GoalPost - Admissions consulting service from Sharp Minds

Objective

To work alongside the applicant in order to clearly and concisely identify and articulate relevant and important ideas for b-school MBA application essays or SoPs and to advise the applicant in shortlisting b-schools.

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What is included ?

1. Analysing every aspect of your candidature in order to make it more competitive
2. Identifying Career Goals that can be presented to b-schools
3. Mapping your profile to the MiM or MBA programs you will apply to
4. Assistance in selecting which b-schools to apply to
5. Planning the next steps in order to strengthen certain areas of the profile or to fill in the gaps
6. Generating ideas and content for key questions asked in application forms and interviews.
7. B-school wise Application package - the add-on option to GoalPost

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The 6-STEP process

Step 1: FULL PROFILE EVALUATION

We will examine every aspect of your profile -

1. Academic
2. Professional
3. Personal
4. Extra-Curricular
5. Other (Family / Lineage / any other aspect)

Step 2: CAREER GOALS CLARITY

Based on the detailed analysis of your profile, we will help you work out the short, medium, and long term career goals for your application essays and Sops.

• Career goals - Defining Career Goals clearly, concisely, and as precisely as possible. Includes short term, medium term, and long term career goals. 
• Career Path - Spelling out career path post-MBA / Masters in management program.

Step 3: MBA / MIM COURSE FIT

In this part of the evaluation, we will make sure that you are able to present a good fit of your past and future with the MBA or MiM program that you plan to opt for.

• Why MBA - Explaining why an MBA / Masters course is the right next step in the candidate's career
• Integration - Integrating past work-experience with post-MBA career plans

Step 4: PROFILE IMPROVEMENT & RESUME EDITING

Here, we will provide you with suggestions on how you can improve your profile further between now and the time you apply for your MBA or MiM program. These will be concrete, practical suggestions offered by our team of experts based on your current profile.

• Identifying areas from professional and non-professional life that can be highlighted in answers to strengthen the applicant's profile and identifying ways to build up on the same

Step 5: SHORTLISTING B-SCHOOLS

Based on our assessment of your profile as well your preferences including country, budget, specialization and more, we will provide you a shortlist of between 5 - 10 b-schools that you can consider. We will also guide you on next steps as to how to finalize your b-school shortlist

Step 6: CORE ESSAY TEMPLATES

We will help you prepare answer templates to 3 of the most frequently asked essay questions in b-school application forms, namely:

1. What are your short & long-term career goals and how an MBA from our school will help you achieve those?
2. Why are you applying for an MBA at this stage of your career
3. Why are you applying to ABC business school?

Offer Price

GoalPost Only: ₹ 35900

GMAT* + GoalPost: ₹ 49900

‍* 'GMAT + GoalPost' combo price is an exclusive price offered to students opting for Classroom Group coaching course only

** GMAT Private Tutoring students will get a discount of ₹ 7000 on GoalPost

*** GMAT IMPACT and PRO Online course students will get a discount of ₹ 2500 & ₹ 4500 respectively on GoalPost

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B-school Application Packages (add-on option)

Once you are done with GoalPost, it's time for you to move on to each individual b-school application. Each school is unique, therefore, your appplication cannot be the same for all the schools you apply to.

We need to Connect The Dots well for each application. Only then will you have a cohesive application that brings out the best in you.

There are 5 dots we need to connect well in order to come up with a winning application, namely

1. Your Test Scores

High scores reflect high intellectual capacity and a good ability to cope with academics during the MBA program. Lower scores may signal a concern to b-schools. We need to handle both effectively

2. Your CV

Most schools ask for a 1-page resume. You therefore have to make sure that you pack in the relevant things and leave out the unnecassary

3. Your Essays or SoP

Based on the inputs given in GoalPost, you can now confidently proceed to prepare the draft answers for most essay questions in the respective application forms for your MiM or MBA programs.

Each b-school has a different set of essays. Besides career goals and why you wish to pursue an MBA, the essays may cover various other areas of your personality. You need solid answers to each question, irrespective of whether the permissible word count is 100 or 600 words.

Many Masters programs in Management may not have a set of essays. Rather, they ask you to write a Statement of Purpose in about 800 to 2000 words. This can be a huge challenge because filling in with needless info won't help at all. You have to be very specific here as well.

Once your draft essays / SoP have/has been prepared, we do the following:.

• Detailed review of the draft answer prepared by the applicant to check for quality of content and presentation
• Suggesting changes to the draft with specific pointers on what needs to be modified and how
• To request for additional details from the candidate if the essay content touches upon something not covered in GoalPost 6-step process detailed above
• To recheck the revised answers submitted by the candidate
• To perform a final edit on the essays to make sure they are presented in a convincing, clear, and precise manner so as to stand-out among the vast pool of applicants.

4. Your Letters of Recommendation (LoR)

We do not write or draft letters of recommendation nor do we advise candidates to write them on behalf of the referees. You have to ask the person giving the LoR to respond.

However, b-schools do encourage applicants to discuss with the persons giving the LoRs as to why they need it, the significance of the LoR, and what the b-school looks for in an LoR. We guide you in this process.

5. Interview

The next step after getting successfully short-listed by a b-school is to appear for the Interview - either face-to-face or via skype, depending on the b-school.

It is a big mistake to ignore the Interview aspect while writing the rest of the applicaton. Therefore, everything we put into the answers to the essay questions as well as in the CV, is done with an eye on the forthcoming interview. Once you get the interview call, we guide you on the subsequent preparation and if necessary, conduct mock interviews as well.

Pricing for Application Packages (add-on option)

Variable, depending on number of b-schools

Whatsapp us on 8097075272 or email us at mba@sharpminds.in if you need more info or want to get started with GoalPost