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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hi

Please evaluate my profile

25 (male)

Bachelor's in computer science engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
GPA : 6.89 out of 10

Senior software engineer at Samsung Electronics ( 2 years).

I've developed a graphics benchmark application which measures the performance of graphics processor of a Smart TV, this was the first any such application was made for a TV as earlier it existed only for smartphones.

Along side my work as a developer I've taken up additional responsibilities like releasing the whole code base to the main upper level branches. We have multiple stages from where the code is pushed up regularly after thorough verification. I've the sole ownership of this verification and merging of code for a huge module which includes around 35 teams from all around the world in Samsung. This is a very rigorous task as code changes are made every minute and they are to be catered immediately.

I'm also a Global Workplace Agent for my group which consists of around 300 employees, where my task is to organize parties and events at company level.
I've been promoted every year.

I've co-founded two companies with my brother.

Co-founded a marketing company at the age of 18 which went on for 2 years.

Co- founded a rubber band manufacturing company at the age of 21, I looked after product manufacturing and all the technical aspects of the product like creating and improving the product, maintaining the quality in mass production.

I've a GRE score of 316, I've not taken GMAT yet.

Post MBA goals :
Short term : Switch to consulting.
Long term : To be an entrepreneur.


1. What are my chances of getting into top B schools.
2. If I should try for this year or the next. I would have 3 years of experience this year and 4 if I apply next year.
3. Please suggest which schools are achievable for me
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Expert Reply
yashvardhan90 wrote:
Hi

Please evaluate my profile

25 (male)

Bachelor's in computer science engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
GPA : 6.89 out of 10

Senior software engineer at Samsung Electronics ( 2 years).

I've developed a graphics benchmark application which measures the performance of graphics processor of a Smart TV, this was the first any such application was made for a TV as earlier it existed only for smartphones.

Along side my work as a developer I've taken up additional responsibilities like releasing the whole code base to the main upper level branches. We have multiple stages from where the code is pushed up regularly after thorough verification. I've the sole ownership of this verification and merging of code for a huge module which includes around 35 teams from all around the world in Samsung. This is a very rigorous task as code changes are made every minute and they are to be catered immediately.

I'm also a Global Workplace Agent for my group which consists of around 300 employees, where my task is to organize parties and events at company level.
I've been promoted every year.

I've co-founded two companies with my brother.

Co-founded a marketing company at the age of 18 which went on for 2 years.

Co- founded a rubber band manufacturing company at the age of 21, I looked after product manufacturing and all the technical aspects of the product like creating and improving the product, maintaining the quality in mass production.

I've a GRE score of 316, I've not taken GMAT yet.

Post MBA goals :
Short term : Switch to consulting.
Long term : To be an entrepreneur.


1. What are my chances of getting into top B schools.
2. If I should try for this year or the next. I would have 3 years of experience this year and 4 if I apply next year.
3. Please suggest which schools are achievable for me


After a quick view of your profile, I don't believe you are competitive for a top 20 school. You are coming from a highly represented demographic, and your GRE conversion and gpa are not going to score you big points. Pure software engineers also don't get into top b schools with the same frequency as other career pools. Perhaps take one of these companies you have started with your brother (the details of which are not clear) and try to grow it for 2 years and then apply to b school with a very different profile, and maybe an improved standardized test score.

Good Luck!

Alex
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Profile Evaluation ---- 31 Indian IT Male
Married and have a young boy

I have taken GMAT and scored 690 (QA 49, VA 34, IR 6, AWA awaited)

Academics:
10th 1999 = 78.4 %
12th 2001 = 86.0 %
B.E.(Computer Science) 2005 = 71.2 %

Work Experience:
9.5 years of work experience and currently working as Project Lead with India’s top IT Service provider
Lead a team of maximum size 8
Technically very good, enjoy doing data analysis

International Exposure:
2 years in London, UK
3 years in USA

Not associated with any NGO and no voluntary involvement.

Recommendations: Will be able to get good recommendations from immediate supervisor and/or higher management

I want to do 12 to 16 months MBA preferably in IT Service Management (ITSM), Business Process Management (BPM)

While taking GMAT, I have chosen executive programs in below B-School:
IIM A
IIM B
IIM C
XLRI
SP Jain
(Open for B-Schools outside India as well)

Please help me in selecting right B-School catering to my requirement and also where I have better chance to get in.

Any suggestion helping my application will be a great help.
Thank you!
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Expert Reply
Here is a new blog entry I wrote for this year's HBS essay. I hope GMAT CLUB members get some ideas on what mistakes to avoid.

Alex

https://prepmba.com/2015-hbs-essay-dont- ... -mistakes/
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hi PrepMBA, Please evaluate my profile

Introduction
I am a 28 year old Indian male working in Canada for last 3 years in a top tier aerospace company. I intend to apply to top 15 schools for MBA in USA.

GMAT Score
650 (Q49, V30, AWA 6, IR 7)
690 (Q49, V34, AWA 5.5, IR 4)
Planning to retake and targeting 720+

Education
- UG GPA: 74.6% (top 10%)
- Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
- Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi, India
- Won many extra curricular awards
- Master's GPA: 3.53
- Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Thesis based), 2 publications.
- McGill University, Canada

Work Experience
3.5 Years in a top tier Aerospace Company (Employs 30,000+ people and has 100 sites across the world)
- Working as Lead Certification Analyst (certify interiors for business jets for their structural integrity), making sure that the products conform to the regulations and industry standards.
- Manage a team of 5 engineers (for 1 program) and indirectly a team of 10 engineers (for 2 programs)
- Promoted to the above post after only 10 months of experience, pay raises double the usual amount for the past 2 years.
- Led 2 teams of 3 engineers each to oversee update of important company directives, guidelines and manuals that dictate the manufacturing and quality standards of the company.

Strong International Exposure
- Lived, Studied, Worked and travelled to multiple countries
- Nominated (only engineer) to go to France and USA to represent the facility at intra-company conferences and international symposiums
- Worked in International teams and leading a team of Engineers (located in UK, USA, France and Germany) to develop next set of methodologies that will save the company a lot of money once implemented.

Extracurriculars
- Tutoring kids at risk subjects such as Maths, Science and English from grades 3 to 12 (been close to 10 months now, 4-6 hours per week, volunteer basis).
- Team member of company's soccer team
- Teach professional and technical English (related to Aerospace Industry, both written and spoken) to colleagues after work
- Learning French and Spanish over the weekends
- Member of tennis and squash teams of YMCA and play as a member of Montreal Squash League
- Teach colleagues from work tennis after work
- Leading a team of 15 volunteers since 2013-14 for a community heart and eye checkup camp , held once every year for 3 days. This is a free event for anyone who wants to participate.

Post-MBA Goal
I plan to transition from Engineering based role to a management / strategy role in retail/technology. I wish to leverage my experience of leading diverse teams and apply the vast knowledge, exposure and experience I have gained in managing different product portfolios in retail/technology.

Target Schools

- Columbia (Early Decision)
- Chicago Booth
- Stanford
- UCLA
- UC Berkeley
- Wharton
- Cornell
- NY Stern
- Kellogg
- Duke Fuqua (Early Decision)
- Michigan Ross
- CMU Tepper
- Yale SOM

All the above schools Round 1 or Round 2 , 2015, Full Time MBA

Questions
1. Do you think I have a decent shot at the school of my choice (listed above). It will be of immense help to me if you can categorize the schools above as
1) Not possible, forget about it!
2) Good Chance
3) Not at all easy but can be given a shot

2. Also please advise which schools I should target in Round 1 and in Round 2?.
3. Please also advise which other schools (not listed above) will help me achieve my career goals.
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Expert Reply
Engr2012 wrote:
Hi PrepMBA, Please evaluate my profile

Introduction
I am a 28 year old Indian male working in Canada for last 3 years in a top tier aerospace company. I intend to apply to top 15 schools for MBA in USA.

GMAT Score
650 (Q49, V30, AWA 6, IR 7)
690 (Q49, V34, AWA 5.5, IR 4)
Planning to retake and targeting 720+

Education
- UG GPA: 74.6% (top 10%)
- Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
- Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi, India
- Won many extra curricular awards
- Master's GPA: 3.53
- Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Thesis based), 2 publications.
- McGill University, Canada

Work Experience
3.5 Years in a top tier Aerospace Company (Employs 30,000+ people and has 100 sites across the world)
- Working as Lead Certification Analyst (certify interiors for business jets for their structural integrity), making sure that the products conform to the regulations and industry standards.
- Manage a team of 5 engineers (for 1 program) and indirectly a team of 10 engineers (for 2 programs)
- Promoted to the above post after only 10 months of experience, pay raises double the usual amount for the past 2 years.
- Led 2 teams of 3 engineers each to oversee update of important company directives, guidelines and manuals that dictate the manufacturing and quality standards of the company.

Strong International Exposure
- Lived, Studied, Worked and travelled to multiple countries
- Nominated (only engineer) to go to France and USA to represent the facility at intra-company conferences and international symposiums
- Worked in International teams and leading a team of Engineers (located in UK, USA, France and Germany) to develop next set of methodologies that will save the company a lot of money once implemented.

Extracurriculars
- Tutoring kids at risk subjects such as Maths, Science and English from grades 3 to 12 (been close to 10 months now, 4-6 hours per week, volunteer basis).
- Team member of company's soccer team
- Teach professional and technical English (related to Aerospace Industry, both written and spoken) to colleagues after work
- Learning French and Spanish over the weekends
- Member of tennis and squash teams of YMCA and play as a member of Montreal Squash League
- Teach colleagues from work tennis after work
- Leading a team of 15 volunteers since 2013-14 for a community heart and eye checkup camp , held once every year for 3 days. This is a free event for anyone who wants to participate.

Post-MBA Goal
I plan to transition from Engineering based role to a management / strategy role in retail/technology. I wish to leverage my experience of leading diverse teams and apply the vast knowledge, exposure and experience I have gained in managing different product portfolios in retail/technology.

Target Schools

- Columbia (Early Decision) NOT POSSIBLE
- Chicago Booth STRETCH
- Stanford NOT POSSIBLE
- UCLA STRETCH
- UC Berkeley STRETCH TO NOT POSSIBLE
- Wharton STRETCH TO NOT POSSIBLE
- Cornell POSSIBLE
- NY Stern STRETCH TO POSSIBLE
- Kellogg STRETCH
- Duke Fuqua (Early Decision) POSSIBLE
- Michigan Ross MORE POSSIBLE
- CMU Tepper MORE POSSIBLE
- Yale SOM POSSIBLE TO STRETCH

All the above schools Round 1 or Round 2 , 2015, Full Time MBA

Questions
1. Do you think I have a decent shot at the school of my choice (listed above). It will be of immense help to me if you can categorize the schools above as
1) Not possible, forget about it!
2) Good Chance
3) Not at all easy but can be given a shot

2. Also please advise which schools I should target in Round 1 and in Round 2?.
3. Please also advise which other schools (not listed above) will help me achieve my career goals.


Thanks for your patience. CBS has been very gmat focused recently so given that and your demographic profile, I would not be overly hopeful for CBS (assuming that is your first choice based on your list. Please go up to your schools to see my comments in CAPS. Round 1 always is slightly preferable if you have the time to complete quality applications. And don't just think about applying to only the hardest schools in R1. Applying early to some more likely choices is smart as well.
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Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hello Alex
It'll be a real help to get your perspective on my profile so far...
I'm planning to apply in round 2 as that'll give me more room to develop my profile.
-25-year-old male
- Grew up in India
- GPA : 3.7 or 70%(top 15 %)
- GMAT : 650 (Q49, V28, IR 5 , AWA: 4) gave in 2012, recently I appeared again for GMAT but scored only 640(Q50, V25, IR 7)
- Undergraduate degree in Engineering(Polymer Science & Chemical Technology) from "Delhi University" (Delhi College of Engineering)
- 2.5 years(till date) of Business Development Profiles (first Business Development Executive ) in educational consulting firm (Gateway Abroad Ltd.) and than promoted to Biz Dev Manager & Center Manager in a local 25 year old Educational group, mentoring and training students for various competitive examinations(catering 7000 students annually ). I've started a new training Institute as well under the educational group I've mentioned earlier for training law and management Aspirants.
- Active volunteering in an NGO since past 2 years (impacting 7000 households and 36000 residents)
- Ran a chapter of SIFE (now ENACTUS) successfully mentoring National award winning team in college
- Technical skills involving R programming, Statistical Inferences, Corel Draw, etc

Which colleges should I apply for in US, Canada and Europe where I stand a fighting chance ?
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hey Prep MBA,

Can you please help me in evaluating my profile :

Indian female

Grades :
Xth - 91%
XIIth - 88% ( Have been on scholarship since class 8th in school)
Undergrad ( NIT kurukshetra ) - 7.93/10 (2008-2012) Gpa 4.0 according to WES
GMAT - 720 (Q50, V38, IR5)

Work experience -
* Have been working in Samsung from the past 3 years
Have had 2 promotions in 3 years
First as a software developer, then moved into Pre-sales consulting owing to my interest in Marketing.
In that I worked with Samsung Sales division in APAC regions, assisted clients and partners in Dubai, SA, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singlehandedly set up a whole Enterprise business conclave in India marketing Regional HQ, Worked with directors of engineering of Hyatt, Oberoi, and Taj hotels.
Demonstrated Samsung solutions in events, conclaves, summits to CXO's of different verticals.

* Member of cultural commitee in Samsung, Won the best innovative project of the Quarter for a project, Winner of many cultural competitions held in Office.

Extra Curriculars -
* Won accolades for Dance from age 6, Working as a dance instructor in a Dance studio.
* 2 District level prizes in Arts, College level athlete( won 10 medals ) in NIT sports meet' 09, '10, '11
* Head of 3 committees in tech and cultural national level fests in NIT.
* Started a society for teaching Underprivileged children of College's workers. This has been published in a local newspaper of Kurukshetra.
* Working as a UN online volunteer for a research project on Women Situation in Thailand.
* Represented North Zone ( 4 states ) In a national level General knowledge Quiz held in Hyd.
* 1 district level prize in Analytical ability (scholarship given).

Working on my startup idea as well ( It would be completed by the end of the year )

Post Mba goal - I want to enter into Brand management or marketing.

My target schools are - Kellogg 1 year program, ISB, Insead, HEC paris, NUS, NTU, LBS, Oxford.
I even want a partial scholarship for these programs.

Can you please tell me about the shortcomings in my profile and how can I be the good fit for these above schools? :?

Do I need to hire consultant for the essays or should I try writing them on your own?
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Concentration: Entrepreneurship, Finance
GMAT 1: 700 Q49 V35
GPA: 2.61
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hi Alex,

Thank you so much for taking out the time to evaluate my profile. My credentials are:

Gender : Male
Nationality : Indian
Age : 29 years

Academics :
Xth - 83%
XIIth - 87%
Graduation : Chemical engineer from IIT Delhi (Consistently ranked among the top 2 engineering universities in India)
CGPA - 6.5/10

GMAT - 740

Work experience :

Total 48 months

* 1 year 8 months as a Proprietary trader at one of the largest prop trading firms in India. Not very famous outside India though.
* 2 years 2 months as cofounder of an educational startup that grew to 60,000 monthly users. Did not not raise venture funding. The startup has been closed.
* Managing director of family investment firm for the past 6 months. This is part-time so I don't really know how much it counts.

Extra Curriculars :

* Director of a family run Non Profit organisation that is working towards the prevention and eradication of Encephalitis. It's a small organisation currently and work has been limited to 3 districts in India.
* Captain of hostel soccer team.

International Exposure:

3 months as an International Research scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Activities & Interest:

* Traveling : Have traveled to more than 15 countries. Into exploring cultures and understanding the values and traditions of people living in different parts of our beautiful planet.
* Soccer.

Post MBA goal - Product Management at an established technology company or a high growth startup so that I can learn valuable skills I am currently lacking, and which along with the lessons from my previous startup enable me to create an organisation that significantly improves the lives of people involved.

My target schools are - Wharton, Berkeley, Kellogg, UCLA. My main considerations are Location (Silicon Valley) and placement in technology companies.

I would love to know your view on my profile, preferably the weaker points and things that can be done to mitigate the weakness in my profile.

Again, thank you for doing this.
MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 02 May 2013
Affiliations: Harvard Club Lecturer
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Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Expert Reply
pria131 wrote:
Hey Prep MBA,

Can you please help me in evaluating my profile :

Indian female

Grades :
Xth - 91%
XIIth - 88% ( Have been on scholarship since class 8th in school)
Undergrad ( NIT kurukshetra ) - 7.93/10 (2008-2012) Gpa 4.0 according to WES
GMAT - 720 (Q50, V38, IR5)

Work experience -
* Have been working in Samsung from the past 3 years
Have had 2 promotions in 3 years
First as a software developer, then moved into Pre-sales consulting owing to my interest in Marketing.
In that I worked with Samsung Sales division in APAC regions, assisted clients and partners in Dubai, SA, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singlehandedly set up a whole Enterprise business conclave in India marketing Regional HQ, Worked with directors of engineering of Hyatt, Oberoi, and Taj hotels.
Demonstrated Samsung solutions in events, conclaves, summits to CXO's of different verticals.

* Member of cultural commitee in Samsung, Won the best innovative project of the Quarter for a project, Winner of many cultural competitions held in Office.

Extra Curriculars -
* Won accolades for Dance from age 6, Working as a dance instructor in a Dance studio.
* 2 District level prizes in Arts, College level athlete( won 10 medals ) in NIT sports meet' 09, '10, '11
* Head of 3 committees in tech and cultural national level fests in NIT.
* Started a society for teaching Underprivileged children of College's workers. This has been published in a local newspaper of Kurukshetra.
* Working as a UN online volunteer for a research project on Women Situation in Thailand.
* Represented North Zone ( 4 states ) In a national level General knowledge Quiz held in Hyd.
* 1 district level prize in Analytical ability (scholarship given).

Working on my startup idea as well ( It would be completed by the end of the year )

Post Mba goal - I want to enter into Brand management or marketing.

My target schools are - Kellogg 1 year program, ISB, Insead, HEC paris, NUS, NTU, LBS, Oxford.
I even want a partial scholarship for these programs.

Can you please tell me about the shortcomings in my profile and how can I be the good fit for these above schools? :?

Do I need to hire consultant for the essays or should I try writing them on your own?


Thanks for your patience. This time of year I am quite busy helping my Round One clients get over the finish line, but I am happy to help answer some of these queries.

In terms of hiring a consultant, that is a loaded question for me:) But I feel that I had and have many career options, so dedicating myself to helping folks better add a lot of value or I am wasting my time and talents! Even if you cannot afford package help, a great consultant should add tangible value from your first hourly conversation.

You are smart to target a balanced slate of schools versus only focusing on top 7 programs. I can't tell you how many people overshoot, and don't wind up anywhere solid. Your gmat is solid (and your percentile splits are balanced), your undergrad is well known and Samsung is a great firm. Probably the best decision you made was to move closer to the business side, and get less involved with software engineering.

Given your career goals, the Kellogg 1 year is a great fit and within reach. The good news is that many schools have solid marketing programs--it gets tougher when you have a niche interest like energy that is less covered at major schools.

So yes, reach out to me or others about your essays and your list of schools is not crazy. These days, it's better to apply to 5-8 schools vs 3-4 as things are just more competitive, and there is a learning curve as well to these MBA interviews.
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Expert Reply
Pillarsofcreation wrote:
Hi Alex,

Thank you so much for taking out the time to evaluate my profile. My credentials are:

Gender : Male
Nationality : Indian
Age : 29 years

Academics :
Xth - 83%
XIIth - 87%
Graduation : Chemical engineer from IIT Delhi (Consistently ranked among the top 2 engineering universities in India)
CGPA - 6.5/10

GMAT - 740

Work experience :

Total 48 months

* 1 year 8 months as a Proprietary trader at one of the largest prop trading firms in India. Not very famous outside India though.
* 2 years 2 months as cofounder of an educational startup that grew to 60,000 monthly users. Did not not raise venture funding. The startup has been closed.
* Managing director of family investment firm for the past 6 months. This is part-time so I don't really know how much it counts.

Extra Curriculars :

* Director of a family run Non Profit organisation that is working towards the prevention and eradication of Encephalitis. It's a small organisation currently and work has been limited to 3 districts in India.
* Captain of hostel soccer team.

International Exposure:

3 months as an International Research scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Activities & Interest:

* Traveling : Have traveled to more than 15 countries. Into exploring cultures and understanding the values and traditions of people living in different parts of our beautiful planet.
* Soccer.

Post MBA goal - Product Management at an established technology company or a high growth startup so that I can learn valuable skills I am currently lacking, and which along with the lessons from my previous startup enable me to create an organisation that significantly improves the lives of people involved.

My target schools are - Wharton, Berkeley, Kellogg, UCLA. My main considerations are Location (Silicon Valley) and placement in technology companies.

I would love to know your view on my profile, preferably the weaker points and things that can be done to mitigate the weakness in my profile.

Again, thank you for doing this.


Well done on your GMAT! You know you are coming from a competitive demographic, and though your undergrad institution is well regarded, your peers from there at top 5-7 schools may have secured better grades/rank. And it seems like you are not working now, which is never the strongest position. That said, you still have a chance at top 15 schools, and if you are interested in tech, don't just feel it has to be California or nothing. Be open geographically, as firms like Amazon have been top recruiters at Ross. Here is an article about that:
https://poetsandquants.com/2014/10/23/am ... s-14-mbas/

Given some of your application red flags, keep an open mind and apply to more programs than on your list.

Regards,

Alex
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hi Alex ,

Can you please evaluate my profile. Main point are :

Indian male

GMAT Score 710 Q49V38 IR 7, AWA awaited.

X th : 81% out of 100%
XIIth : 76% out of 100%

Undergraduated ( NIT Hamirpur) : 7.66 out of 10 on CGPA scale.

Work Experience : 6 years approx.

Worked in Product company Fibcom India Ltd. (10 month as Engineer).
Worked with VNL India Pvt Ltd ( Product company) for 26 month as a NPI engineer with basic responsibility of product design and Life cycle management.
Now working with a Start-up for last 24 months approx , which include international Work Experience of working with Sagem ( Saffron Group company ) for almost 15 month
My basic concern is my work experience as i have worked with Indian Industry ( except for international assignment) and all small or mid level company.
Can you please suggest some school I can target.
I am interested in General Management or Product Management.

Best Regards,
Pankaj Vashist
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hi
Gmat score : 640 (Q-50 ,V-26)
5.8 years of Work Exp
GPA-75/100

I am thinking of applying
Kelley
Brigham
Iowa
Tippie

Please suggest
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
GMAT - 650
Under graduation - Delhi College Of Engineering, 64%
Work Ex - 4years, in core construction as Planning engineer
at Mega construction projects like Delhi Metro, Jaipur Metro,
Major skills include - costing, budgeting, cash flow, cost flow, scheduling, project management, PMG, Resource optimization and tendering

Entrepreneurial experience - started 2 online ventures - failed; now in progress with my 3rd starup

NGO- active team member (corporate relations and coordinator) at Happy Horizons since 2013 - NGO education underprivileged children

Family Business - Have past experience at my family business too, sales monitoring, claims preparation, mobile distribution business in a district. Controlled region of more than 20 Million Rupees.

Additional Experiences - Doing additional courses like Six Sigma certification, Etc

Extracurriculars - Creative writing - Blog writing, college newspaper editor, Magazine editor of my company, Content developer at NGo-happy horizons
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Hi Alex,

this year I will be applying to MiM programmes at several universities in Europe. I have a question regarding my cv and mentioning my high school diplomas.

I graduated from high school in Germany with the normal Abitur like everyone else. Additionally, at my school we were given the opportunity to do the international baccalaureate on the side.
So I did that as well. The thing is, on the one hand this is quite rare so it might help me differentiate myself a bit and it shows that I am willing to work hard. On the other hand my IB is pretty mediocre with 34 points. That's not terrible, but my Abitur is a bit better and my Bachelor's degree will be significantly better. My GMAT score is 750.

So no now the question is whether I should mention my IB in addition to my Abitur. I feel that if grades are very important I'd better leave it out, but I am not sure on how important they are to application commities.

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice.
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Age : 25
Educational Qualifications : Bachelors in Applied Petroleum Engineering
CGPA : 2.97, Equivalent percentage : 79.40%
Year of passing : 2012
Location :India

GMAT:710
10th: 89.8%
12th: 86.4%
TOEFL: 115


Work Experience
4 Years (By the time I will start applying it will be 5 yrs) in Reliance Industries Ltd. (India's largest private company with more than 40000 employees)
- Working as Workover Engineer (planning, executing and managing drilling and workover operations of oil and gas wells)
- Managing a team of 20+ engineers directly and more than 200 employees indirectly.
- Managing 200+ sites and 10+ Rigs (In-charge of all rigs).
- Revised and implemented operations procedures that led to reduction in down time from 15%(approx) to <2% effectively saving more than $5,000,000
- Take mentoring classes for new recruits (fresh graduates) and provide training to them about different oil and gas field operations.

Extracurriculars
- Teaching orphans, underprivileged children and illiterate adults via NGO subjects like Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Computers( More than 3 yrs now.)
- Team member of project's Table Tennis and Badminton team.
- Organized Free Health and Eye checkup camps, and Blood donation camps in various villages in India since 2013 , held half yearly. (Through company's CSR policy)

Target 1 : Full time MBA 2 years at a leading college
Target 2 : M Finance at a leading college

My questions :

1. An honest opinion about where I stand
2. What could I do to improve my case ?
3. As per my case, which are the schools that I should be looking at ?
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Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
Expert Reply
evilphilospher wrote:
Age : 25
Educational Qualifications : Bachelors in Applied Petroleum Engineering
CGPA : 2.97, Equivalent percentage : 79.40%
Year of passing : 2012
Location :India

GMAT:710
10th: 89.8%
12th: 86.4%
TOEFL: 115


Work Experience
4 Years (By the time I will start applying it will be 5 yrs) in Reliance Industries Ltd. (India's largest private company with more than 40000 employees)
- Working as Workover Engineer (planning, executing and managing drilling and workover operations of oil and gas wells)
- Managing a team of 20+ engineers directly and more than 200 employees indirectly.
- Managing 200+ sites and 10+ Rigs (In-charge of all rigs).
- Revised and implemented operations procedures that led to reduction in down time from 15%(approx) to <2% effectively saving more than $5,000,000
- Take mentoring classes for new recruits (fresh graduates) and provide training to them about different oil and gas field operations.

Extracurriculars
- Teaching orphans, underprivileged children and illiterate adults via NGO subjects like Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Computers( More than 3 yrs now.)
- Team member of project's Table Tennis and Badminton team.
- Organized Free Health and Eye checkup camps, and Blood donation camps in various villages in India since 2013 , held half yearly. (Through company's CSR policy)

Target 1 : Full time MBA 2 years at a leading college
Target 2 : M Finance at a leading college

My questions :

1. An honest opinion about where I stand
2. What could I do to improve my case ?
3. As per my case, which are the schools that I should be looking at ?


Thanks for your patience. I was on a holiday and trying to do as little work as possible. Your engineering work experience is very solid and you are directly managing more employees than most MBA applicants. Some engineers will try to transition over to a more business related job vs pure engineering but certainly not all MBAs do. You know you are coming from an overly represented demographic, and that usually leaves less room for a lower gpa if you want to target a top 7 MBA program. You may want to take a business class or two for a grade from a well known university to show more interest and experience with business concepts.

But the truth is that you need to spend more time with a consultant to get a true understanding of where you can apply and whether the MBA vs a masters in finance is right for you. It has a lot to do with the type of job you are trying to get and the professional trajectory you envision.

Good Luck,

Alex
GMAT Club Bot
Re: Ask Prep MBA [#permalink]
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