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Hello Mr. Bodine,

First of all, thank you in advance for this profile evaluation help. All the advises you provided to others have been very helpful, I am now a frequent visitor of GMATClub and Accepted.com For the rest of the GMATClub friends, any kind of advises are also greatly appreciated!

Basic Profile
Age: 24, FEMALE
Nationality: Indonesian (attended college in US)
Languages: English, Indonesian, Chinese and French
GMAT: Have not taken yet. Aiming for 700+ but realistically may only get upper 600

Education:
BSc in Economics and BSBA in Management Information System from Univ of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. Graduated with a distinction from the College of Business and Liberal Arts. Cumulative GPA: 3.55, major GPA: 3.75

Professional Experience by Fall 2008:
- 3.5 years as a Risk Consultant in top 10 public consulting and accounting firm in the US. Promotion to senior after 2 years of experience (although not atypical). My job requires me to have constant interactions with clients’ higher management and board of directors. I have had exposures dealing with Fortune 500 clients from different industries, ranging from mutual fund and asset management companies to automotive, networking and cable equipments and litigation and financial consulting firms. I have also been given opportunities to manage projects on a smaller scale.
- CISA certification (for Information System Audit) and some other IT certifications (would not bore you with the details!)
- Internship as a Financial Analyst at a major commercial bank in Indonesia

Extra Curricular and Community Involvements
- Ongoing participation of the Junior Achievement program on teaching elementary students the value of money and commercial activities
- Ongoing participation of the mentorship project for adolescents
- Two weeks of full time volunteer in Turkey (2006): Taught English to orphans in rural area of Turkey
- Two weeks of full time volunteer in Russia (2007): Environmental work focusing on building national parks in outskirt of St. Petersburg
- Two college study abroad experiences in Sydney, Australia and Paris, France
- Did a stint of online volunteer with the UN-associated Global Hand organization by performing online research and creating spreadsheets (3 to 4 months, 2005)
- Assisted in a post-college IT research work for an old college professor by leveraging current work experience in risk consulting (this is a continuance of a research work I did for the same Professor back in college)
- Elected as the International Student Diplomat in college (membership restricted to 8 students). Major responsibility includes helping international students transition to American way of life
- A couple of leadership activities back in college … quite many to name as I was pretty active back then. Some that I recall include being the publicity committee for the minority business student club, the community outreach chair of Indonesian club, the University Residence Hall Vice President, the leadership Committee of the International Living Community, Omicron Delta Epsilon honorary Economics society member, etc
- Member of soccer intramural team for the residence hall. Played in several college soccer matches (though not in a professional league).
- Was the lead guitarist of a female rock band in high school (not sure if it is of any relevance now )
- Am currently applying to join the Future Leaders Council for the YWCA and the Associate Board of Literacy Chicago
- May also apply for a sabbatical leave for two to three months in October to do a long-term volunteer project focusing in education for women and children. I have not decided on the place yet, but have always been interested in going to Mongolia, Tibet or India. This plan really depends on how flexible my company is in allowing an unpaid leave for an extended period of time.

Why MBA:
I am hoping to switch career to non-profit management or consulting, specializing in economic development or education. I have taken a couple of economic development classes during my undergraduate years and was really attracted to the field. I am also thinking to leverage my personal background as an Indonesian with a firsthand exposure to poverty. Having grown up and spent the majority of my adolescent years there, I realized the crucial value of education from an early age.

Post MBA goals:
Non-profit management or consulting in South East Asia where I can focus on community development, preferably in education for women and children.

Target Schools:
Top 15 US schools, the likes of Berkeley's Haas, Michigan's Ross, NYU Stern, UCLA or USC. I am not too confident about applying to the top 5 schools, including Chicago's GSB or Northwestern, although I currently reside in Chicago.

Major hurdles:
The post MBA career aspiration sounds a little difficult to obtain … it seems to be a very drastic change from being in the profit-centered consulting world to being in non-profit focusing on third world country’s education infrastructure. I am also entertained by the idea of working in a strategic think tank that focuses on economic development of South East Asian countries. Would an MBA help with this kind of career aspiration?

I apologize for such a longwinded list, but would really appreciate your honest feedback on my chances at the top 15 schools. Would an upper 600 score in my GMAT hurt my chance of getting accepted in these schools? If you can throw in a couple of thoughts on my chances at the top five schools, that would be great as well!

Thank you again for all your help, Mr. Bodine, I'm really appreciating the invaluable advises you have to offer.