Hi
I have read some of your profile evaluations in this forum and I am in awe of your detailed yet to-the-point views.
I would love to get some advice for my profile too.
Current Age: 23 Years
GMAT (Dec-2020): 760 (Q50 V42 IR8 AWA6)
Educational Qualification
1)Graduation GPA: 5-Year Dual Degree (B.Tech + M.Tech) from IIT Kharagpur - 8.52/10 [approximately top 10-20 % of the class but there's no way to get an official confirmation of that]
2)Class-12: 91.6%
3)Class-10: 10/10
Academic Achievements
1)KVPY Fellow [National Rank-588]: Top 1% (among 110000 applicants)
2)NTSE Fellow : Top 1% (among 1 million applicants)
3)IIT-JEE Exam [National Rank-1286]: Top 0.1% (among 1.3 million applicants)
Extra Curriculars
College Level:
1) Member of the Debating Society: Frequently participated in parliamentary debates. No tournament wins.
2) Was a Teaching Assistant for two semesters in two different labs.
3) Other Hobbies: Basketball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Athletics, etc.
School Level:
1) Spent 5-years at a military boarding school (The school has a notable alumni base in Indian Armed Forces)
2) National Cadet Corps [Volunteer Experience]: Basic Military Training for 4 years and annual training camp. Also received a certification for the same.
(NCC was the second line of defense for India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971 but lately, it has been mostly involved in disaster-relief and basic military training)
3) Frequently won Debates and some had wins in Athletics too. Also participated in Dramatics.
Work Experience
I am fresh out of college. I am working at Samsung Research in the field of AI and computer vision (mostly related to images and videos). The work involves academic research and coding. Most people, from here, go for PHDs and not MBAs.
Long Term Goals
I am open to both "management consulting" and "CXO position in some big tech company".
Target Schools
Strong preference: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT Sloan, INSEAD
Only if provided >25% scholarship: Booth, Kellog, Haas, LBS
Only if provided >50% scholarship: Ross, Columbia, Tuck, Fuqua
Disclaimer: This only depicts my preference based on what would help me career-wise. I would appreciate it if you could shed some light on my actual chances at these schools. Open to adjusting my preferences.
Questions:
1) It is my understanding that my profile weighs light on the extra-curricular side. I do have active participation (Debating Society, Athletics, Sports, etc) but nothing that would convey strong leadership experience. I did lead some group projects in the classroom but nothing stellar. How big is that as a problem?
2) I now regret not taking up any leadership roles in my 5 years of college. But I plan to compensate for it in the next 3 years in any way possible. Here are some options that I am considering:
a) If I switch to a young startup, I can get to lead a team within 2 years and in some sense, my work would have greater impact on the business directly.
b) I can try to switch to a more analytics-heavy role, something such as Predictive Data Analytics in some IT consulting firms (Accenture, Gartner, ZS Associates, Capgemini, etc.)
c) I can continue in my tech-heavy career track and try to get 1-2 years of international exposure. Should I trade Samsung(fortune-50) for a lower fortune 500 company to gain international exposure?
3) To improve my profile further, I am also planning to get involved with some NGO but I am a bit apprehensive about spending too much time on the lesser important stuff. Is the lack of any community engagement on my profile a big issue?
4) I am confident that I can push my GMAT score to 780 (maybe even 790). Is it worth the money? Will 780 improve my chances significantly? Also, does a 780 put you in a better position for financial aid?
5) A credible source suggested me to take some Business-oriented online certification courses to demonstrate my inclination. Will that really make a difference?
PS: Sorry for making it that long. I just really want to put in my best efforts for the next 3 years.
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13 Dec 2020, 09:17
