Hi Alex
Here is my rather detailed profile, with some questions at the very end:
Nationality: Chinese Canadian, first-generation immigrant from Hong Kong
Gender: Male
Age: 26
GMAT: 760 (99th percentile)
Undergrad: University of Toronto, Computer Engineering
GPA: 2.80
(This is the worst part of my profile. I have a rising trend in my marks:
1st year GPA: 2.30
2nd year GPA: 2.68
3rd year GPA: 2.87
4th year GPA: 3.35)
Work Experience2.5 years Total Post-Grad Experience, all in the civil service:
1 year working on Public Health IT Systems Strategy (Environmental Health)
- Responsible for leading the development of food safety and safe drinking water systems
1 year working on HR and Payroll systems
- Responsible for coordinating the development of government HR systems
6 months working on Public Health Systems (Infectious Disease)
- Responsible for developing outbreak management (eg. Influenza, SARS) systems
I have been promoted a total of 2 times in the last 2.5 years, from Programmer/Analyst (80% technical), to Senior Programmer Analyst(50% technical), and then to Senior Business Analyst (10% technical). All 3 positions are in different divisions in the civil service. I do mostly project management now.
16-month Pre-Grad internship:
- Quality Assurance Lead for a medium-sized supply chain planning software company.
- Coordinated the testing efforts for a new add-on product.
Post-Grad Community Work/Extracurricular ActivitiesFounder of
OneBigU, an online learning community that allows students to "earn" donations by helping other students. These donations are given to a charity group whose mission is to help those suffering in Darfur. This is my first jab at creating a small social enterprise.
- Hired and managed an IT Development team of 3 people in India for 4 months to help me finish the development work. I bootstrapped the whole project.
- Devised and executed a marketing strategy with no budget that accomplished the following:
- Boosted traffic from 0 to 3000 monthly unique visitors per month.
- Obtained live interview with a mainstream TV tech reporter (CityTV), about 2 minutes long
- Obtained feature article in the local Metro Newspaper.
- Obtained feature articles from several Canadian tech bloggers, student bloggers and social enterprise bloggers.
- Obtained a small snippet in the university alumni magazine.
Church-related Activities
- Script writer for weekly Catholic radio program on Canada's leading Chinese radio station.
- Lead and coordinate activities for youth at the church.
- Organize annual retreat for youth (approximately 200 participants)
- I also provide guidance and leadership to the church's youth group committee, of which I was previously a member.
Pre-Grad Community Work/Extracurricular Activities1) Committee Chair for Sponsorship for Frosh Week
- Lead a small team of 3to contact local businesses to raise sponsorship money to fund the annual Engineering Frosh Week.
2) Professional Development Officer (IEEE Student Office)
- Coordinated special technology seminar series for students to learn about new tech trends and career opportunities.
Here are my questions1) I want to apply to the coming third round for starting in Sept 2009. Is that a good idea? Or should I wait till the next first round for starting in Sept 2010?
2) How are my chances at HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago, and Columbia in 3rd round? Should I revise my expectations?
3) Is my GPA going to hurt my chances for the elite schools? Does my GMAT mitigate this?
Thank you for your advice, Alex!