Need your kind advice

Question

Hi,
 I would love to know what do you think of my profile and what do u suggest?
Age=turning 26
Gender=Male
Nationality=Pakistan ( belong to outskirts of one of the oldest cities of the world-->Multan )
GPA=2.14/4 ( From top Engineering institute in Pakistan at the time of my enrollment)
Degree= Bachelor of Electronic Engineering ( Major-->Telecommunication )
WE= 2+ years ( Working for Motorola, Will apply in late 2011 for 2012 intake and till then I'll have 4 years of exp.)
GMAT= N/A yet ( Will appear this year and hope to get 700+ aiming for 750+)

Extracurricular & Community Services= Was member of Faculty & Batch Soccer Team, Played active role in managing 1st All Pakistan E-gaming event at my institute, Won "To the hills and back" competition held by Adventure Club at institute. Participated in Community Service event held by Motorola as a part of their program "Go Green & Global". Volunteered in distribution of Polio Vaccination in my village on Polio day to spread the awareness of Polio disease. Tutored in my village school voluntarily. Mentored interns and fellow engineers (juniors) during my job to Configure Motorola's BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) system and perform QoS (Quality of Service) testing in coordination with customer. Vital role along with my elder brother in spreading the awareness of Tunnel Farming & plantation to farmers in my village so that they can cultivate non-seasonal vegetables & in crease the production as much as 60% which ultimately increases revenue. 
 
Currently, working with my brother on 2 projects in our village; 
1) Make them aware of  Biogas Generator  and motivate them to install in their homes to generate gas for their home usage as there is no gas facility in our village yet. This will make a better use of Animal Waste and we don't have to be a burden on our Government. Usually, men go to work and women stay at home in villages. Even, women at home can operate this generator easily to produce gas for their house use. There are many other aspects of this project. Even government representatives are willing to pay half of the price needed to install these generators.
2) Motivate them to install  Biogas Sand Water Filter  at their homes to get filetered and clean water, which is a big step to minimize health issues as much as possible. It is really easy to make these filters and they will be made by investing around 50$ only.
These projects will play a vital role in our village prosperity and I hope other villages will follow this too.

As far as my job is concerned, I am a System Integration Engineer. Working on BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) networks. I have been a vibrant part of my team and always have been a quick learner throughout my career. Until now I have been leading most of the activities and have led them successfully. Played vital role in solving problems and troubleshooting critical network issues during the deployment of one of major Broadband Network in Pakistan and Asia. Have worked closely with customer to resolve their network issues. Performed ATP's (Acceptance Test Procedure) to hand over the network to customer, believe me one must have convincing power and communication skills to convince them to accept the network sites. Lead teams comprising engineers, technicians and riggers to perform field-work activities. I believe I'll have good recommendations.
 As far as my GPA is concerned, there were some personal & family issues and being young as 17 years old &not mature enough, I messed up my GPA. I did take all the responsibilities of messing up my GPA as I wasn't mature enough to concentrate on my studies and prioritize it. But, I did learn from my mistakes and got mature enough to prioritize my things and concentrate on what I am supposed to do. I have worked really hard in my job and have changed a lot.
 I wanted to take some courses to cover up for my GPA but here in my country we don't have Community collages where I could take some courses like Calculus & Accounting.
 I am aiming for Top 10 or 15 MBA Programs, would like to know which of these programs can be fit for me. I would prefer a mixture of Case method and traditional teaching style. My concentration would be General-Management and Entrepreneurship as I'll be switching career and short-term goals are to get into some high-tech or consultancy firms, marketing can be a good option too and long-term goal is to start a business.

I think I have written more than enough. Forgive me for writing that much. I hope you'll have a kind look on my profile and provide some thorough feedback.
Thanks,
Atif

idcandy · Answer

Atif,

It sounds like you have a very compelling story. All of your work in your community coupled with the work you are doing for Motorola should make for some great essays and interviews. As you mention, your GPA is the only point of concern. I would certainly try to earn a high score on the GMAT to offset that (and definitely use the optional supplemental essay in the MBA application to explain why your GPA is not representative of your academic ability). It is unfortunate that you cannot take classes to augment your academic history.

It may not be a bad idea for you to consider waiting a bit longer to apply to MBA programs. According to HBS's website, they only admitted 1 student with less than 3 years work experience in 2009! (Sorry, I can't post URLs yet, but Google search "hbs class profile" without quotes and it should be the second result.) It would seem that your chances  may  be better with more work experience (and therefore, more distance from your GPA as well as more time to keep building up your already-impressive list of extra-curricular achievements). In the end, it will be up to you to decide when the time is right, and if you think the right time is now, then by all means, go for it! Make sure to submit the best application you can. One tip I would give is: try to put together your best application in the first or second admission rounds, as things get much more competitive after that (if you have a great application put together in the first round, that will give you the best chance, but don't push a less-than-your-best application through just to get it in early).

Btw, with your background, you may want to consider schools like Haas (UC-Berkeley) and Tepper (Carnegie Mellon). My background is in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and both Haas and Tepper appealed to me because of their respective emphases on high-tech fields.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

AtifS · Answer

Thank you! for your response and kind & encouraging words. At the time of application I'll have 4 years of experience and I think it's neither too early nor too late. As after studies I have to get married and have a family, then it would be little difficult to study. And until now I had been supporting my family but now my brother got a good job as a result I can manage some time to study. Also, I am already lagging behind my undergrad fellows as I graduated later than them. So, after considering all of these I think after having 4 years of experience with the age of 27 it would be right time to go for studies. 
Hope, I described clearly.

Regards,
Atif

AtifS · Answer

I would love to know what do Linda and Paul think. Also any advice from their side will be highly appreciable.
Regards,
Atif

Accepted.com · Answer

I agree that you have a compelling story, but am concerned about your  low undergrad grades . A high GMAT will help you address concerns about your ability to perform. An explanation of the circumstances surrounding the low grades will also help. Nothing, however, will be as effective as recent A's. Have you considered taking some online classes from a US university? UCLA Extension, NYU Extension and I think the University of Maryland all have online courses. You could take courses in accounting, economics, statistics for business. If you earn A's they will add weight to the argument that you have learned to prioritize and apply yourself academically.

In terms of recommended schools, it is somewhat early to recommend since you don't yet have a  GMAT and you are almost two years away from applying. However, assuming that you continue with the activities cited above, continue to progress professionally, and earn a 700+ GMAT (and hopefully take a couple of classes, earning A's) then here are the schools I suggest you consider:  Cornell ,  Ross ,  UCLA ,  CMU , UT,  UNC , and  Duke .

Best,
Linda

AtifS · Answer

Thank you so much for your valuable suggestions and insights. Yea, I have 2 years to go for it but I want to take all the necessary steps ahead of application process. Because after my undergrad and after having been through all of that I always try to plan ahead and then take necessary steps to make that plan successful so that I don't repeat same mistakes I've committed before. I am always in a learning process, learning from experience, learning from mistakes, learning from other as much as I can. I will ace GMAT for sure to augment low GPA and take courses necessary as well. I am searching for some college which (maybe) offers these courses here otherwise will take online courses as you mentioned, after taking GMAT.
Thank you,
Atif

Accepted.com · Answer

Taking graded, accredited courses is a good way to show that you know how to excel academically, as discussed earlier. You may also want to consider MBAmath.com . It is not universally well-known, but some schools have even purchased it and obviously it has credibility with them.

Regards,
Linda

AtifS · Answer

Thank you for suggestion. MBAmath.com is a good source of learning MBA related quantitative courses. But I have a question that is mbamath.com's course enough to augment my low GPA concerns as far as extra courses are concerned (apart from GMAT and optional essay)? What I mean is if I take mbamath.com's course then I don't need to take any other course online as you mentioned above in your first post.
Regards,
Atif

Accepted.com · Answer

It's very difficult to say what is "enough." Your GMAT will also be a factor. However, I am not suggesting mbamath as a substitute for graded courses, certainly not if you plan to apply to programs that don't seem familiar with MBA Math.

Best,
Linda

AtifS · Answer

Thank you, for your quick response!
I think I'd have to ask the AdCom whether the committee is willing to accept it or not. By the way, most of the programs I intend to apply for were displayed in their list of Programs who use https://www.mbamath.com.
I did visit online courses you mentioned (UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard and others), they are pretty nice and I did watch free videos of some courses like Statistics & Probability. These are amazing but I am still exploring about the courses, for example how much they'll cost & what is the procedure to enroll.
I have to say, you have been my savior. Thanks a lot for your precious time & advice.

Regards,
Atif

Accepted.com · Answer

You're most welcome.

LiamBlack · Answer

You have a really cool profile. But add some editing. Break into paragraphs, one thought one paragraph. Add more headers so that everything on the heap doesn't look.

After reading your presentation, I was really interested in the generator system. Have you been developing this for a long time, do you have any samples that you can imagine?

It seems to me with your invention and electric generators like  these  you can contain more than one house. This will reduce taxes and become more profitable and cheaper.

Need your kind advice

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