Pravin's Journey to Columbia Business School (Ivy League, US News Rank #6) with less than 99th percentile GMAT

Pravin destroyed the myth that Indian applicants need the mythical 99^th percentile on GMAT to get a top school admit; he put together an impressive MBA application and secured admit to a Ivy League School. Read his story below.

Pravin G

GMAT: 720

Education: B.Tech (Chemical Engg.), IIT MADRAS, GPA: 7.8/10 

Work Experience: 8 years, leading commodities trading firm 

Post MBA Industry of Interest: Buy-side, Financial services Consulting

Admit: Columbia Business School 

Why a global MBA?

I worked as a commodities trader for 8 years for a leading MNC trading firm. With 3 promotions in 8 years, I was doing quite well career-wise and financially. But, I felt that my growth was saturated in terms of professional development. I believed that I should widen my scope and decided that Global MBA was the best option to pursue as it opens the doors for many different opportunities. So, I decided to embark on this road in May 2018 and started my MBA application process.

Challenges/Doubts I had

The main challenge was that I had very less time for the round 1 application deadline. I had to take my GMAT, pick schools and submit the application in a period of 3-4 months. Although I heard everyone say that I couldn’t secure an admission because of less time, and because I had 8 years’ experience (much above the 4-5 years average experience), I believed in myself and went ahead with the process. Here, I approached Sumeet Verlekar, a Berkeley MBA alumnus for help throughout my application process. He helped me turn my weaknesses into strengths. 

Acing the GMAT

It is very important to identify what your strengths and weaknesses are in the first place. I encourage everyone to take an official mock GMAT once to see where you stand for yourself. Analyze what you are strong in and see what can be done to maximize your score in your strong topics. Once you have done that, focus on your weakness and see if you need some coaching in that particular area. I was very strong in Quant, but I was a bit weak in the verbal section. I had to dig deeper to see which particular area in Verbal is my main hurdle. After realizing that SC was my weakest point, I used a few popular SC prep courses to improve.

Once you have done your homework with the preparation, I would advise everyone to take as many mock GMATs as possible. Don’t just take the mocks and leave it there. It is very very important to analyze your mistakes and not to repeat them, come the actual GMAT. When you are giving mocks, take the full exams in a single sitting just like the actual GMAT. Train yourself to sit for the entire length of the exam. And, finally don’t ignore IR and the essay sections.

GMAT Test Day

On the day of the test, be calm and approach the exam as if it is one more mock. Don’t take unnecessary pressure. And, manage the time wisely. Don’t get stuck on a single question for so long. The exam is designed in such a way that one mistake here and there will not hurt your final score by a lot. So, it is always better to answer something and move on rather than spending 7-8 minutes on a question.

Also, beware that you need to answer all the questions within the stipulated time. The score will drop dramatically if you do not answer all the questions. So, the key factor on the day of the exam is time management.

I approached it as any other mock exam. I didn’t take any pressure and I felt that worked out in my favor.

MBA Application Process – My Experience

I had my GMAT score ready in about 45 days. After that, the main challenge was to pick the schools. Sumeet garnered all his experience and helped me choose schools which fit my profile and ambitions well. Without his advice on this, I wouldn’t have chosen the schools that I did.

Once that’s done, it is all about the applications. To get out the genuine and most efficient applications, give a day or 2 for yourself to think through your life from childhood. While you are doing that, think about why you have done something the way you have done it. Try to pen down all your thoughts. Don’t be surprised, but my first draft was 80 pages with my past stories. That’s the extent of detail I am talking about. After multiple iterations, try to get 5-6 solid stories in STAR format. This format will help you lay out the essays in a very structured way. Sumeet grilled me a lot and help me convey a strong and authentic purpose behind pursuing MBA and I’m very thankful to him for getting these hidden stories out. They were helpful in my essays as well as my interview.

I applied to Columbia Business School. I did a lot of iterations of essays with Sumeet and finally had the ready-to-go versions ready in about 40 days.

Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School is in New York. It is an Ivy League School and constantly in top 6 every year. There are 3 main reasons why applied to CBS.

1)      Being in New York, it gives me an unbelievable access to the professionals from different industries and different functional roles. I can go and meet any one of them in a heartbeat. That is a great incentive to have if you are in a Business School

2)      CBS has world renowned Value Investing program – As my background was in trading and I wanted to pursue buy-side opportunities post MBA, this was a no-brainer.

3)      The J-term program of Columbia offers you an unmatchable opportunity of meeting diverse people. As many as 68 countries are represented in my current batch of 220. Just imagine the diversity and the quality of the class room experience.

Given the above reasons, I applied to Columbia Business School and secured an admit.

Advice for future applicants

Be genuine. Don’t worry too much about anything. Do what your heart says. Don’t listen to the pessimists around you. GMAT/GRE scores matter but they are not everything. The score is just one piece of the puzzle. It is all about the holistic profile and well-balanced application. Take your time to craft out the application beautifully in terms of content. Be concise and to the point. I would urge you guys to take help of someone like Sumeet, who can streamline your thoughts in a structured way.

For more tips on this or other topics or to get regular updates on new articles, write to me:

sumeet [underscore] verlekar [at the rate] berkeley [dot] edu

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A 2nd Global MBA or Masters: A growing reality for many IIM and premier Indian MBA graduates

I have been a participant in this journey towards a global MBA post having an MBA from a premier Indian school. Upon joining the Berkeley Haas MBA program, I realized that many of my IIM and other premier Indian MBA peers were taking the same step. Click here to read my story. 

Having worked in Berkeley MBA admissions as an alumni interviewer since 2009, I’ve witnessed an increasing number of Indian MBAs from premier Indian schools such as the IIMs, JBIMS, FMS etc. pursuing a 2^nd global MBA. Now you may say – “Hold On. Don’t these schools attract the cream of India’s emerging managerial talent? Aren’t they supposed to set you up for success for life?” Then why this trend?

A case in point is that of Indra Nooyi, an IIM Calcutta grad who pursued masters from Yale and then went on to become the global chairperson for PepsiCo. Majority of peers in my ivy plus schools network agree that the Yale degree accelerated her ascension to the global CEO role. Having spoken to these individuals and having subsequently helped many elite Indian MBA grads make the 2^nd MBA journey, I have summarized below the common reasons behind this trend of going for a 2^nd global MBA.

-          Accelerate journey towards a global career: Global schools provide job opportunities in global HQs and it’s well known that operating out of global HQs allows you to be in consideration for roles that colleagues in affiliate countries don’t have access to. In a global organization that I worked for in beginning of my career, only the top 2 % of employees (the listers) were considered for global postings and that too after spending a significant amount of time ‘proving their worth’ in the affiliate country. Broadly this means less than 5% of your peers from IIMs and other premier schools will make it global – the rest will remain local. A global 2^nd MBA is a great way to accelerate your career globally because it gets you on the global career track vs. the local (India) career track. You can reach your desired career position earlier and enjoy the perks that come with it.

-          Global Network & Acceptability: Let’s face it; IIM may be a recognizable brand name in India but not so in the USA, EU or even APAC. Hence, if you want to global, your IIM degree will only help you so much. However, a Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley or MIT are global brands with worldwide acceptability. What’s more, these schools have a global network and while the common person on the street may not know these schools, the people who are the real decision makers on careers in these respective countries know and value these schools. Hence the journey from global back to your home country and vice-versa is always possible and easier due to this global network. Did you know that super elite schools have alumni network in over 175 countries? That’s nearly the same as the number of countries participating in the Olympic Games.

-          Grow as a person: In addition to accelerating your career, living abroad in a developed country can drive your growth as a person. By ‘living’ in these countries, everyday one gets exposed to the cultural and professional nuances that set you up to succeed in a global workplace.

-          Better lifestyle: Places where one can actually ‘drive’ a car vs. getting stuck in jams every day exist. People even ride bicycles to work and transit time from home to office is less than 30 minutes in many cases. Besides infrastructure, green spaces, parks for kids along with school facilities for overall development vs. academic focus only are other reasons why many pursue a 2^nd global MBA in search for a better lifestyle.

-          Funding: Super elite school networks have access to funding – angels, VCs, PEs, they’re all part of it. This network can be leveraged for funding your new business idea and get authentic advice. More so, they’ll share how the idea can be taken global at the right time.

So if you’re thinking of getting a 2^nd global MBA, you’re not alone. Go ahead and take the next step. 

For more tips on this or other topics or to get regular updates on new articles, write to me:

sumeet [underscore] verlekar [at the rate] berkeley [dot] edu

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How Indian applicants can overcome low GMAT or GRE test scores to get top school admits - Part 2 | Community or Social Work

This article is 2^nd part of an article series. You may find it useful to read the previous article to get an overall understanding.

If you’re considering education abroad, chances are that you’ve been told that foreign universities value community or social work. This is generally true since it gives them an additional dimension of your personality. I've seen many Indian applicants randomly choose their social volunteering areas. The real question is what community or social work is relevant to YOU? 

Read tips below:

-    Choose areas of social work where you can leverage your professional skills: Let’s say you’re a finance or marketing professional and are considering volunteering to teach underprivileged children. While the volunteering to teach will definitely help, you may find that the NGO will benefit more if you help them organize their cash flows (finance) or develop a communication campaign (marketing). Here, you are using your professional skills to do good. Your professional  skills and experiences are core to your story in school application – showcasing them in a completely different area (like helping NGOs) gives a much better dimension about you to the adcom instead of just saying, “I volunteered to help school children”.

-    Align community work to your goals: Let’s say you want to be an investment banker. I've guided past IB interested applicants to volunteer for various social projects to showcase their IB skills. Two of such many initiatives possible are given below for illustration –

§  Analyzing sources of funds for the NGO and detecting trends/seasonality (analytical skills)

§  Working with the NGO board of directors and helping them make a pitch presentation to secure funding (pitching and presentation skills) etc.

-   Aim for longevity in your social work: Hundreds of times, I’ve seen that social work begins a few months before application deadline. This is a red flag and such initiatives will almost surely not add value to your application. It’s important that you look at areas in community work that you are truly passionate about and have worked at it in the past.

There are many other things one should know about community work besides the above and the applicant should plan such initiatives well to make maximum impact through his/her application. A thorough review of an individual profile is required to guide the correct volunteering/social work initiative. 

For more tips on this or other topics or to get regular updates on new articles, write to me:

sumeet [underscore] verlekar [at the rate] berkeley [dot] edu

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- Please comment so that I can understand what you liked and how I can improve this/such posts even further