The Right Fit: Your Dream School,
Your Story

At Knowell, we believe every MBA journey is personal. While thousands apply together, no two stories are ever the same. Our role? To uncover your unique strengths, align them with your goals, and craft an authentic narrative that screams “the right fit” to top B-schools. Explore how we've helped candidates like you turn aspirations into admits — one story at a time.

2025 Intake MBA Applicant Statistics

43 Admits from

USA Top 20 (Wharton, MIT Sloan, Stanford, Columbia, Kellogg, Darden, Fuqua, Cornell, NYU Stern, CMU Tepper, UCLA)

Canada Top 3 + UK/ Europe Top 5 (incl.INSEAD + LBS) Singapore (NUS)

09 Only ISB Admits

Total ISB Admits ~15, overlapping with other categories in the list

06 Deferred MBA Admits

Wharton, Columbia, Chicago Booth, Darden, Kellogg

12 Other Admits

Boston, Vanderbilt, Babson, UBC, Kelley, Rice, Manchester, Rochester

04 Dropouts

Due to low GMAT/ Change in career plans

USA Top 20 (Wharton, MIT Sloan, Stanford, Columbia, Kellogg, Darden, Fuqua, Cornell, NYU Stern, CMU Tepper, UCLA)

Canada Top 3 + UK/ Europe Top 5 (incl. INSEAD + LBS) Singapore (NUS)
(Total ISB Admits ~15, overlapping with other categories in the list)
Describe a feature you’d like to share about this company or highlight a particular service it offers.
(Boston, Vanderbilt, Babson, UBC, Kelley, Rice, Manchester, Rochester)
Due to low GMAT/ Change in career plans

2MN usd- total scholarships

Some students begin with us in their first year, others just months before deadlines. Either way, we craft and elevate profiles with a mix of strategy, and storytelling—building compelling narratives that impress top schools. Whether it’s long-term planning or short-term tactics, we turn your potential into a powerful profile.

6 students with 100% scholarship

We’ve worked with engineers, artists, musicians, economists, accountants, marketeers, military veterans, public servants and more. Whether you’re shifting fields or sticking to your roots, we understand your story. Our counselors bring cross-domain expertise to tailor strategies that highlight what makes your background exceptional.

37 30% or more scholarship

Standardized test scores, professional certifications, standout grades, essays that pop, glowing recommendations, interviews, activities — it’s a lot! That’s where we come in. With the right guidance, what feels like a maze turns into a clear path — so you can crack the code and own your college journey.

$2mn

Total Scholarships

6

Students with 100% Scholarship

37

30% or more Scholarship

2025 Intake MBA Applicant Statistics

PROCESS MANAGER

AKA DAVID

Education: B. Tech (IIT)

Pre MBA Industry Infra. Development

Strengths: Multi-continent projects

Rejects: Wharton, Booth (interview)

Challenges:

David’s extensive experience in managing engineering challenges made him familiar with the series of steps that are required to ensure successful completion of infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars. This became the crux of his
application
Majority of David’s interactions were with low wage and low skill laborers whose mass deployment enabled project completion. Leveraging this ability to connect with people from several classes and creating profitable processes that
also ensured safety of workers became a pillar of his narrative
Spending weeks or months at remote destinations, cut-off from his usual social circle created a lot of spare time, which David invested in sports. Using this and his
college-era sports achievement, we highlighted the role his sports participation played in shaping his health, in building his personal connections and in bridging cultural gaps that helped him survive and thrive in challenging circumstances

4

Years of Exp.

26

AGE

760

GMAT

3.6

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

With an engineering degree from one of the best institutes in India, David joined an infrastructure development firm that took on projects across South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Often deployed onsite, he gained a varied experience in dealing with engineering challenges across these geographies. David’s candidature lacked the requisite exposure to management decision making needed in an MBA candidate. He also had little to no business exposure from his role. Moreover, He was also getting paid significantly lesser than his peer group from the IITs, reducing the overall merit of the candidate while also making it difficult to build his case as of a deserving candidate

INNOVATIVE VETERAN

AKA SIDDHARTH

Education: BSc and MSc

Pre MBA Industry Armed Forces (Navy)

Strengths: A career full of awards

REJECTS: None

Challenges:

Siddharth's age and extensive experience presented a challenge as colleges questioned his adaptability to future roles and his capacity for further professional development. His above-average qualifications made it necessary to address these concerns and demonstrate how he would still be able to have a long and high-achieving corporate career, despite the limited number of years left. The second obstacle arose from the nature of Siddharth's work, which involved multiple classified projects. Although he had won several awards for his contribution to the country’s defense systems, his projects contained sensitive information that limited his ability to provide specific details and
tangible evidence of his accomplishments in his CV and essays.

21

Years of Exp.

45

AGE

740

GMAT

3.0

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

Skipping the standard MBA that Siddharth was looking for, we decided to select more advanced MBAs or Master’s that allowed experienced candidates. Even among these, we focused solely on the ones that aligned with his candidature and allowed in-person learning rather than remote learning given by many Executive MBA courses
Since we could not describe what was done by Siddharth, we decided to identify who benefited from his initiatives and to what extent. Changing the perspective made us zoom-in on the rather ignored human element of innovation driven achievements. Leveraging the first decade of Siddharth’s experience, we were also able to establish a why for these actions. Binding them together aided us in circumventing the informational opacity mandated by his work
We decided to go bold in Siddharth’s goals and show that he would merit a leadership position despite a shift in geographies. We showed his work on dealing with global vendors and deep understanding of the global arms procurement industry to show his fit across leadership roles in multiple industries

YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR

AKA ANDREA

Education: CA + B.Com

Pre MBA Industry Finance/ Entrepreneurship

Strengths: Commitment To Education

Rejects: Kellogg, Cornell

CHALLENGES:

Andrea was shown as a promising candidate for a future role as a consultant in the impact/small business consulting practice of large firms
We decided to embrace the failures and highlighted learning from each to create a case of growth. While this approach carried some risk, it leveraged her diverse skills and experiences, making it more credible than positioning her as the anticipator of growth issues
We emphasized Andrea's unwavering dedication to entrepreneurship, supported by ample evidence, and highlighted her commitment to delivering impactful work
Her ability to inspire and lead, became another big selling point, as she would bring her passion to any organization she spearheaded and recruit talented individuals
capable of driving meaningful change

4

Years of Exp.

25

AGE

324

GMAT

3.5

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

Andrea gained a CA degree in her first attempt and that too at an early age due to skipping her 8th grade. However, her journey was marked by the challenge of three failed ventures, each operating in a distinct sector with diverse business models. This posed a considerable obstacle as we sought to highlight her strengths and distinguish her candidacy amidst these setbacks. While one possible approach could have been to emphasize a specific visionary concept that Andrea aimed to introduce through her latest start-up, underscoring the
transformative potential of the gig-economy in providing a sustainable
second source of income to semi-urban professionals, we recognized that the successful start-up alone did not paint the right picture of Andrea’s candidature.

MBA ENCORER

AKA SIDDHI

Education: BE + MBA

Pre MBA Industry Fin-Tech

Strengths: Great Academic and Work Profile

Rejects: N/A

CHALLENGES:

Given her unique combination of pre and post ISB experience, we made a play for the global transactions space that was gaining traction after COVID and presented showed her as a promising leader in the space
Siddhi’s story, of choosing to go through the gruel of an MBA again, to attain a higher set of skills and meet the challenges of a new market on her own terms, was showcased in-depth
We used key elements of Siddhi’s academic history to creative a narrative of a dedicated learner and an evaluative decision maker
Given Siddhi’s India centric career, we had to retrain her on several levels to refine her answers for a more global audience. We thus shifted her perspective to adequately showcase about not just her current work but also the work done in the past to ensure the salient points aligned with international expectations

6.5

Years of Exp.

29

AGE

730

GMAT

3.8

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

In her second year into a role at one of India’s leading Fin-Tech companies, after her MBA from ISB, our ex-client Siddhi approached us for her international MBA. Owing to her marriage with someone who was already settled in the US, she had decided to enter the market on her own terms and not use the dependent Visa route. Creating a career vision set in the US, with very few activities done that would merit such a move was tough. Justifying this MBA, so close on the heels of the first MBA, that too from such a prominent school as ISB was our biggest challenge here

COMPASSIONATE INVESTOR

AKA SIDDHI

Education: B.Com + CA

Pre MBA Industry Impact Investing

Strengths: Deep Financial Expertise

Rejects: Wharton (interview), Harvard, (interview), Stanford

CHALLENGES:

Given her unique combination of pre and post ISB experience, we made a play for the global transactions space that was gaining traction after COVID and presented showed her as a promising leader in the space
Although we applied to almost exclusively M7 schools + LBS, we split the schools in 2 rounds to test out different essay strategies.; It also allowed her extra-time to get multiple reviews of her essays done by her seniors (from her workplace) who
had already cracked her target schools and were studying there
Going through deal-by-deal from her 3 latest roles allowed us to find a common thread in some of the deals that she had done. This helped us shape a future goal that was aligned with the skills she had to bring to the table and the unique offerings of her target colleges

7.5

Years of Exp.

29

AGE

720

GMAT

3.9

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

CA, CFA, B Com, LLB. Sunanda had it all. Over and above that, she worked for an International Financial organization that funded governments and Forbes 500 conglomerates. Her problem – too much finance. Sunanda had delved deep into finance, affording her little to no room for any personal pursuits from the age of 18. Trying her hand at multiple roles during her articleship and later after her CA qualification, she had a very broad exposure to finance, making it difficult to pin down a goal that applied exclusively to her. Added to that was the fact that she came from an organization where more than 20 of her peers were applying to the same narrow set of schools each year, increasing the need to create a stand-out application story
candidature

DEDICATED DEVELOPER

AKA SIDDHI

Education: B Tech (IT)

Pre MBA Industry Tech (Software
Development)

Strengths: Branded college and company

Rejects: N/A

CHALLENGES:

Instead of looking at the enhancement metrics, we decided to show diversity of application of the tech-product and showed Shri’s ability to think from all those perspectives. The product itself acted as a base architecture for firms to build their
own applications and in our iterative discussions we were able to bring out the true depth of product applications
Our brainstorming sessions with Shri showed that while he majorly dealt with internal stakeholders, he had also conducted extensive modifications to the product using
client surveys. We asked Shri to approach one of these client CTOs to get his recommendation to bring this aspect out
Shri had led multiple events during his college days and we then established direct connects between those activities and the team building/stakeholder management
skills needed for Shri’s roles

4

Years of Exp.

26

AGE

730

GMAT

3.2

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

Shri's challenge lay in the limited diversity of his work experience, as he had dedicated four years to a single tech product within a prominent global tech corporation. He had interned at the firm during his UG days and then joined the firm after graduation, and thus lacked any other professional experience. This concentrated focus presented difficulties in showcasing a breadth of skills and experiences. Additionally, finding suitable recommenders who could provide varied perspectives and attest to Shri's abilities beyond his current role may posed an additional challenge

The Right Fit: Your Dream School, Your Story

2025 Intake MBA Applicant Statistics

43 Admits from

09 Only ISB Admits

06 Deferred MBA Admits

12 Other Admits

04 Dropouts

2MN usd- total scholarships

6 students with 100% scholarship

37 30% or more scholarship

$2mn

Total Scholarships

6

Students with 100% Scholarship

37

30% or more Scholarship

2025 Intake MBA Applicant Statistics

INNOVATIVE VETERAN

AKA SIDDHARTH

REJECTS: None

Challenges:

21

Years of Exp.

45

AGE

740

GMAT

3.0

GPA

OUR SOLUTION:

The Right Fit: Your Dream School,
Your Story