said, I’d rank your chances at Wharton much lower (~10%) due to your GMAT score falling over 10 points lower than their average and the highly competitive pool you are up against as an Indian applicant at a top US business school. If you want to get into Wharton, I highly suggest retaking the GMAT. And, keep in mind that while you are +11 Points higher than INSEAD’s average, they look very close at the Quant and Verbal score specifically, so hopefully each of those are in the 75th percentile or higher. Lastly, I’d suggest you spend some quality time crafting your post-MBA plans. The connectivity to your past isn’t totally clear in your profile as written here, so I highly suggest some strong introspection and articulation of what past experiences are driving your desire for you long term goal. It’s imperative that there’s a clear link and it comes across as genuine. If you can do that, I’d say you are in at INSEAD and if you do that plus get your GMAT score up, you have a solid shot at Wharton too. Best of luck to you and thank you for your service!

Hi, Mr. Tesla Manager, this is Julie-Anne Heafey of mbaMission. You’ve got a fascinating background, with tremendous leadership experiences and strong accomplishments, and I don’t doubt that you’ll have a strong chance at INSEAD (and Wharton too, potentially). For an average male candidate from an Indian undergraduate institution, yes, your GMAT is low, so I agree the test is worth a retake, but if it doesn’t improve, Wharton is still definitely worth a shot with your unique background. My main questions are around your goals – can you be more specific about what you want to do (leading what kind of SME or startup and what kind of executive) and why INSEAD/Wharton would be the right place to prepare you? Both are excellent programs with strong pipelines into consulting, but would give you pretty different MBA experiences, so make sure you’re clear with them about why each program is a match. Best of luck!

Hi Mr. Tesla Manager, Melisa here from Stratus Admissions. I have to say I am not sure I have seen a foreign national with US Army experience – this is definitely a uniqueness you should bring out in your application. I’d love to know more about your story and the path that brought you from India to US Army to Tesla. If you haven’t already, make sure you check out MBA veterans – they have a lot of great resources. I think you will be a very attractive candidate at INSEAD. Wharton will be more challenging with your GMAT – this is where your story can help set you apart. Both schools will want to see how you have been active in your community as a leader – I would like to hear more about your mentorship and reserve experience. Where you will want to spend some time is connecting the dots to consulting for your post-MBA goal. Why consulting – and do you want to do ops/supply chain consulting? Or more general strategy consulting. Depending upon where you want to end up geographically post-MBA you might want to consider LBS, Columbia or Darden – all with strong pipelines into consulting.