Hi Kushagra,
I've organized my response to your inquiries into a few distinct categories to ensure I answer your inquiry in full.
Career Progress
To allay your fears, the fact that you shifted away from engineering to pursue a passion for sports and its associated industries isn’t a negative. In fact, it’s what will make you stand out from a large pool of applicants with experiences very similar to your early work experience.
Don’t focus so much on what you haven’t yet done or what you weren’t quite able to do, e.g. join the professional level. Instead, keep the focus on all of the ground you’ve covered. The business development idea that used the public health industry and resources to turn smokers to marathoners, as you described, is precisely the type of innovative, promising focus that a school like Stanford appreciates (and I know you’ve isolated Stanford in particular as a dream school).
Other: Career Goals
You have a unique story that will help set you up well for your applications. However, you’ll need to have a very clear sense of the venture(s) you’d like to launch post-MBA. You’ll need to give the adcoms a sense of who the current leaders in the space are, what you will do differently or better, what challenges you might face, how you’ll overcome them, and what your personal and pragmatic goals are for this venture in five years, in ten years, and long-term. Without that specificity, the adcoms at top MBA programs might doubt your commitment to and/or ability to realize post-MBA success.
Other: Next Steps
It goes without saying that the GMAT will be important (as I know you realize). Test-prep, whether independent or through a test prep service, should be your focus now. When you’ve achieved a target score, you have a shot at a program like Stanford or Yale if you really show how an MBA from their programs is integral to the detailed goals you have in mind.
Best of luck!
The
MBA Prep School Team