Ms. Insightful Panda

Hi Insightful Panda, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. For various reasons am glad to see that INSEAD is your first choice. You have a great academic background with a top 10% from SRCC. And your extra curricular activities are also very impressive. You seem like someone INSEAD will want to have in class basis your personality traits that shine through your background. My only concern is your work experience. INSEAD sees a lot of pre MBA consultants applying to the program and ZS is a big feeder of this trend. So your competition will be fierce from within this cohort and you will have to execute really well to stand out. Therefore your work experience essays and also your professional recommendations will be need to exemplary to stand among even the ZS folks applying to school this year. And your GMAT is also a bit under par for Indian applicants to INSEAD. So its even more important that rest of the application has a lot of “spikes” . Good luck.

Hi Ms. Insightful Panda! This is Kate Richardson, Senior Admissions Consultant, weighing in on your profile. You’ve got an excellent academic background, schools should know the reputation of your university and you’ve got very strong marks. I wish your GMAT was just a bit higher (more so for the schools like CBS and Kellogg on your list), but for INSEAD, if you’re above the 70th percentile for both Quant & Verbal, and your IR is 6 or higher then you should be in great shape. ZS has a great reputation, and with your promotion and healthcare expertise, I think you’ll be a great MBB candidate. If you pursue the FMCG or Tech route, I do wonder about how you’ll connect that to your past experience, so do some more thinking there if you pursue that, or maybe that’s more of a backup goal. I also really love that you’ve demonstrated your curiosity, whether through taking courses or your musical/dance interests – definitely share those achievements in your applications. The travel / international experience will of course be important to emphasize for INSEAD, and all your other schools too. Good luck!

Hi Ms. Insightful Panda, This is Donna Bauman, Senior MBA Admissions counselor from Stratus Admissions. You have some great work experience that will help you in your MBA applications. For INSEAD I like your international experience and exposure. You already have consulting experience so it is just pivoting to consulting for tech if you choose that. What in your background inspires you to do this? You seem to have some excellent healthcare experience you are leaving on the table if you don’t pursue that. I encourage you to do some work thinking about your post MBA career goals and how you can best leverage your past experience to help you make this transition. The GMAT is not going to help with some of the US programs but may be enough for the others. Great to see the promotion in your work—have your recommenders highlight how you have made worthy contributions. There is plenty of time now to do some good introspection around why you want the MBA and what skills you need to gain—and I’d be happy to share more about that if you want to reach out for a consult. Best wishes on your MBA plans.