ericwahoo wrote:
Here's my profile:
I'm a 26 y/o Asian American Male and IT Consultant. I have about 5 years of work experience--first starting off at a fairly prominent IT Consulting company in the area (1B in revenue) for 3 years, and recently, I've been working at a boutique firm (150 employees total) for the past couple of years. I've paid my dues in the industry and I'm currently a Senior Consultant with the company and my role has evolved from being a software developer to managing software development efforts (i.e. development lead) and architecting high-level solutions. My role, however, is not confined just to project delivery and execution. I'm the company Subject Matter Expert (SME) for a particular software tool, where essentially all of the technical questions for this tool are funnelled through me. I'm also extermely involved with interviewing and screening candidates for the company and I also participate in sales support activities. Additionally, I'm mentoring junior employees through an established mentor-mentee program in the company. One of the reasons why I decided to go to a smaller consulting company was to experience the full breadth of IT Consulting, instead of concentrating primarily on project delivery aspects, and I feel like I've truly done that by going small.
Outside of work, I volunteer to tutor high school kids throughout the school year at a low-income housing project. I've been doing this for a couple of years.
I'd like to get an MBA and concentrate in Management and Entrepreneurship. I'd like to use my MBA to make a jump into strategy/management consulting and hopefully start my own consulting firm shortly thereafter.
My stats:
Graduated from UVA with a BS in Systems Engineering and Minor in Computer Science (3.3 GPA)
1st GMAT: 650 (May 05)
2nd GMAT: 700 (48Q, 38V, 6.0 AWA in May 06)
I'm currently considering UPenn, UVA, Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Northwestern, MIT, Duke, Michigan. I plan on applying to about 5-7 schools.
I realize I have a few reach schools listed here. What schools do I have a good shot at getting into? Will my 1st GMAT attempt hurt me? Knowing that I want to do Management and/or Entrepreneurship and knowing my stats, are there any other schools that I should consider? Are there any schools listed above that don't make sense?
Thanks.
EricWahoo,
You have a good chance at Darden and Duke and a respectable chance at UCLA and Michigan. One or two of the following schools may come through for you if you execute well: Penn, Haas, CBS, NU, and MIT. I see Wharton and CBS as the toughest nuts to crack of this group. Your first GMAT will not hurt you; you have a solid second score and a good GPA at a selective college. As for other schools, for entrepreneurship you should consider USC, maybe CMU. For management, you might add Yale. All of the schools you listed are defensible choices given your goals. I would also recommend that you fill out your list with some 'safety' schools or at least some schools further down the food chain.
Good luck!
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Linda Abraham
Accepted.com
labraham@accepted.com
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