Hi Alex,
I'd really appreciate it if you could evaluate my profile for my target schools! I really like your honest feedback for my fellow GmatClubbers - hoping you can do the same for me!
Background:Age: 26 (27, almost 28 at matriculation)
Gender: Female
Nationality: Indian, but I live in the US - does that change the pool I'll be compared against?
Academics:GMAT: 750 (Q49, V44, AWA6.0)
GPA: 3.63 (informal conversion from WES) from a non-IIT engineering school (one of the top ones in India) in Computer Science (undergrad); 3.34 from a Public Ivy in Texas (grad school)
Work Experience:1. 1 year as a software developer at a Fortune 50 tech company
2. 2 years as a business analyst/product manager (combined sort of role) at the same firm - lateral move
The first role was kind of nondescript, but the second role was really good for my career - lots of visibility from upper management, and an informal promotion (actual promotions were frozen for a while, but my name's on the list to get one this year).
Extracurriculars:1. I'm heavily into art. I have my own art store, and volunteer for an online art community on their web/tech committee, and also as a contributor on the actual community (exchanging ideas, techniques, etc amongst other artists).
2. Core Team Lead at an employee resource group at my company for professional development.
3. Volunteer at the local humane society (cat trainer). Not a leadership role, but then I'm not an expert with animals - I volunteer because I love cats and actively try to find them good homes.
That's it for current involvement - I don't volunteer for a
lot of activities (does that hurt me?), but I'm extremely passionate about the ones I do volunteer for!
4. In grad school, I was one of the 6 elected student representatives - we organized social events, fought for offices for Masters students and so on for the CS department at my university. Smaller leadership roles in undergrad, but nothing as impressive as being a leader of the student rep body
5. Wrote a children's novel once! Self-published - not sure if this even counts as an extracurricular, to be honest. Thought I'd just throw that in.
Well...I think that's it! That's my life in a nutshell. Now for the schools I'm applying for:
Round 1:
1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. Wharton
4. Kellogg
5. MIT Sloan
...and contemplating the following for Round 2:
6. Ross
7. Darden
8. LBS
9. INSEAD
I'm a bit reluctant about the last two...I don't really want to leave the US, but they
are good schools...
What do you think? Am I too ambitious? I only want to leave my job for a top-ranked MBA (I love my job, I'm already dreading having to leave); but I really would love to do the MBA too, because I want to make the jump to general management and strategy for a tech firm. It's nice being able to manage a product; but I really want to manage the direction a tech company takes, not just the placement of a couple of buttons on a web page!
Thanks in advance for your time!!
-monet
close
07 Aug 2011, 19:41
