GMAT 740. Low Work-Ex. National level football player

Question

10th : 86%

12th : 83.4%

GRADUATION 
B.Tech. in Computer Science from IP University, Delhi with an aggregate score of 72.6% (First Class)

GMAT : 740

WORK-EX :
Working with Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG) (World’s 5th largest group) for past 2 years as a Software Engineer. Involved in different roles for 2 years. Was a JAVA developer for the first 12 months and worked on a project related to automobile industry wherein we tracked all the activities of major automobile players (like Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen etc.) and their manufacturing plants. In this project I  proposed a module  which involved scanning of invoices, of which I proposed the algorithm, to potentially reduce the effort at customer’s side. This  brought a business of 60.2 Million INR to organization .  Received Star Performer of the Year award for the initiative taken .
In lieu to this initiative taken, after 1 year in the organization, I was  shifted to Business Intelligence Team  to use the critical data like revenue; budget etc. of the organization to track down the lacuna’s to suggest possible changes to be made for organization’s benefit. Working under this team, I  proposed the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)  which shall mitigate the re-work done in few teams in the organization. Upon review it was implemented in the organization. I  inked down the proposed SDLC and got it converted in form of a research paper, published in a prestigious journal .

Total Work-Ex at the time of ISB 2016-17 application will be 2 years 8 months.

OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE 
Went with project leader and other team members for installation and demo of the project to the client for duration of 3 months in Hungry during my tenure as a JAVA developer in initial 12 months

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EXPERIENCE 
In last year of under-graduation, founded a tech company along with 2 friends, to develop websites and applications ranging from android to ecommerce website. The company is registered in the name of www crebertech com. The company generated a  revenue around INR 1 lakh . Currently serving as the business head in the startup.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR 
I have categorized extra-curricular into following categories.
 Scholastic Achievements:  
• Have 5 research papers being the 1st author published in prestigious journals with a high impact factor. For one of the research paper published, was selected as a reviewer at the same journal (Science Alert) where mostly doctorate and post-doctorate professors are selected.
• Was selected to represent my school in a competition of Mathematics and English conducted by University of New South Wales.
• Winner of 3 state awards in technical events conducted at Delhi College of Engineering (DCE). Runner-Up in 4 technical events conducted at Delhi College of Engineering.
 Dramatics 
• Winner in 1 competition and runner up in other organized in IGIT.
• Played Football at National Level. Represented Delhi and scored a hat trick and helped team to reach semi-finals. Was also adjudicated Man-of-the-tournament by sports head of IIT during an intra-college football tournament in my college.
• Organized literary events during college fests in the year 2011-2012-2013. Recoded higher participation with each successive year.
 Debating and Literacy 
• Winner of 3 State level debate competitions organized at Delhi College of Engineering.
• Winner of 3 State level extempore competitions organized at Delhi College of Engineering.
• Winner of 3 State level essay competitions organized at Delhi College of Engineering and 1 essay event organized in my college.
• Contributed to college and school magazines and remained an active blooger in my organization monthly newsletter.
 Social Initiative 
• Involved with an NGO for past 3 years. Working as a treasurer now. During my time I organized events to raise fund for the NGO and used the same money to prevent cow smuggling and prevent slaughtering of cows in the small villages of Haryana.
• A short 3 months internship at AIESEC under the program Iccha, to help slum children identify the basic cause of malaise. Helped them identify major pollutants and areas acting as a breeding ground of mosquitoes. Drafted a survey on the area visited and was adopted as a blue print by the local residents to palliate the waste.
• Worked for 5 months at Children Home, Delhi Government foster home to orphan kids. Provided pedagogy to students and was involved in various teaching drives organized at foster home during those 5 moths.
• Active member of CSR committee of my organization. Awarded for an active role in donation and social drives.

My target schools are Yale, Booth, Ross, Anderson, Tuck, Stern, Hass, Insead, Kellogg, ISB, Stanford GSB, LBS, Tepper and Johnson. Is it too ambitious or can I count some of them as moderate ? if yes, which one ?

Admissionado · Answer

Hey there,
So overall you have great profile! You have done a lot of really unique and interesting stuff, which will strengthen your story significantly as you compete against other Indian candidates.

So far I see no major weaknesses and only a minor one - that you are non-IIT and that your GPA could be a touch higher. But still Delhi is a well-know university and 72% is not bad for your school. (still, they will see some people with 80+%).

And as far as strengths, I see many:
- Your awesome GMAT!
- Your precocious publications!
- Your entrepreneurial venture
- Your NGO involvement
- Your itnernational experience
- and of course, playing football at a national level.

You can leverage all of this towards building a quite impressive profile, and I think you can apply to top schools. I'll list roughly how tough I think it will be for you to get into the schools ranking them from toughest to easier:

Stanford
Tuck
LBS
Booth
Haas
Yale
Kellogg
Stern
Ross
ISB
Anderson
Johnson

I hope this helps, and wish you luck. Let me know if you have any other questions,

Best,
JF

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

Great to see a detailed post Vipul, helps get a much better sense of the profile. Here are a few points for you to ponder on:
 
  Perhaps I don't need to reiterate the strengths of your profile so let me bring your attention to areas that you need to think deeper on. You have made no mention of your post-MBA goals. That more than anything else will really make or mar your chances. Though you've done some fantastic work but you need a clear line of sight to 
truly differentiate yourself in the super competitive IT pool. Your current role (BI) is an enviable one - make the most of it 
  Where would you be in the class relatively speaking at that GPA? I love the continuity you have showed in terms of non-profit work and research work from academia to professional life. Same does not seem to be true for your sporting escapades however? This may put a bit of a gap/hole in terms of your leadership experience overall. So think about this aspect too 
  Finally, for reasons mentioned  here , I will refrain from providing gut based school suggestions. Suffice it to say however, that the list looks pretty aggressive at a high level. It wouldn't harm you to throw in 1-2 more practical schools in the mix.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

vipulaggarwal · Answer

Thanks  JonAdmissionado  and  MG4MBACrystalBall  for providing relevant inputs.
 MG4MBACrystalBall . In term of football. I was forced to leave football due to injury in my thumb while playing at college. However, to keep the interest and the sports going in my life. I have used football matches at district level as a medium to raise fund for the NGO for whom I have been involved for 3 years now.

Apart from this. My post MBA goal is to go in a consultancy and carry my experience of case studies and strategy forward while inculcating other skills from a B school. Also, I would really appreciate if you could help me shortlist and include some safer schools too and let me know the reason for which other schools looks ambitious ?

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

Vipul,

The NGO continuity is fantastic - should dovetail nicely with your early year escapades.

Not sure if you read the article I had mentioned? You'll realize that though it is tempting, we do not dish out school suggestions without 'really' knowing you. Why some of the schools may be ambitious? You will still belong to a competitive pool of applicants and the years of experience may fall a year short. These are just the objective ones - there might be subjective ones too which I can't really comment on for obvious reasons

Cheers,

vipulaggarwal · Answer

Hi MG4MBACrystalBall . I went through the article you suggested. And I have a better picture in my mind after reading the article. Would you mind getting in touch one to one so that I can get an insight on how the system will work if we work together and you to gain a sufficient insight of me, to recommend me and shortlist my schools.

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

Our contact details are there in my signature - feel free to reach out once you've made up your mind here.

Cheers,

ARINGO · Answer

Hi there,

You have a solid profile, with strong GMAT and work experiences and extra-curricular. The GPA is not that great and it's not clear if you had a promotion or bump in salary with the change in role. That will help your case further. Ross/Anderson/Tepper/Johnson are in your sweet spot and ISB should be a safety.

Best of luck!

vipulaggarwal · Answer

Hi Arnigo, JonAdmissionado and MG4MBACrystalBall . Thanks for your valuable inputs. I really appreciate you scanning through my profile to provide the feedback.
I had a promotion from Engineer trainee to Software Engineer in a span of 4 months which usually takes 14 months in my organization and then had a change of role based on performance and my willingness (expressed explicitly by me to the management). Also, it was counted as the promotion as the pay scale was lifted because of the same.

I have shortlisted

HKUST Business School
Duke University: Fuqua
Ceibs
Esade Business School
University of Michigan: Ross
University of Virginia: Darden
Carnegie Mellon: Tepper
Indian School of Business
Emory University: Goizueta

What are your inputs on the above universities ? Do you think top 3 are ambitious, next 4 are moderate and last 3 are safe ?

AugustAcademy · Answer

Hi Vipul, I really like your work experience. Your GMAT is off the charts as well. And I definitely would like some more details. Unfortunately, as you probably know, you belong to a pool of over-represented candidates. Sorry

A brand name degree, and a non-IT work profile might have done wonders to your application, given the level of motivation that you've displayed so far. I might have to give you bad odds at the top 10 because of that. ISB should be ok, if you do a good job on your essays, and hold fort well in your interviews. Ross, Anderson, Tepper, Johnson, INSEAD and LBS might be good applications - but will be competitive. I will encourage you to spread the net a bit wider. Regards, Karthik

AugustAcademy · Answer

Didn't see this post.

HKUST, CEIBS, ISB and ESADe will be the safest of the lot. Duke, Ross and Darden are a stretch. Tepper and Emory - it really depends on which way the coin falls.

Regards,
Karthik

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hi Vipul,

You have a decent profile. Your work experience, academics, extracurricular and GMAT Score are really good and impressive. I agree with the above comments here that working with NGO, entrepreneurship experience and playing football at national level really makes your profile even stronger.

You have fair chances of getting admission from top 10-20 B-Schools. I would suggest you to target B-Schools like Stanford, Kellogg, Michigan Ross, UCLA and Chicago Booth.

You may also gauge your chances of getting admission to top business school by trying this amazing tool  https://bit.ly/1C9o2Md

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

GMAT 740. Low Work-Ex. National level football player

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