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!