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Demographics: Indian, Male, 30 years
1) Brief description of your full-time work experience. : software engineer in 6 years in a top Tech company - Part of the core team members to launch a brand new product - took from a prototype to a 50+ million dollar product; Intituted and ran integration efforts for 3 different countries for the same product. awarded the best employee of the quarter award last year.
2) GMAT: 680, Q45, V 38, AWA 6 - [Irony - took Gmat 3 times already.]
3) College info:
Education: Undergraduate - Engineering BE Information Technology [2002] India - 76%
Graduate: M S - Computer Science - UT Arlington - 3.5
4) Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience: One of Founding members - Ameture Drama troupe - conduct stage drama every year. Successfully donated proceeds to selected charities every year for 5 years now.
Extra curriculars - Best outgoing student - Undergraduation. Division Representative - Work life balance group in Office - Organization wise Table tennis tournaments for 2 years. Local Yoga club member - Yoga practioner from Age 15.
5) Important certifications like CFA, CPA, FSA, or CA. : N/A
6) Your target programs : MBA in - Tuck, Hass, Insead, LBS, Kellogg, Booth, [Wharton ?]
7) Your post-MBA goal.
Post MBA goals: Management consulting - short term. Long term - Move back to India to join family business.
Kulki,
Thank you for submitting your profile. On the basis of the information above, and under the assumption of strong essays and recommendations and a GMAT score of 680, our experience shows that you will be a stretch candidate at Tuck, Haas, INSEAD, LBS, Kellogg, Booth, and Wharton, between competitive and stretch (closer to stretch) at Darden, between competitive and stretch at Tepper, and competitive at Texas McCombs.
Right now, the key strength that I see in your profile is your experience at one of the top tech firms. It will be important to highlight your professional progression and leadership.
There are several reasons why this is salient. First, since you have been working for six years as an engineer, you will be expected to have progressed from purely technical contributions and you should now be starting to lead projects, be asked to contribute on special initiatives, etc. Second, based on information that you provided, it does not appear that your GMAT, GPA, and universities attended would necessarily be considered top-tier for the top global MBA programs. For example, while the University of Texas at Arlington is a good school, it would not typically hold the reputation of the University of Texas at Austin (a top 50 school).
Regarding your interest in consulting, I am assuming you would have interest in doing consulting for tech firms, based on your background. Also, make sure in your essays to elaborate on the nature of your family's business. The larger and more linked with your background, the more it would help with your application.
Since you are in the competitive Indian / male / technical applicant pool, your strong involvement in extracurricular activities will also be a benefit.
Additionally, I really like that you were awarded the "Best outgoing student" from your university. The reason, besides the fact that business schools seek out outgoing/Type-A personalities, is that it's actually somewhat rare for an engineer to be the type who wins this award. I would encourage you to actually try to weave this into one of your essays and talk about how you were nominated and/or what was the motivation behind you winning this award. If you used this to help you get your job at the tech firm, for example, this is an even better story. Part of my motivation for saying this is admission committee members, in the back of their minds, are thinking, "Is this person going to be successful in the recruiting process? Can they present themselves well and stand out?"
Best of luck,
10 Oct 2011, 06:53
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