MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 2457
Given Kudos: 2
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Kindly Evaluate Profile
[#permalink]
08 Apr 2010, 14:23
Your GMAT is fine. If you can score 760, sure, that would be ideal, but at this point it's not what will make or break you.
As for your school choices, I'd say they're mostly stretches. Those top 8 schools are stretches -- and schools like Darden, Michigan, Duke, etc. are where your sweet spots will be.
And this has nothing to do with your GMAT or the fact that I sense you're overselling your nonprofit story in the hopes that it will somehow make you special. I hope that doesn't offend you, but if you are truly sincere about non-profit (i.e. your volunteer work isn't just "authentic" in the sense that you'd be doing it regardless of how it looks on a resume -- but that you're 100% sure you are willing to forgo a sh*tload of income post-MBA to serve others - because that's what this is about) -- then your job is to convince the adcom of that. And even if you do, your chances are basically the same -- top 8 schools are stretches, and the rest of the top 16 are sweet spots.
Keep in mind that you're not the only person (and yes, not the only Indian engineer/techie) to come up with some "do gooder" story in the false hopes that you'll somehow impress the adcom. The adcoms can smell BULLSH*T a mile away.
If this career path is NOT bullsh*t for the b-school application, then you have to have faith that the authenticity and sincerity of your mission (and that your volunteer activities aren't "resume builders" or "busy work" but stuff that you would've done regardless of "how it looks") will come across in your essays and interviews.
To be honest, based on what you wrote, I'm not sure whether to believe you or not -- whether your nonprofit stuff is simply an "angle" or "positioning", or whether it's the real deal.
Just remember the context of all this. There's TONS of folks applying to b-school. TONS of engineers. TONS of Indian engineers. They aren't applying to b-school to be do gooders (otherwise they'd do an MPP) -- the overwhelming majority are applying to get a higher paying job on the business side of a company. That's why there's such a feeding frenzy for the MBA degree - and it's even more so for folks who are first-generation middle class kids (i.e. a lot of immigrants, mainland Chinese, and Indians -- parents who are not from wealthy backgrounds, but are either working class or college educated middle class folks who stress almost to a fault that their kids pursue "practical" jobs like engineering, medicine, business or law because it pays well - and so education is then to support such pursuits of "practical" careers so that you the child can end up making more money and have a higher standard of living than your parents did). Adcoms see this, because it's the kind of ethos that is very very common amongst Indians, Chinese, and first-generation immigrants to the West (whether they be Asian, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, Latin/Central American, etc.).
That's why, unless this do-gooder stuff is 100% real and you've shown a history of going AGAINST the immigrant/Asian convention/ethos -- you will find a very skeptical audience in the adcom who will (rightly or wrongly) assume that you're after more money, prestige, status, and a higher social/economic class than your parents had. And they're not going to ding you for that either -- if you feel you are conventional by many standards, then it's a matter of working with those conventions WITHOUT being cookie cutter. In other words, you can "be like everyone else" without coming across like everyone else. It's finding whatever individuality or your personal voice within convention - you can be the same, but individual, if that makes sense.
Now, if this path isn't BS -- then you definitely have to step up your game when it comes to conveying your story, or no one will believe you.