aperturevx wrote:
• 3.4 GPA in mechanical engineering from a top Canadian university (last year 3.7)
-Studied one semester abroad in Germany
-Undertook a summer research internship at a gov’t nanotech research lab, and authored an article that was published in a peer-reviewed journal
• 740 GMAT (48Q, 42V, 6AW, 8IR)
• 3 years work exp as a Project Engineer with one Canada’s largest construction contractors
-Recently promoted to Project Manager (typically takes 6-8 years at my company)
-Managed procurement, construction, and commissioning phases of projects with increasing value and complexity (up to $120MM)
-Have exceeded target profit margins on my last 3 projects (by up to 3x in one case), and completed all ahead of schedule
• Board member of a multinational non-profit that promotes PD for young engineers
• Teach pro-bono music lessons 2 nights/week; partnered with local charity to fund instrument rentals for kids from low-income households
• Why an MBA now: I’ve learned a lot about how things are built, now I want to learn why they are built. A foundation in economics, finance, and strategy will allow me to return to major projects on the client side, evaluating new projects for risk and ROI, and then running them
• 25 year-old white male
• Target schools: London Business School, Oxford, Cambridge, NYU Stern, Berkeley Haas. I've been to the Stanford GSB campus and loved it, but I don't think I have the "wow" factor necessary to bother applying there.
Hey dude,
Allright, so the thing I liked MOST was that you got where you are in three years instead of six!
You gotta let everybody know that!
Oh yeah, that and the awesome GMAT.
You have some quite solid volunteer work too.
I think if you focus on the list you have proposed here, and you get your story down that your list is a good one (meaning overall it is strategically balanced) There's no reason for you not to apply to Stanford though. You may think you don't have the WOW factor. But here is your chance to generate it. And why would you NOT apply? I mean you loved it. And how terrible will it be for you to know you didn't try? The worst that can happen is you don't get in, but the best....
Cheers,
Jon