Hi, Santosh,

A key area for you to develop is where you want your career to go. You will want to clearly articulate to the admissions committee where you see your career going in the short and long term. You will want to show them that you have a solid foundation for this plan by using examples from your career to date. Think about the skills you will need to be successful and what transferable skills you have from your current experience. It sounds like you would have strong examples of project management, problem solving, people management, mentoring and more. You mentioned receiving two awards. What were those for? Can you pull any relevant examples from those experiences?

Remember in your essays and interviews to sell yourself and what you have done. It is great to show you are part of the team, but you want to be sure your contribution to the team’s success is clear. Also, you will want to differentiate yourself by pulling examples from your involvement in YFS and the CSR group. Have you led projects or teams? Are there results you can showcase? It is great to get your character and passion across to the admissions committee.

In terms of school selection, you should decide your most important criteria – areas of focus, teaching style, geography, size, career services, alumni network, etc. - that will help you get where you want to go. Beyond the schools you list, you may also want to look at programs such as Carnegie Mellon Tepper, University of Texas - Austin, or University of Maryland for an IT focus.

Good luck,
Susan Kaplan
Senior Consultant
mbaMission
646-485-8844

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