Profile Evaluation

Question

Hello,

I am a prospective MBA student and would like to have my profile evaluated so I can understand my strengths and weaknesses as a candidate for an MBA program. I greatly appreciate your help and feedback.

Demographic: White male, USA citizen, 26 years old
Short Bio – Process engineer and project leader with 6 years of work experience and demonstrated success achieving results from technology development projects in the industrial gas, chemicals, and clean energy sectors

Education – Top 50 USA private university (top 20-30 engineering school) - Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering - Overall GPA: 3.93 - Summa Cum Laude
Undergraduate Academic Awards
The William H. Chandler Chemical Engineering Prize - Awarded to the highest-ranking student in each class (senior, junior, sophomore) in Chemical Engineering.
Harry M. Ullmann Chemical Engineering Prize - Awarded to outstanding seniors in Chemical Engineering
Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Academic Excellence Award from American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Official GMAT: 690 (47Q, 38V, 7 IR, 6 AWA) – taken on March 23, 2019 (First GMAT score was 600 (37Q, 35V), taken in February 2019; MGMAT and GMATPrep practice test scores have ranged from 630-710; could take again if needed; I have been studying on and off for the test for about 2 years with 3 months of recent concentrated study)

Post-MBA goals – Clean energy technology and business consulting for clients developing sustainable solutions to combat climate change to help bring their technology to full commercial deployment for the benefit of society. Specifically interested in providing financial/business consulting to client companies to enhance return on investment for technology development & implementation.

Professional Work Experience

Process Engineer - Project Execution Operations Manager, Global Fortune 500 industrial gas company – 6 years
a. Chemical plant operations and safety manager for $1-20 million R&D projects to test novel CO2 capture technologies and related enabling technologies that improve technology performance
b. Extensive on-site operations leadership, including broad experience with chemical plant commissioning and startup. Directed and trained teams of personnel working with pilot equipment. Planned testing campaigns and communicated with upper management to achieve goals, satisfy deadlines, minimize costs, solve major challenges, and recommend and implement design improvements. Planned, directed, and implemented on-site commissioning and startup activities to prepare for tests. Managed student interns working on chemical analysis tasks during test campaigns.
c. Instrumentation and process controls engineer. Control system programming, configuration, and integration.
d. Project reporting and technical writing lead. Analyzed large quantities of data and authored official technical & project management reports to all stakeholders and clients, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Presented intermediate and final project results to internal and DOE senior management.

Process Engineer - Project Development and Execution Lead, Global Fortune 500 industrial gas company – 3 years (in parallel with first role) 
a. External technology evaluation analyst. Led technology foresighting efforts and business development projects in R&D focus areas. Attended conferences and conducted cold calls to contact customers and external partners to identify and pursue new business opportunities and create new growth in strategic fields of interest. Prioritized opportunities using a systematic approach based on overall feasibility and impact. Results: Initial contact with startup companies and universities has resulted in acquisition offers and joint development projects, including proposals for multimillion-dollar government-funded R&D projects.
b. Innovation project specialist. Well-versed in internal processes for R&D project creation, evaluation, and management including business case development, project/portfolio financial analysis, risk mitigation, and project cost & resource tracking.
c. Proposal development lead for government funding opportunities. Identified opportunities and independently planned & drafted two project proposals with a combined project cost of $4.7 million. Actively led technical and economic analysis work for all proposals submitted by team. Results: A total of $3,637,000 in public funding was awarded to my team and external partners in 2018 for two new multi-year technology demonstration projects.
d. Co-authored two patent applications for new technologies identified through foresighting research.
e. Chemical process modelling and design using Aspen Plus and Unisim Design. Significant experimental data analysis and reporting using VBA in Excel and MATLAB. Created Excel macros for analysis.

Principal Investigator – U.S. Department of Energy Funded Research Project, Global Fortune 500 industrial gas company – 1 year (in parallel with first two roles) 
Current principal investigator and project manager for U.S. DOE-funded $3.5 million project to design and test enabling technologies for CO2 capture (greenhouse gas emissions reduction). Planned and drafted competitive project proposal narrative awarded by DOE in February 2019, developed task structure, assigned responsible personnel, developed budget, assisted in contract development, and tracked project schedule, progress, and cost. Supervised design & engineering work, equipment procurement, construction, installation, and testing for a cross-functional team of 30 professionals. Directly managed workstreams for 5 individuals from external organizations.

Extracurricular Activities/ Community Involvement

USA Young Men’s District Leader, Soka Gakkai International (Global Religious Organization) – 1 year
Led campaign to grow district membership to 10 young men and facilitated discussion meetings.
 
Undergraduate Industrial Consultant, Department of Chemical Engineering at top 50 USA university, 6 years
Advised multiple teams of 4+ senior chemical engineering students during their capstone design project courses each semester. Assisted technical design & economic assessment for large chemical processes and budget planning for student design projects.

Freelance Math Tutor, 2 years post-undergraduate university
Taught fundamentals of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, pre-calculus, calculus, statistics/probability, and differential equations to students in grades K-12 for 10-12 hours per week. Additionally, tutored general chemistry and AP chemistry to high school students.

Glee Club Manager, University Glee Club, 1 year during undergraduate university
Spearheaded planning of concerts and social events, trips, and recreational activities for the group. Organized and led rehearsals. Delegated weekly administrative tasks for the group. Worked closely with director to advertise and promote the ensemble.

University Choir and University Glee Club, 4 years during undergraduate university
12 hours of rehearsal and performances per week. Baritone section leader for 2 years.

Target MBA programs: Cornell, NYU, Georgetown, & Duke (all full-time)

I am interested in programs offering MBA classes/organizations/development opportunities focused on sustainability and clean technology. I would like to stay on the East Coast (Northeast near NYC preferred).

I would like to know if I am a competitive MBA candidate for my target programs. Thank you!

mbaMissionJenK · Answer

Hi there,
Thanks for all of the info shared here. Your work experience is solid, with a strong mix of people and project management, analytical skills, and initiative demonstrated, and your goals sound reasonable given your experience and industry exposure to date. Your grades look strong, GMAT is so-so, and your extracurriculars are ok.... could be stronger if you had more recent and more extensive community experience. Overall I feel your school list is reasonable if a bit stretch, and I WOULD recommend a higher GMAT score if at all possible. I would be hopeful for Georgetown for you, with a strong application, even with the 690, but for the upper options of your list, Duke & NYU, improving your score 20-40 points would potentially increase your chances. I am surprised at how long you've been prepping for the GMAT though; so given that I would suggest if you re-take, trying a new approach to your prep, such as a different course you haven't done before, and/or a private tutor who can sit and watch what YOU do and give you very personalized guidance. OR you could consider the GRE.... you could take a free practice online GRE to see how that feels and how you do, as sometimes test-takers score higher on one exam vs the other, and there is a fair amount of overlap on the topics. Either way I'd suggest only 1 month (2 at most) of intense prep, vs dragging it out for months and months at this point, I think the result will actually be higher if you can concentrate it in that 1-2 months timeframe. And I'd ensure you take a full practice test once/week during your prep. Feel free to register for a free consultation at www.mbamission.com/consult if you'd like to chat further, and good luck!

Devin3800 · Answer

Hello JenK,

Thank you for the insightful response. I tried to target top 20 MBA programs in my list based on median GMAT (and 80% range), GPA, and overall fit with my goals. I am open to adding/changing some programs if it would increase my chances of admission & potential for scholarships.

Regarding my GMAT score, despite being a native speaker, I have had significant trouble raising my verbal score above 38-39, whereas for quant I seem to be able to make much faster and larger improvements for the same amount of studying. To be perfectly honest though, I've focused about 80% of my studying on quant mainly because I needed the most work on quant in the beginning and was always quite decent and consistent at verbal (around 85th percentile in my subscores), but so far I haven't been able to break the ~V40 barrier to achieve 700+ scores. I see that many native speaking b-school candidates from the US have much higher verbal scores but lower quant scores compared to me and are still able to achieve +700 overall. I have high accuracy in reading comprehension and sentence correction, but critical reasoning is weaker. I also do not have the strongest grip on the hardest sentence correction topics & questions. I just seem to rely mostly on my ear as it is difficult for me to apply formal English sentence structuring rules (and more GMAT-specific rules) to the questions. Now that I have improved quant so much, maybe it would be worth it to focus intensively on verbal for 1-2 months (with some lighter quant practice too) and retake the GMAT before I apply to b-schools in October this year. I need to make a decision, but I am conflicted in terms of devoting more time to a new extracurricular activity to enhance my profile or studying for the GMAT retake instead. It took me so long to feel comfortable with the GMAT and studying for the test is an extremely time-consuming process. I've felt totally restricted in my free time due to intensive studying for the test that I have not been able to devote much time to new or recent extracurricular activities/community involvement over the past two years. This time management issue has been exacerbated severely by my demanding work schedule and responsibilities. I feel there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. But I digress...

I realize with a 690 that NYU and Duke are more of a stretch. My top choice is actually Cornell. Georgetown would be more of a backup in terms of preference. I plan to apply to Cornell this year and if I am not admitted then I will buckle down and study more for the GMAT for next year's admissions cycle. If I am waitlisted at Cornell this year, I will also retake for a 700+ score. I would also consider applying to UNC, Tepper, Emory, and McCombs, but I know I need to narrow down the number of applications to 3-5 max.

Best regards,
Devin

mbaMissionJenK · Answer

Hi Devin,
It was a pleasure connecting with you recently for the free 30-min consultation; I hope you found our discussion helpful, and please do keep in touch with further questions anytime! I believe we covered a lot of the GMAT prep concerns and questions, but to loop back here to your post, yes I do also think that Verbal is susceptible to improvement with learning, practicing, and mastering strategies, and drilling on common question types, and to your point about grammar, learning and practicing a handful of commonly-tested rules. I personally recommend Kaplan or Manhattan for strategy and quality of resources or materials, and given that I spent time on Kaplan's national curriculum and brand management teams for GMAT and GRE, in addition to teaching hundreds of students myself with their strategies and programs, I can vouch for the improvements I saw with the mastery of those tips and question types. That said I know you are about 'done' with the whole test-prep world... my suggestion is about 1 more month of prep, with an experienced tutor, or at least using full course lessons and materials, studying 1-2 hours/day, 4-6 days/week, with one full practice test/week. One more shot is worth it in my view, so that you don't feel you left any points on the table when you do submit. In terms of number of schools, most of my clients apply to 3-6 schools per round. Keep me posted if you'd like to discuss schools further, and/or once you have the exam situation completed. Good luck and wish you all the very best!!

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