Profile Evaluation - Career Changer

Paul,

Please evaluate my profile when you get a chance. Also, I look forward to reading "Great Application Essays for Business School" and "Your MBA Game Plan" over the next couple months as I prepare for the upcoming application season.

Brief profile: I grew up in a small rural town in the south, attended community college for a year, and transferred to a large public in-state school (largest in the tri-state area) where I graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Since graduating, I have worked at 2 different companies within the power industry as a mechanical engineer. I plan to pursue an MBA in order to change careers to Investment Banking. My short-term goal is to work for an investment bank, ideally covering the power/energy sector. Long-term, after 3-5 years at an I-Bank, I will possibly go back to work for a power/energy company within their internal finance department. The other option would be to stay in I-Banking long-term. I will be applying to either 4 or 5 programs this fall for admittance in fall 2009.

Program: MBA-FT
Area of interest in MBA: Finance
GMAT: 700 (92%ile), Q: 48 (85%ile), V: 38 (84%ile), AWA : TBD, but expecting 5.0 or greater
GPA: 3.88 overall (3.85 when 44 hours of community college transfer credit are factored in)
UG: BS in Mechanical Engineering from a top-tier engineering school (relatively well-known state school)

Work experience:
- 4.5 years as a mechanical engineer in the power industry at matriculation.
- First company - 2.5 years experience, very well-known and respected Fortune 500 company. I was employed in the power division of this company. Although I was never in a managerial role, I led several high profile projects. Also, no one directly reported to me, but I was responsible for coordinating several people in order to successfully complete the projects. Most of my stories will come from this job experience. I left to pursue a different opportunity within the same industry.
- Second company – 2 years experience, relatively young Fortune 500 company also within the power industry. I had similar responsibilities as the first job, but not quite as much leadership. I received one promotion, which was on schedule for a typical engineering career path.
- I plan to get a solid recommendation from a supervisor at each company.

Nationality: US (Caucasian)
Age: 26 (27 at matriculation)
Gender: Male
Extra-curricular/community:
- In college, my main EC activity was intramural sports (flag football, basketball, and softball). I was also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (no positions held).
- While at the first company, I participated in the company’s volunteer organization, where I helped organize fund raising events (no positions held). I also played on the company softball team.
- While at the second company, I became involved in a local volunteer organization where I tutored GED students. Soon, I will be taking a leadership role within this organization where I will be responsible for a similar tutoring program. There will be approximately 6 volunteers that I will be responsible for leading. I plan to stay active in this until I matriculate. I also participate in Alumni Association events, but I hold no positions in that organization.
- Non-community activities – I stay pretty active: mountain and road biking, amateur auto racing, and organized adult-league sports (softball, kickball, flag football).

Schools planning to apply to: Penn (reach), Columbia (reach), Chicago (reach), Duke (target), UNC (in-state safety). I am also considering replacing one of the reaches with Michigan since it is more of a target level program for me.

Do you agree with my school choices? Do you see anything that I can work on over the next couple months? Do you think the rural southern background will help with diversity? I noticed that people from the south make up less than 5% of their enrolled class at many northern schools.

Thanks in advance.