MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Posts: 6448
Given Kudos: 92
Location: Los Angeles CA
Re: Please evaluate my profile
[#permalink]
15 Jun 2008, 08:29
river,
1) What schools can be considered as "safe" and which ones "long shots" for me? Is it too ambitious to look at the top 10? If not, then how high can I go?
Given your profile, I think you are reaching somewhat by looking only at the top 10 (depending of course on which schools you consider the top 10). Given your technology management/entrepreneurship goals, you could apply to MIT Sloan and UCLA as longshots and Texas, Carnegie Mellon, USC, UC Irvine as target schools.
2) How can I improve my profile within the next 1.5 year? Especially, what types of extracurriculars (can you please give specific examples) can I look at, considering that I'm also working full-time as a software engineer?
I recommend some social impact/community activity in which you have a clear and significant leadership role, as in leading/coordinating multiple people. Ideally, this would be a board position or perhaps starting an organization, but you need major leadership/impact stories.
3) What parts of my application are considered benefits and what parts are drawbacks (and how can I solve them)?
Your big benefit is being from Greece, because comparatively fewer people apply to U.S. B-schools from there. Working at Microsoft is a modest asset, but the rest of your profile is that of an accomplished 'techie' (no offense intended)--nothing especially remarkable or unusual compared to the caliber of other people applying to top 10 schools. You need to break out of the techie box and my suggestion in 2 above would help in a big way, so too would a promotion into a management role, starting a business outside of work, etc.
Good luck,