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The easiest profile eval ever!

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jaizen
Intern
Intern
Joined: 16 Apr 2010
Posts: 24
Location: United States (AL)
Concentration: Technology, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Anderson '14 Tepper '14 CBS '16 Duke '16 Yale '16 Oxford Cambridge INSEAD Jan '16 IMD '16 Haas '16 Tuck '16 Wharton '16
GMAT 1: 680 Q44 V37
GPA: 3.91
WE:Information Technology (Energy and Utilities)
The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  29 Apr 2010, 17:00
Hi!

I was hoping you could give me some feedback on what schools to practically apply to, given my profile below.

Here is a quick summary:

Personal : 28/Male/Indian ( I know, just my luck :!: )
Education: Engineering from Indian, non-elite school - 73% overall score(3.0 - 3.4 GPA??)
GMAT : 680(44Q,37V)
Pre-graduation WE : 5 years part-time in Sales at family business in the Middle East.
Post-graduation WE: IT Consultant for a top ten IT Consulting firm for a year in India and 4 in the US. Working as a freelance consultant now and on my own web startup.
EC : Headed Social Responsibility initiatives at the IT firm for 3 years; Local voluntary activities through church; started small family fund for supporting marriage of economically weaker families back home, School and college soccer and track/field member.

ShortTerm PostMBA : Management or Strategy Consulting in technology domain
LongTerm PostMBA : Technology Start up/International business

Here's my assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths: Quick career progression at the IT Consultancy with demonstrated leadership positions; lots of self-starting examples @ work and personal ECs; strong multi-cultural experience, growing-up, studying and working, fluent in 5 languages; great recos from clients and previous employers.

Weakness: Low GMAT Score - taken it 3 times already. :( First time for fun, second time seriously(thats when i got 680) and third time was confident of clearing 720 but fell ill on the week of the exam and did terribly. So not sure if I should take it again although I am confident of clearing 720. Low GPA/percentage at under-grad. No significant external awards: Only recognition/awards from work. Published one paper though. Lots of technical and business certifications like Insurance, Six Sigma etc.

So here are the schools that interest me, in decreasing order of excitement and increasing order of admissions chances: Wharton, LBS, MIT, Berkeley, Duke, Anderson, Stern, Said(Oxford)

What are my realistic chances of scoring at the top 10 schools in the US? And what do you think are the competitive and safe schools that I should apply to?

Thanks for your help!
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BlueRobin
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Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Posts: 395
Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  30 Apr 2010, 00:29
[quote="jaizen"]
Personal : 28/Male/Indian ( I know, just my luck :!: )
[quote]

What do u mean by that my dear friend, r u not proud of your own nationality, and what do u plan on presenting to the Schools, that you want to run off to USA.

Its not your past that matters my friend, its what you are now as a person.
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amittilak
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Joined: 24 Nov 2009
Posts: 25
Location: ny, ny
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Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  30 Apr 2010, 05:24
"Personal : 28/Male/Indian ( I know, just my luck )"
woww dude.. wht u trying to say?? that ur ashamed of being a indian citizen... It's a shame !!!
I think if you can really acknowledge who you are, where you come from and convey what you want to do with your future, that's what will help you with the admissions & life in general... Stop worrying abt what "pool of applicants"" you come from. Just tell your story.
avatar
jaizen
Intern
Intern
Joined: 16 Apr 2010
Posts: 24
Location: United States (AL)
Concentration: Technology, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Anderson '14 Tepper '14 CBS '16 Duke '16 Yale '16 Oxford Cambridge INSEAD Jan '16 IMD '16 Haas '16 Tuck '16 Wharton '16
GMAT 1: 680 Q44 V37
GPA: 3.91
WE:Information Technology (Energy and Utilities)
Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  30 Apr 2010, 07:39
amittilak wrote:
"Personal : 28/Male/Indian ( I know, just my luck )"
woww dude.. wht u trying to say?? that ur ashamed of being a indian citizen... It's a shame !!!
I think if you can really acknowledge who you are, where you come from and convey what you want to do with your future, that's what will help you with the admissions & life in general... Stop worrying abt what "pool of applicants"" you come from. Just tell your story.



No, what it means is that I am pitted against one of the most over represented and over qualified group of applicants to business schools - which, regrettably and undeniably makes my candidacy for an MBA even the more difficult. Not having an 'IIT type' undergrad degree with a fabulous GPA adds credence that if I were pitted against such types in an application death-match, I would get the short end of the stick - so to speak. Because fact of the matter is, if you want to be competitive at top B-Schools, your undergrad degree, institution and GPA play a BIG role. And since such schools are leaning towards a younger applicant pool, you don't have that many years to showcase your capabilities. But that does not mean all is lost. In fact, I hope to think that 'All iz well'. :) - Although, I'm going to inevitably have to struggle a little bit harder to get what I want. So my dear Indian friends, while I appreciate your passion and understand how this statement may seem misconstrued, please do not read too much into my 'statement of frustration' as a testament to my patriotism. :x This post is meant to be a profile eval. Let's leave it that way. PM me if you'd like to share personal opinions!
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quixx23
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Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  01 May 2010, 10:52
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Hi jaizen,

I'll stay out of the "Proud to be an Indian or not" argument! But I think you have correctly keyed in on an aspect of your profile that may make it more challenging for your to be admitted to a top-ten school. As an admissions officer at a top-five school told me last year, "We need to make sure that no one group -- based on profession, nationality, whatever -- dominates the class." While schools do not have hard, specific quotas for any one group, if after Round 1 the school realizes that they already have a lot of really talented male bankers, or female IT professionals from Europe, or whatever it is, then they have no choice but to scale back how many of those applicants they accept in later rounds. Otherwise, the classroom will be too full of that type, and top business schools care too much about maintaining diversity to let that happen.

So, if you were a female non-profit manager from South America, yes, all things being equal (which they never are), you would have an easier time getting in. But, that's just the way it is, whether it's good or bad.

Okay, now on to you: I would recommend taking the GMAT again. If you were already at a 720, I'd tell you that there's not much benefit to getting to a 760. But, getting from a 680 to a 720 would take you from below the mean at those schools to above the mean at most of them, and that can only help. Even if it barely helps at all, you have enough time that you should give it a shot.

About your work experience, your current freelance status may present a challenge because you don't want admissions officers to perceive it as "I'm out of work and doing odd jobs here and there." You'll want to show that you're still "moving up" in the world, even if you're not earning a new job title every year in a big company.

Good luck!
Scott
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jaizen
Intern
Intern
Joined: 16 Apr 2010
Posts: 24
Location: United States (AL)
Concentration: Technology, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Anderson '14 Tepper '14 CBS '16 Duke '16 Yale '16 Oxford Cambridge INSEAD Jan '16 IMD '16 Haas '16 Tuck '16 Wharton '16
GMAT 1: 680 Q44 V37
GPA: 3.91
WE:Information Technology (Energy and Utilities)
Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  01 May 2010, 11:06
quixx23 wrote:
Hi jaizen,

I'll stay out of the "Proud to be an Indian or not" argument! But I think you have correctly keyed in on an aspect of your profile that may make it more challenging for your to be admitted to a top-ten school. As an admissions officer at a top-five school told me last year, "We need to make sure that no one group -- based on profession, nationality, whatever -- dominates the class." While schools do not have hard, specific quotas for any one group, if after Round 1 the school realizes that they already have a lot of really talented male bankers, or female IT professionals from Europe, or whatever it is, then they have no choice but to scale back how many of those applicants they accept in later rounds. Otherwise, the classroom will be too full of that type, and top business schools care too much about maintaining diversity to let that happen.

So, if you were a female non-profit manager from South America, yes, all things being equal (which they never are), you would have an easier time getting in. But, that's just the way it is, whether it's good or bad.

Okay, now on to you: I would recommend taking the GMAT again. If you were already at a 720, I'd tell you that there's not much benefit to getting to a 760. But, getting from a 680 to a 720 would take you from below the mean at those schools to above the mean at most of them, and that can only help. Even if it barely helps at all, you have enough time that you should give it a shot.

About your work experience, your current freelance status may present a challenge because you don't want admissions officers to perceive it as "I'm out of work and doing odd jobs here and there." You'll want to show that you're still "moving up" in the world, even if you're not earning a new job title every year in a big company.

Good luck!
Scott


Hey Scott,
I completely understand what you are trying to say. I quit my job to work on my own start up but I am doing freelance consulting to supplement income. The general direction is towards entrepreneurship and I hope to highlight that in my essays. So based on my profile, what few schools do you think I have a reasonable chance of being accepted?
Thank you for your feedback!
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quixx23
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Joined: 22 Apr 2004
Posts: 1117
Location: Southern California
Schools:Kellogg MBA 2004
Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  02 May 2010, 10:28
Expert Reply
Hmmm... Of the schools you listed, I would say the lower-ranked ones are your best bets (Oxford and Anderson). Maybe also consider a few other top-25 schools, to spread your bets a little more. Yours will be a tough candidacy, so you should aim at more than just top-ten schools.

Good luck!
Scott
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BlueRobin
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Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Posts: 395
Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  04 May 2010, 05:09
I like to apologize for having misunderstood. In that faith of goodwill i would give my own opinion.

I think your profile looks great, there is no reason why you cant get into

Duke
Anderson
Berkley
Stern

Also look at Tepper, its a good school.

Because you have a good history in Technology, and since your taking up a mba related to technology, you would have a better chance of acceptance rather than if you chose something like Finance.

So i would say go ahead and apply, GMAT 680 is a good score and it is all up to how you face the panel. Just tell them why you want to study an MBA, you dont need to build a DAM which is how many people potray the whole thing.

Your going to pay your fees, you dont have a bad history, you good good work experience why r u doubtful whether some school is going to accept you or not.
avatar
jaizen
Intern
Intern
Joined: 16 Apr 2010
Posts: 24
Location: United States (AL)
Concentration: Technology, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Anderson '14 Tepper '14 CBS '16 Duke '16 Yale '16 Oxford Cambridge INSEAD Jan '16 IMD '16 Haas '16 Tuck '16 Wharton '16
GMAT 1: 680 Q44 V37
GPA: 3.91
WE:Information Technology (Energy and Utilities)
Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink] New post  05 May 2010, 15:51
BlueRobin wrote:
I like to apologize for having misunderstood. In that faith of goodwill i would give my own opinion.

I think your profile looks great, there is no reason why you cant get into

Duke
Anderson
Berkley
Stern

Also look at Tepper, its a good school.

Because you have a good history in Technology, and since your taking up a mba related to technology, you would have a better chance of acceptance rather than if you chose something like Finance.

So i would say go ahead and apply, GMAT 680 is a good score and it is all up to how you face the panel. Just tell them why you want to study an MBA, you dont need to build a DAM which is how many people potray the whole thing.

Your going to pay your fees, you dont have a bad history, you good good work experience why r u doubtful whether some school is going to accept you or not.


Hey, no harm done. Thanks for your inputs. And good luck with your applications.
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Re: The easiest profile eval ever! [#permalink]
05 May 2010, 15:51
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