Hello everyone,

I'm from Indonesia! I'm eagerly awaiting my graduation this year from the no 1 engineering school in my country majoring in mechanical engineering, where mechanical engineering has consistently ranked number one for years in the country. Our school has been a prime target for many prestigious consulting firms, including MBB, who visit our campus annually.

Despite attending a prestigious institution, my final GPA is only 2.88, attributed to various factors. Additionally, many of my peers also have GPAs below 3.0, as our university is renowned for its rigorous curriculum and stringent grading system. The grading scale is narrow, with only A, AB, B, BC, C, and D grades available; there are no variations like A-minus.

However, despite my GPA, I've been very active in university organizations and international activities. I served as the president of a university student chapter, where I implemented significant changes that positively impacted and promoted diversity, contrary to the norm. Additionally, I worked as a mechanic for my university's robotic team, which secured international qualification for the largest international robotics competition—an achievement requiring rigorous selection. I was also a hackathon mentor for an American hackathon during my first year of university. I also participated in Harvard Project Asian Relations 2021 in Taiwan.

Despite majoring in mechanical engineering, I have been passionate about business-related topics such as startups, product management, or data analysis/data science where I was fortunate to learn and prove my interest with practical experiences. I secured an internship at Wonsulting as an analytical manager during my first year of study, launching multiple businesses in sectors ranging from FnB to education with my friends. I've interned as a product manager twice, with my first internship during my second year resulting in recognition as the best product manager within the company. My most recent internship was with the first Aqua-Tech startup in Asia, the largest one in Indonesia, which has achieved unicorn status and received Series D funding.

Moreover, I have extensive research experience. I worked as a biomechanics researcher in my university's laboratory, where I conducted research on AI algorithms, requiring me to quickly grasp complex concepts such as various programming languages, computer vision, image inpainting algorithms, Docker, statistical analysis, and human anatomy all from scratch and in the span of months. I had to built a few AI algorithms from scratch and conducted analysis where my analysis findings leads to suggestions that combat limited resource problem within my university laboratory. I was also a researcher at Indonesian military airforce research department where I had to computational fluid dynamic analysis on one of their UAV drone model.

I’m writing these not to show off but to help you understand my background well. Do you think consulting is still possible for me? What should I do to break into top consulting firms or if possible MBB. Should I take GMAT/GRE to compensate my bad GPA? I randomly took GMAT online full test simulation for free and got a 650 score without preparation so I kinda have confidence to score way better in the real test with enough preparation. Or maybe I should take master’s in management from top B school? I have been particularly interested in INSEAD program.