Carnegie Mellon / Tepper - 06-12-2020

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June 12, 2020 1:01pm ET

Applying: Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson, UNC Kenan-Flagler, USC / Marshall

Intake Year: 2021

Pre-MBA Career: Pharma/biotech and event management(family business)

Post-MBA Target Industry: Undecided

GRE: 319

GPA: 7.4

Years of Work Experience: 4

Location: India

Post MBA Location: USA

Notes:

Worked for 2.5 years at a top pharma company as a scientist in R&D-Got 1 promotion and was due for another just before quitting. However had to return home and manage the family business (Event management company focussed predominantly on weddings) due to personal reasons. Been at it for 1.5 years and now i have the freedom once again to pursue whatever i want. Working as a scientist made me understand the technical aspects and the massive amount of research that is required for the launch of a single product in the pharma world . The event management business on the other hand thought me something totally different in terms of managing more than 100 contract labourers while maintaining the logistics and operations to a deliver a single Indian wedding (which usually has around 2000 guests and happens for 3 days).

Consistent volunteer activities as well as playing organised sport at school, college and corporate level.

Felt like this is the time to get a better understanding about the business world and get an international experience with both my education and also work eventually. Dont have a specific post mba goal though.

Also I am not sure how I can link the 2 vastly different fields i have been a a part of while presenting my app to the adcom. Any inputs would be great

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Show Comments (7) Last: July 7, 2020

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Three things stand out. Lack of goals: this is important, you really need to develop a focus, before starting your applications. This combines with the two very different experiences. It's almost random. But I'm sure you've developed technical skills from your first career, management skills from your second. So what type of work, that interests you, combines them both? You should also consider retaking the GRE. Your current score is below average for top programs. (0)

anon13853 Likes Earned: 5 Hey OP here. Sorry for the late response. I am thinking of getting into biotech/pharma consulting because I feel thats an area where I can utilise both the skill sets I have acquired from my previous experiences.What do you guys think? The obvious target company would be LEK consulting but I am very much open to wide range of them. Also I know consulting firms look into your GRE scores and things like that but I don't think at this moment I would be able to increase my scores.Is there any other ways to offset the 319 score? like some courses online? If not for consulting I think marketing in the same field is another option that would help me achieve my long term goals. And in the long term definitely looking to start my own CRO (contract research organisations) venture back in India. I feel like getting to work in consulting in the healthcare/biotech/pharma field would make me get a more stable idea about what kind of CRO. At the moment I am thinking along the lines of Sequencing or Chromatographic methods because from my previous R&D experiences, I have come to realise that these tasks specifically from drug discovery to production are time consuming and that a lot of pharma companies would rather source out such an operation as opposed to do it internally in order to focus on their more significant goals/target. So I would think this is would be both opportunistic from a business POV and will also be something that adds value to the community . Do let me know what you guys think. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Why will you not be able to increase your GRE score? I’d really encourage you to try to do that, it’s really going to hurt you with these programs. You also need to get in during the first rounds. If you’re still passionate about pharmaceutical and science, then those goals do sound interesting and plausible, for sure. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/07/episode-110-wire-taps-what-are-your-career-goals/ (0)

anon13853 Likes Earned: 5 Hey guys, thanks for featuring my candidacy on the episode of wire taps. I hear you guys loud and clear and Ive realised that I must take another shot at the GRE for sure (and i shall- will set a date for late august or early september). Also since you guys mentioned about how the pandemic situation would be affecting the business, thought i will address it as well- COVID has definitely had an impact on the business but the weddings are still happening albeit on a smaller scale. Its new and different because instead of doing a selective number of large scale events, we are now doing several small scale ones. Poses a whole new challenge for sure. However my plan was always to get an MBA and work in something i am passionate about (pharmaceutical and science). Regarding the schools - my selection was based on a number of factors including how many of these schools send their grads into the pharma/healthcare field. All the ones i chose do send more than 5% into healthcare (kellogg, duke,UNC for obvious reasons like you guys stated). I also did not select schools like darden for example because I know their method of teaching involves close to 70% by case study method and felt inclined towards a more holistic approach keeping case studies somewhere at 50% maximum. So i basically chose based on what would fit best for me. (1)

anon13853 Likes Earned: 5 But still a lot more to do and will keep in mind all the points you mentioned. Thanks again and will continue to update/post here. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Great! And yes, keep us updated. Good luck with the GRE retake. (0)