Berkeley / Haas - 06-01-2025 | Clear Admit ApplyWire

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June 1, 2025 2:33am ET

Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Cambridge / Judge, Indian School of Business, London Business School, Oxford / Saïd, Stanford GSB, UVA / Darden, Yale SOM

Intake Year: 2026

Pre-MBA Career: Public Sector

Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Entrepreneurship Companies: Accenture , AT Kearney , Bain , BCG , Deloitte , Ernst & Young , PWC

GMAT: 740

GPA: 66

Years of Work Experience: 5

Notes:

GMAT Focus 685 score (Secured in September 2024)

Rejected by IIMA PGPX, ISB, and Kellogg this year.

Targeting a mix of US, UK, and European schools, and Singapore may be.

Here's my profile:

1. Indian, Male, 29 yrs. old. Graduated with a Bachelors in Technology (Computer Science & Engineering) in 2017 from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, India (GPA: 66/100, First Division)

Post my B.Tech, I spent a year working in Central India with tribals and set-up a digital citizen service delivery centre in a remote village and also delivered digital literacy classes to tribal kids.

Took a 5-month break exploring social impact and public policy sector. Did some workshops and exposure visits in that period. And then worked with the largest political party in India on their social media campaign during 2019 general elections.

Then I had a 2 years career gap (June'19 - Aug'21) preparing for Indian Administrative Services exam. It was COVID period as well.

Then I spent 7 months with the local administration of one of the most backward districts in India and helped the administration implement and monitor government schemes in health and education sectors as a Consultant to the top bureaucrat at the district level

Again I took a 6-month career break to re-align myself with my long-term career goals in consulting. Took some online pre-MBA courses and prepared for GMAT

From last 2.5 years, I am working with Govt. of India as Assistant Program Manager on India's largest civil service reform project that aims to upskill 20M+ govt. employees across the nation and bring a transformative shift in governance and public service delivery through iGOT Karmayogi e-learning platform.

My post-MBA goal in near term is to get into MBBs public sector practice. And in long-term, I want to start my own social enterprise in the education space. And, my target region in long-term is India. However, in short-term, I am open to study and work abroad in order to gain a wider exposure and network to leverage in the long-term. However, I am open to exploring other related domains as well in impact consulting and entrepreneurship, but first an admit is necessary for that.

Looking forward to guidance.

Like (0)

Show Comments (10) Last: June 10, 2025

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 Make sure you target the first rounds. You’ll need to use the optional essay to address the employment gaps, succinctly explaining the whys and what you did during those gaps.

To counter the gaps showing impact and growth at work, as well as alignment with your long term goals will be very important. Are you also currently involved in activities outside of work? Any additional hobbies and interests?

(1)

shubhamg04 Likes Earned: 6 Thank you so much for your suggestions, Alex. Outside of work and MBA apps preparation, I don't get much time for anything else unfortunately. However, I do like long nature walks (which I still do at least 6 hours a week), reading business and self-help books (which I am not able to do for last 6 months), following technical charts of stocks and investing based on technical analysis of chart patterns (which I do atleast 2 hour a week). But again, I am not sure how to present these interests in a meaningful way in the application/essays. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 Interesting activities, but not really meaningful in the sense that they likely won’t elevate your overall profile. If you organized nature walks, and developed a following for them, that would be a more meaningful example, for example? Hope that makes sense. (0)

shubhamg04 Likes Earned: 6 OK, got your point. So in the sense of activities/interests/hobbies that would show leadership kind of abilities outside office, there is none... my interests are limited to myself only... What else I can do rather or how can I further elevate my profile? One thing I was considering is taking the HBS Online Credential of Readiness (CORe) course if that could help... (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 You already have a strong GMAT score. Is your undergrad degree competitive (did you do well?) You have already completed some pre-MBA coursework, so I’d think there wouldn’t be much impact by taking more? May focus more on exploring your longer term goal social enterprise goal, and do some deeper exploration in your non-work time? (1)

shubhamg04 Likes Earned: 6 Yes, I was in top 10% of my class in my undergrad. Though 66/100 look not that great from a GPA point of view, but my university had a very strict scoring system. And, yes, the longer-term goal I struggle articulating exactly. I sometimes feel that I need to have a goal that AdComs would find interesting and that is why I think I should talk about being an Entrepreneur in the long term. But, from my current worldview and life goals, I would be happy to spend my whole career in Public Sector Consulting practice of MBBs/Big4. I have been into social impact and public sector directly or indirectly since I've graduated in 2017. And, I believe I can be a really good public sector consultant and policy execution advisor (not policy making exactly) if I stay in this sector in long-term, because I have a very unique experience right from the grassroots to the federal level of governance, and an MBA would be a cherry on the cake to do much more in public sector innovation by combining business fundamentals with my existing knowledge and experience of the opportunities and gaps that exist in the government side of things. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 I would work on a long term goal that you truly believe makes sense, and allows you to make the most impact. (1)

shubhamg04 Likes Earned: 6 Understood, thank you, Alex :) (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1830 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2025/06/mba-wire-taps-429/ (1)

shubhamg04 Likes Earned: 6 That's very helpful. Thank you, Alex! (1)