[highlight]From Dr. Shel Watts,
https://www.mbaadmit.comSign up for our Buy-1-Get-a-2nd-Set-Free Special - Valid until the end of July 2011. MBA Admit.com: Proudly, one of the most affordable top-quality MBA admissions consulting companies, with prices nearly 50% lower than our direct competitors.[/highlight]
Hi,
First of all, you sound like a fantastic candidate. You have great credentials. You stand out in professional experience, community leadership and academics, so you have excellent material to work with in presenting yourself as a candidate who has not only achieved a great deal in the past, but also as a candidate who will surely achieve a great deal in the future also. Your work with CA transportation system will surely give you some very interesting stories to write about!
I think it is potentially risky to take the GMAT again. If it goes down to 700, for example, that is not ideal for you. If it goes up, I suppose that can make you stand out even more, but your academic credentials are so strong that I don't think the 730 would deter you from gaining admission to the schools you most want.
If you have to submit some applications in Round 2, I would choose something like this combination:
R1: Wharton, Harvard, LBS, MIT
R2: Booth, Anderson, McCombs
If you want to move one safety school into Round 1, then perhaps move McCombs into Round 1. If you have to move one of the above from Round 1, perhaps MIT could move to Round 2. Columbia is rolling in its admissions, so that would be a "Round 2" application in terms of the timing of when you would prepare the application, assuming you did not want to apply Early Decision.
At Harvard, if you desire, you can make a strong argument that your presence can benefit not only the business school, but also the public policy school - there is a lot of joint work between the two schools. While you will be an MBA student, you can attend seminars at the public policy school and provide valued insights there given your work experience. That's just another way to position your candidacy as very unique.
Let me know if you need any further assistance in the application process!
Best wishes,
[highlight]Shelly Watts[/highlight]
MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.comEmail:
mbaadmit@aol.comscoonian wrote:
Dr. Watts,
Firstly thanks for your time and guidance. Please have a look at my profile and send me your valuable suggestions/comments:
Indian, Male, Age: 27
GMAT 730, (Q49, 86%ile), (V40, 89%ile), (AWA 5.0)
Academic:
Undergrad: Civil Engg, IIT Madras, GPA: 7.32/10,
Masters: Transportation Engg, Texas A&M University, Major GPA 4.0/4.0 (Total 3.9/4.0)
Graduate Certificate in Business, GPA 3.75/4.0, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University (This is kind of a Minor. with a total of 4 courses, 12 credits).
Certifications:
CFA Level 3 Candidate.
Professional Engineer, State of California.
Work experience details:
Full Time (Close to 4 years by Aug 2012), Dept. of Transportation, CA
July 2011 to Present, Associate Project Manager
July 2009 to June 2011, Assistant Project Engineer
Nov 2009 to June 2010, Assistant Project Manager
Oct 2008 to Oct 2009, Transportation Engineer
Part Time ( 2 yrs, 20 hrs per week), Texas Transportation Institute, TX
Sep 2006 to Aug 2008, Research Assistant
Pre - MBA work experience areas : Infrastructure Engineering, and Project Management
After - MBA plans: Short-Term: Infrastructure/Project Finance, Long Term: Investment Management and Private Equity.
Potential Points To Be Highlighted In Essays:
From Professional Life:
● Supervised a politically highly sensitive project which was among the first few projects funded by Obama’s $ 40 B infrastructure stimulus package of 2008. Project became very crucial as it was allotted to a contractor with criminal history, and the whole crew was very less experienced (had to contract out the project to that company because of the reservation limitations). I took over and lead the project after the Senior Engineer who was supposed to lead that project left with in the first quarter of the project as he found it very difficult to manage the contractor and his crew.
● Saved close to $1.5 Million on a highway construction project by coming up with few innovative approaches to deal with unexpected issues raised during the project.
● Developed new data analysis methods which are now followed by our whole project mgmt group.
● Among the youngest in the department to receive a professional engineer license and consequently to authorize State projects.
● Worked on the Caldecott Tunnel Project ( a $ 420 million project, Nation’s second largest highway project supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 )
From Personal Life:
● the way me, my education, and my career progression stood up as a good example and inspiration for many kids in my village and neighboring villages.
● my commitment to make sure that no kid from my village would drop out of school (until at least primary school) due to the lack of financial resources or guidance. Did set up a Fund to fund their primary school education.
● involvement with several child education related activities through CSECC (California State Employees Charitable Campaign), CRY (Child Rights and You), and AID (Aid for India’s Development)
Other:
● Worked on a start up “Biglifeindia”. Idea was to generate superior returns on the investor’s investments by pooling and investing them in growing sectors like infrastructure development, real estate, large-scale agriculture etc, in India. Temporarily suspended the project because of unfavorable political developments and consequent new regulations (Andhra Pradesh Micro Finance Institutions Act, 2010).
Target Schools:
R1: Booth, Columbia, Wharton or Harvard, MIT or LBS
R2: Wharton/Harvard, MIT/LBS, Haas, Anderson, McCombs.
Please send me your valuable suggestions and comments regarding my following concerns:
1) At which of my targeted schools, do I have a decent chance to put a competitive application?
2) Is it worth retaking GMAT, given that I am confident of increasing the score from 730 to 750: both from admits perspective and scholarships perspective.
3) Given that I have time to apply only one of either Wharton or Harvard, also either MIT or LBS in first round, is there any advantage of picking one school over other in R1 vs R2.
4) Areas where I should specifically concentrate to make my application more competitive at my targeted schools.
Thanks a lot for your time and help.
Ram
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