IT/Mgmnt Consultant with 90 mos WorkEx requesting an Eval

Hey sjaianand:

I appreciate the breakdown provided. It definitely helped digest a number of components critical to your candidacy. I also appreciate the level of detail provided around your travels and extracurricular activities. The one thing I need a better understanding of is your goals. For the purposes of this evaluation, I am going to assume that you will follow a very traditional routes and look to move into management consulting after your MBA.

Another thing that your initial post told me is that you are not clueless. I believe that you have a level of sophistication that is partially the product of your international travels. What will separate you from the rest of your countrymen is the depth of this international experience, and more importantly, how you speak to it on your essays. To be completely honest, the trend that I believe (I have no significant dataset to back this up for now) I am witnessing is that Indian applicants who possess no significant international work experience are at a bigger disadvantage than most Indian applicants would believe. Some may challenge me on this, but by the end of this year I hope to have a data set large enough to justify my hypothesis.
Anyway, your international work experience indicates your ability to work with and lead a lot of difference types of people, in different environments, is something you have to stress your application. The fact that you are now you based out of the US will definitely bode well with American admissions committees. I say this because I believe that recruiters (and by extension admissions committees) definitely look favorably on Indian applicants who fit in well with their American colleagues and employers (ie. you are a known quantity in the office.) Anyway, for the sake of brevity, I will move on from this point as you have it covered.

Another thing that tells me that you are sharper than the average knife is your desire to accelerate your MBA experience. Given that you are now 30 years old and that you do not plan to be a career switcher, you need to focus heavily on maximizing your ROI. I assume that you are making a pretty good salary right now and it really makes no sense to take two full years out, especially with a family to support. So I am in full support of your desire to attend the one-year Kellogg program.
I also think that you should look heavily to programs in the European Union. A lot of the schools have over 90% international representation. However, what a lot of the schools lack are applicants who have spent significant time working in the US. You will be considered an applicant from India, of course. But your State-side work experience definitely looks even more attractive to admissions committees in the EU.

A few more points.
If you are going to have trouble breaking 700 on the GMAT (not because you are dumb, but rather because you seem to have a a lot of responsibility between work and family) you will also do better applying to programs in the EU (who don't go as ape-**** over super-high GMAT scores.)

Your corporate social responsibility experiences will not be discounted because you did then at work. In fact, I believe that it may work out to be the exact opposite. Think of it this way – business schools always claim to want the types of leaders who seek to use business as a tool to change the world. Of course, business and society are the two main subsets contained within "the world." So if you already used your workplace as a conduit for your social responsibility initiatives, you are doing exactly what they want. See how that works? You are a poet – and you didn't even know it! That rhymes, by the way. Word up.

Seriously, you seem like a very well-rounded individual. Like a boss, you know Six Sigma principles and Indian classical music. The next thing I expect to hear from you is that you can dunk. I'll look for that in your reply to me. If I had a little sister, I would let you date her! But you are married and I don't actually have a sister. Okaaay, moving on .... before this gets weird. lol.

If you would be interested in speaking further about your candidacy, and of course how I can help you, please e-mail me at MBA@amerasiaconsulting.com.

Respectively,
Paul Lanzillotti