darkdoug wrote:
Profile Evaluation, may be somehow non-typical and interesting.
Basic
* Male, 33 years old, China PR.
Education:
* Top30 university in China (Top2 school in my major)
* Ph. D. degree in Communication Engineering, Bachelor in Computer Science
* GPA: 3.1 or so,
G/T
* GMAT: 740 (Q50, V40, IR8)
* TOEFL: not taken yet, estimated around 110.
Employment
* 7 years in the headquarter of a dominating state-owned corporation, the biggest telecom operator in the world with 80 billions USDs annual income. (but maybe not well-known out of China), including:
* 4 years in technology research institute, work on technical strategies, road-maps and specifications. Promoted as team manager with 8-10 members. Some international experiences in 4 years regular global industry standardization works as main delegate and in a regular corporate project with the biggest wireless operator in Europe as the project manager.
* 3 years in planning department, work on company network developing plan&strategy and annual investment planning, about 30 billions USDs per year.
Career Goal
* General Management or planning and strategy in Hi-tech Corp., .
* Consulting or PE/VC in high-tech areas in China
Target School
* Tier1: Wharton, INSEAD, IMD, Chicago, Kellogg,
* Tier2: Haas, Ross, Duke
* Tier3: Anderson, Cornell, Tepper
Questions:
1. How are my chances for above schools? Especially Tier1 and Tier2 schools.
2. I guess 2 points in my profile may be flaws: Age (too old a little) and Employer (outstanding but not recognized to people in US and Europe). How much do you experts feel will them affect my admission? How should I make them up?
3. About my doctoral degree, will that be an advantage or a disadvantage (may be strange for B-schools?)
4. Any other schools you can recommend according to my profile?
Many thanks for your help!
You're welcome. Thanks for your questions.
1. You have a chance at all your target schools.
2. I feel your age may be a slight issue, but you seem to have wisely chosen mostly schools that are friendlier to more experienced applicants. Also since you have a Ph.D., it's obvious that you started working a little later than most. The Ph.D. is a double edged sword. It certainly shows you know how to study and excel, and that's good. On the other hand, it postponed your starting your career and also your movement into management and out of research. But the fact is that you made that move and have project management and relevant business experience. You might be interested in
MBA admissions for older applicants. If your employer isn't well known, you simply have to educate the reader a little more about your employer and most importantly about your contribution to your employer. Regarding your age, the schools will want to know that your goal is realistic. Are you expecting the school to provide the connections that will facilitate a move to PE/VC? if so, your age and lack of PE/VC experience will be a negative. You will be seen as harder to place at graduation. If you have the connections or the network that will give you entree to the PE/VC world and let the schools know that you have that kind of network, then they won't view you as a placement problem.
3. I see your Ph.D. as more of a plus.
4. I would think that Columbia or Tuck might be better for you given your goals than IMD. Are you considering Cornell's accelerated MBA?
Best,
Linda