Mr. Winning Team

Hi there! It’s Stephanie Horn, Master Consultant with the MBA Exchange and recent Poets and Quants “Top 10 Admissions Consultants”. Mr. Winning Team, you have a lot of things in your profile that I like. Your engineering degree from an IIT, your strong grades and test scores, and your job titles and length of work experience are all positives. However, as you know, as an engineer from South East Asia, you are in one of the most heavily competitive cohorts for top-tier schools. It will be crucial that you find a way to stand out from the pack with clear, compelling essays, letters of recommendation, and resume that showcase your leadership style. For a small school like Tuck, your ability to fit with the campus culture is also key. Make sure you do your research, finding students and alumni to talk to, and that your application reflects your deep knowledge of Tuck’s culture. It’s not enough to love Tuck — everybody loves Tuck — you need to show that you belong there. Darden, Anderson and Ross are great alternatives. Other schools that I recommend that also have a team-based, inclusive culture include Kellogg, Duke, and Cornell.

Hi Mr. Winning Team! Kate Richardson, Senior Admissions Consultant here. From your candidate name, I can see why you’re drawn to Tuck and its team-based culture. Many MBAs are looking to get into PM roles post-MBA, so your experience in that role already could be helpful to your future classmates. It also means you have to make a strong case for why you need an MBA, since you’re not planning to make a functional career switch. For instance, I’ve worked with PMs who want to stay in the function but get access to those roles at larger, more global companies. Or others already have a solid foundation of technical skills but want to use the MBA to develop their softer skills. Make sure you’ve deeply considered your specific goals for the MBA and how you want to develop during the program. Your startup experience is also very interesting, and I’d want to dig more into what inspired that, what you learned from the experience, etc. That should help differentiate your experience within a very competitive pool for Indian applicants (many of whom also have IIT degrees and top GMAT scores). Good luck!

Hi Mr. Winning team! Melisa from Stratus Admissions here. Based on what you included in your profile, you have put together a nice package in terms of making yourself competitive – GPA, GMAT, work experience – which gives you a good platform. And your challenge will be making your application stand out in a highly competitive pool. Product management in big tech is also a popular post-MBA goal these days. What unique stories can you tell in your essays? How can you contribute back to your class through your past experiences – and try and be specific. What can you get involved with at Tuck that will help you grow in product management and also contribute back to the school. So much learning in an MBA program is experiential – and based on your interest in case based classes, this fits your learning approach. The more you know about each program, the more you can demonstrate how you can contribute uniquely. I think you will have similar chances at Ross and Anderson, with slightly higher chances at Darden. Best of luck!