Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out and it sounds like you have an impressive background--congrats on everything you've achieved to date! At first glance I have two questions about your profile, which are 1) how long were you at each of the roles you mentioned above (startup and consulting) and why did you leave?, and 2) what are you hoping to gain from a MSBA program? The first will give me a better sense of your professional background as it looks like you've changed roles somewhat frequently in ~3-4 years. The second is both to advise on how strong your profile is, but also to help point you toward schools that would be a good fit. Some programs will be more quantitative than others, some have more of an emphasis on marketing, databases, etc. etc. Based on the information I do have, I'd say you're thinking about things more or less in the right way--Questrom would be more of a "good chance" as you're right at their median GRE quant score.

Hope that helps and feel free to reach out with additional info!

Best,
Karen

Hello Karen,

Thank you very much for reviewing my profile. Please find below the additional information:

1) I did not change roles throughout the span of my career. It was just the notation (Research Analyst in the Startup v/s Business Analyst at the major firm) used by the companies. My job role remained same and I was attached to the same domain as well for the full duration of my professional tenure. Also, both the start-up and the 'close-to' billion dollar firms were into consulting.

My job role demands of me to find sizeable amounts of raw data, crunch the numbers and then produce solutions to clients in the form of a report which will include the final data points arrived after working on the aforementioned crude data.

I first joined the start-up as an associate analyst and after 9 months, got called up by the 'big-firm' and they offered me a promotion (as a 'Business Analyst') as I did pretty well in the interview and also had some cross-domain experience. But only after getting into the major club did I realize that the work there was pretty monotonous. Data was old and already accumulated. I had to just re-work or update the older data (pretty different from what it was described in the initial Job Description when they reached out to me) and I rarely had new data to play with. So after 9 months again I reverted back to the earlier start-up, joined as a Research Analyst, (with reference to the aforementioned convention) and was promoted to the role of a 'Senior Research Analyst' during my yearly appraisal. It was during my second stint with the start-up that I received the accolades mentioned in the previous post.

Lastly, I stopped working since July 2020 as I contracted Bronchitis twice and was under heavy medication which made me quite weak and almost restricted to the bed. Just a few weeks after my recovery, tragedy struck again and we are in a state of bereavement following the loss of our beloved uncle.

2) As for your second question, I want to pursue an MSBA degree because I feel it compliments my existing work experience. Throughout the nature of my job, I mostly used primitive tools such as Excel and SPSS. I have always loved analyzing chunks of data and MSBA will equip me with the right and latest tools to handle and present the data more efficiently. Subsequently I can build my career as a full fledged consultant in some of the big guns in the United States.
As per your insight, I would not prefer a school which would emphasize on Marketing. But I think I would have the choice of selecting electives that would entice me in most colleges. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hope I have answered your questions. Additionally, please find below a few additional queries that popped up in my mind:

1) Since I am currently not associated with any company, will that affect my chance of admission?
2) Apart from Questrom, What would be my chances in schools like Foster or Carey? I deem them to be my safer bets and my GRE score is higher than their average. (Again, correct me if I am wrong)

Thanks and Regards,
Anirudh.

Hi Anirudh,

Got it--that's helpful context! It will be important in your applications to make those transitions clear so the ad coms can follow your career progression (by multiple roles what I meant was multiple companies). I'm really sorry to hear about your uncle--it sounds like this was a tough year for your family. Given the general instability I think schools are more forgiving of gaps on resumes than they have been in the past, so I wouldn't worry too much about that, although that's also why applications are up across the board so it might be a bit of a wash.

All schools do offer different electives you can choose from, but different schools have different strengths so I'd encourage you to really look at the curriculum to make sure it will take you were you want to go (E.g. some, like UConn, have strong database/ IT program management components that others don't offer). For you it sounds like that is consulting, so check out job placement reports and see if you'd be happy working at the places grads typically end up.

Finally, I think you do have good chances at Carey and Foster--you're right to think about where your GRE score is vs. the average as that's really the best benchmark.

Best of luck and feel free to reach out if you think Admissionado could help with some of these apps!

Karen

Hi Karen,

Really appreciate your prompt response in clearing my queries. As advised by you, I will again have a look at the curriculum of my target colleges and also the job placement reports. Also, will definitely reach out to you on the given e-mail if I need more help regarding various aspects of my applications. My sincere thanks to you again.

Regards,
Anirudh.