Profile evaluation, 770 gmat, business owner

Question

Hi,

I just took the GMAT the second time and scored a 770 (Q 49, V46) 99%.

I am Indian, Male. will be 26 at matriculation next year 
I graduated from Purdue University, West Lafayette in electrical engineering with a GPA of 3.62 in 2007 
At purdue I was involved in a cancer research project for over an year. I also interned with Motorola in chicago over the summer before my senior year.

Upon graduation I worked with Lutron Electronics in PA for 6 months as a "project electrical engineer" where I designed and executed automated testing equipment for several lutron products. At Lutron I was also involved in outsourcing some programming projects to vendors in India and Mexico.

While I was enjoying my work at Lutron, An opportunity came my way to take up a big project in my family business (real estate development in India), my entrepreneurial instincts took over and I decided to move back to India and join the family business. For the first 2.5 years I was responsible for leasing out commercial space in our shopping mall to national and international retail brands. I was managing a team of 3 sales executives for the project and was supervised by the leasing division vice president.

For the past 1.5 years I have been managing my own residential construction projects in Delhi which are funded by our investors. I interact with my team of vendors, engineers, architects, contractors, investors and government authorities as required to ensure smooth functioning of the project.

Also for the past three years I have been an active participant and volunteer for the Art of Living foundation and have organized cleaning drives, rallies to promote bicycle riding against global warming, given intro talks about the foundation and participated in advance courses. I am also looking to become a teacher for the organization in the next year so that I can further take courses to teach people about meditation/ yoga/ community service

My objective for an MBA is to enhance my management skills, interact and network with peers and professionals from the real estate and finance sectors to understand new trends and funding sources for my projects, convert running construction business into a self–sustainable model and provide affordable housing (more as a social entrepreneur than the money) through large-scale projects in the next five years starting from Gurgaon/ Delhi.

I would really appreciate it if you could suggest what schools I can look at. 
Thanks.

Aximili85 · Answer

Hi Sharma, was just skimming through profiles and saw this, would be interesting to see what Veritas says. Your profile sounds great btw! Good stuff!
A.

bryantmichaels · Answer

You have a very unique story and several elements that will help you stand out in your applicant pool (Indian Male engineering undergrad), such as the fact you did UG in the US and nailed the GMAT to the wall. Where you need to tread carefully is in weaving your story, which meanders across several disciplines before settling on what sounds like is your true passion= real estate. You need to be very open and revealing about how you arrived at this passion and cast a solid short and long term vision which will compel the committee to believe you are not still searching for, but have rather found your calling. The key may lie in your ability to tie in learnings from all of your broad, professional experience together so that it looks like a coherent whole, or either to describe a defining moment in your past very well which explains your change of road. Point is, you want to avoid looking like you meandered through your career and defaulted into the family business. Better to demonstrate how you have been intentional and have leveraged varied international opportunities to prepare you for a career in RE where you must wear several hats. One other thing to consider is the H1B visa issue. Many US schools, who are all evaluated on how many of their MBAs are employed within 90 days after graduation, will need to know that you are employable. If that's back in the family business, that's great, but if not, they will view you as lower "risk" as an admit if you are widely employable. Let us know if we can help you hammer things out.

Aximili85 · Answer

Hi
Sorry for eavesdropping on this, but I wanted to share one more tidbit about the H1B visa in addition to Bryan's point (btw thank you for your advice on my profile). I'm also an Indian applicant, and spoke to a consultant in Mckinsey's New Jersey office who's Indian, but graduated from Ross ('08), served on their admission council briefly, and is now working there. He was telling me that post-recession, large schools are particularly careful about the "employability" factor with international students as there's a high chance the company they want to join may not sponsor them afterwards. He was saying that big consulting/investment banking/software companies will still sponsor, but even a mid to large sized company in other sectors may not sponsor. E.g., Kaiser Permanente, one of US' largest health insurers, will not sponsor foreign students!

This is bothering me as it is countless other international students who may get chucked out after massive loans, just wanted to share it with you too. 
Anyway, good luck with your apps sure you'll crack something great!
A.

Profile evaluation, 770 gmat, business owner

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