Profile Evaluation - 29 yo Indian Male, GMAT 720, WE 7+ years

Question

Hi,

I am a 29 year old Indian Male with a work experience of over 7 years out of which 6 years are on my own startup in the field of IT Consulting. My Gmat Score is 720 (Q50, V38, IR 5) . I gave the exam a couple of days back. I am looking to apply for the Top 10 MBA colleges and I don't have a specific preference for US or outside US based college which is why I am looking at the following set of colleges
INSEAD
Wharton
Kellogg
Harvard
Stanford
 (Not sure if the last two are out of my reach, given a lower Gmat score)

Education
UG CGPA - 8.05/10 
B. Tech in Industrial Engineering
IIT Kharagpur, 2008 passout.

Work Experience
13 months in an IT services company from July 2008 to August 2009
6 years on my start-up, which is into IT Consulting with a strength of 35 people
3 years working along-side on another startup-up, which is a freelance marketplace.
(No fundings raised for either of the start-up, both were bootstrapped)

Extra-Curriculars
Founded a group that held various hackathons in the office premises to generate interest in new technologies for freshers.
Sports enthusiast. I play Hockey, Table-Tennis and Badminton. Was Hockey captain during college.
Learning French course over the weekends
Love Travelling, Member of a back-pack travelling group. Was part of the core team that organized multiple trekking events.

Post-MBA Goal
I want to continue to work on my start-up dream post my MBA. I want to utilize my 6+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, along with the knowledge that I will gain from MBA, to build a scalable company.

Queries
1. Do I need to give the GMAT again and score 740+ to be considered for Harvard or Stanford.
2. Which colleges should I apply for and in which round. 
3. Is my profile appealing enough for the ad-com of the top colleges or do I need to work on certain aspects of my profile as well?

Thanks for all the help.

mbaMissionKate · Answer

Hi there,

So you seem pretty strong all around - good work experience, good GMAT, good grades...I think my biggest concern is the "age factor" and that with 7 years experience you're going to be more experienced than most typical MBA applicants. So aim to target schools that typically accept a wider range of experience levels. Unfortunately Harvard and Stanford don't strike me as schools that do that, and they're also THE most competitive schools, so I'd say those are going to be really stretch schools. Getting a slight boost on the GMAT could help, so if you think that's in reach, then go for it. But I think those two schools could still be stretches even with a 730/740.

Perhaps consider schools like MIT and Tuck where they tend to have wider ranges of experience levels. Also perhaps consider an accelerated (one-year) MBA option, like at Cornell, actually they have a tech focused MBA in NYC that might be a good option to consider. European programs tend to have more experienced applicants too so keep INSEAD on your list and perhaps add one more European program.

Good luck and keep us posted if we can help with more questions!

mk86 · Answer

Hi Kate,

Thanks for the profile evaluation.

I might go ahead and give the GMAT again to see if I can score that 730-740 range. Could you help me suggest a couple of schools that would be good for my post MBA goals, I definetely have INSEAD on my list. I will be adding Indian School of Business as well. Not sure about London School of Business though (located in England and a 2 year course). I do think getting an MBA from a great college from US might make it easier for me to start-up and get funding in the future and that is why my list contains colleges such as Harvard and Standford. I will most definetely check MIT and Tuck's offerings.

Could you help me with a few more queries.
1. If I decided to drop Standford and Harvard althogether from my list of colleges for 1st round of applications, which US colleges should I try and apply to. My list has Wharton and Kellogg apart from these two colleges. After your reply, I think I will go ahead and add MIT to the same. Do you think I should apply to all 3 of these in my first round (I still have sometime, so I could prepare applications for all).
2. How is Cornell or Kellogg 1 year program compared to Insead or ISB 1 year program. If my understanding is correct, Insead's program is more highly rated.

Thanks for all the help.

mbaMissionKate · Answer

Hi there,

Well, I think there's a lot to consider in this decision. Peronally I think you need to have a range of schools that you apply to. If you're set on going this year then you should have a mix from stretch to safety and almost all the schools you mention (perhaps aside from ISB and Cornell) strike me as pretty competitive ones. In the US, look outside the top 10 and look at schools like Ross, Anderson, Duke, Yale, Texas, etc. That will give you some more balance compared to the top schools you're considering (Wharton, MIT, etc.). Cornell and Kellogg's one year program are both very well regarded...I think reputation and quality depends largely on where you plan to take your MBA. For instance, if you're in Europe or Asia, then INSEAD might provide better options and be more well known. But in terms of competitiveness / difficulty of getting in, I think INSEAD and Kellogg are both pretty similar. For programs outside the US, check the Financial Times to use their rankings as one factor in your decision: https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolra ... nking-2015

Good luck!

Profile Evaluation - 29 yo Indian Male, GMAT 720, WE 7+ years

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