Ask GyanOne MBA Admission Consultants - Top Bschool Applications

Hi Subodhi12394,

Thanks for your detailed post. Always good to see applicants having some clear questions to ask than just an overview (though we are happy to help there too!).

We will get straight away into the questions you have listed. In case there are any other aspects that you want us to help answer, we will be glad to do so.

1) School selection is generally a comprehensive exercise, so these recommendations are not final. On your school list, just based on the information that you have provided, Columbia and Stern seem like stretch schools for you. UCLA and Tepper might be possibilities, but we will need more details around your work with TCS to really offer more details around school selection. Jones, Kelley, Emory look ok on first glance.
2) For most schools, you will not even need to do this. They will ask you to enter your score as in the Indian system (percentage / 10.0 GPA). Some schools like Rice Jones will ask for grades conversion, and you can get that done through services like WES online.
3) Most of these schools will not require TOEFL scores if your medium of instruction at the college level has been English. One exception to this is Kelley, which requires Indian applicants to take the TOEFL even if they had English as the medium of instruction at the college level. If possible, take the TOEFL now as TOEFL dates can be hard to find later in the year and you might need to travel to get your TOEFL scores in time to send to schools if you take it later. On whether TOEFL can make you more competitive at MBA admissions, the answer is usually no.
4) Switching from Mechanical Engg to Computer Science should not be a problem in terms of admissions, but you will need to make a case for why you made the move. A good offer from TCS is understandable, but the reasons must go beyond the compensation offered. Why did you move to a completely unrelated area? What did you find interesting? How have you justified this move through your achievements? You will need to answer these questions and more. If your post-MBA goals are also in IT, that should help.
5) Please note that NGO work / social work is not a requirement for any MBA application. In case you do have significant social contributions to highlight, by all means do so, but outside that context NGO work has only limited value for MBA admissions. A small number of schools focus on this aspect in their applications, but it can also be answered through various other ways outside NGO work. Your work with TCS CSR is relevant.
6) Yes, going onsite (assuming to a European country or the US) can be an advantage. Go for it.
7) Your scores and overall profile parameters, as mentioned here, seem to indicate that you should be fine applying to ISB, just on the basis of your profile. See other caveats in point 1 above about school selection. The application pool you belong to (Indian IT Male) is going to make things competitive for you there (as it will at other programs too, but ISB gets more applications from this pool than other schools), so you will need to differentiate yourself and show how you are not just another Indian IT engineer applying to ISB. Having broad numbers conforming to the general student parameters in a school is one thing, and creating a strong application that wins you admission to that school is quite another. Therefore, don't judge your chances at different schools based only on numbers or averages.

Go through the following article meant for Indian IT applicants: Indian IT Male applicants - applying to MBA programs

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with further queries.