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Nationality : India
Sex/Age : Male, 32 yrs
Undergrad : 70% from a major state university, Major Civil Engineering
Grad : 3.7/4 , Major – Civil engineering with focus on Transportation Engineering and Planning, Merit based scholarship
GMAT – 690, Q-48, V-35. AWA 5.5
Certification - Certified E.I.T by state board of ohio, Will tale P.E next year.
Work Ex:
1.5 yrs Graduate Engineer Trainee in India (industry – Construction) : Supervised and manage a construction site for a the biggest highway construction project in India – Golden Quadrangle (similar to the interstate system in USA)
3 yrs – Associate Engineer (Transportation Planning) – A not for profit government organization, fully funded by tax dollars.Involved lot of modeling travel behaviour. Involved in developing mathematical models and managing two programs for the agency.
3 yrs Transportation Planning Engineer (Transportation Consulting) – Provide consulting services (travel demand modeling and transportation planning) to government agencies in USA. Manage projects from scope development to delivering the final product. Marketing services to clients. Develop new applciations and sell it to clients. Brought more then 150K in new revenue.
Work experience diversity: Have worked with people from various countries – South Korea, China, South Africa, Taiwan, Lebanon, Jordan, Romania, Bangladesh.
Post MBA goal: Management/Strategy consulting or Investment Banking (fixed assets such as airports and roads).
Extracurricular:
Undergrad: Vice captain college basketball team – won silver in all state tournament, Organizing committee of college annual function – responsible for raising funds.
Grad : On stage performances , Member of various student groups but did not run for any elections because I was working on two internships.
Social: Volunteer at Big Brother Big sisters – last 2 yrs, Member of big brother big sister recruitment advisory committee, Sponsor 50% of the fees two college kids in India. – last 3 yrs
Target Schools (in descending order): MIT, Tuck, LBS, Darden, Booth, Haas (not sure about this). If possible, please feel free to recommend other schools based on my skills set and goals.
Misc: Rated 3.5 by USTA National Tennis Rating Program
Recommendations: From current client PM, current boss, a former co-worker and Booth graduate
Thanks in advance.
Abhishek
Abhishek,
Thank you for your profile submission. On the basis of the information above, and under the assumption of strong essays and recommendations and a GMAT score of 690, our experience shows that you will be a stretch candidate at Sloan, Tuck, LBS, Booth, and Haas, and between competitive and stretch (closer to stretch) at Darden.
Right now, the key challenge within your profile is that you appear to have both a below average GMAT score (for top MBA programs) and a below average undergraduate GPA. In our experience, a 70% at an Indian institution would not typically place one within the top of their class. However, if this is not the case, and if you received honors and/or have a high graduation percentile (proportion you finished higher than), it is critical to point this out in your resume. In our experience, it is possible for applicants to overcome either a below average GMAT score or a low GPA, but it becomes more challenging to overcome both at the same time. To some extent, the fact that you have a master's degree will help, particuarly if the University you attended has a strong reputation and/or is well-known globally.
In terms of your GMAT split, like many engineers, your quantitative score is higher than your verbal score. As such, you will want to focus your essays more on your leadership skills, including stories of persuasion, presentation, communication, etc. The reason is that admission committees, in our experience, know that you have a solid analytical foundation, but they want to know how you communicate and lead in a professional setting.
With regard to your career goals, you would obviously have a strong link to your past with work within the transportation industry in either management consulting or investment banking. Keep in mind, though, that those firms are known to have a bit of a bias to younger MBA graduates. I have seen numerous older MBA candidates receive job offers with these firms, but you may find yourself pressed with follow-up questions in the MBA interview (or even at business school in interviews for those jobs) about if you're really convinced that you want to work in these fields. To this end, I would encourage you to research the various white papers that these firms write about the transportation sector and talk about this in your essays. Similarly, since you have some work experience in the US, you would bring a very interesting perspective on the relatively poor state of our transportation infrastructure and ideas on how we try to solve that in light of government budget/deficit issues. I'd encourage you to write about this or other similar "I bring a unique perspective" items in your essays. In our experience with candidates, one of the things that older applicants bring to the table is a really deep point of view on topics from their industry.
In terms of your extracurricular activities, it appears that you have done a variety of items involving some leadership. My reaction to what you presented is perhaps just to prioritize what activities were most important/most impressive, such that you can focus on them in your CV.
Best of luck,