Last visit was: 28 Apr 2026, 09:43 It is currently 28 Apr 2026, 09:43
Home
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
avatar
ansh1234
avatar
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
Last visit: 10 Apr 2017
Posts: 7
Given Kudos: 2
Posts: 7
Kudos: 0
Profile evaluation request Updated on: 24 Jan 2017, 15:51
Originally posted by ansh1234 on 31 May 2016, 23:47.
Last edited by ansh1234 on 24 Jan 2017, 15:51, edited 1 time in total.
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi
User avatar
Admissionado
User avatar
Admissionado
Joined: 30 Nov 2009
Last visit: 26 May 2024
Posts: 9,229
Own Kudos:
2,075
 [1]
Given Kudos: 69
Location: Chicago, IL
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: HBS - Class of 2005
Posts: 9,229
Kudos: 2,075
 [1]
Profile evaluation request 01 Jun 2016, 07:22
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ansh1234
Hi,

I am planning to apply to top20 US B-schools, for fall-2017 admissions in 2 year full time MBA program.

Age 30, Settled in Germany since 2013. Originally, from India.
GMAT : 720 (Q50, V38), IR - 5, AWA - 5

Profile:

- Diverse international experience of 5 years while working with teams in 4 countries, with teammates from over 12 countries. (automotive semiconductors industry)
- Demonstrated continuous leadership in highly complex, high stake projects at company.
- Worked in off-track paths as demonstrated through my social entrepreneurship experience
- Solo-traveled to 16 countries; Avid traveler and photographer!

Undergraduate in Electronics Engineering: CGPA- 7.2/10 from one of the top engineering colleges in India (Average GPA due to tough grading and extra curricular activities, but had overall increasing trend)

Post-Graduate:
MS in Electronics from same college. (One of the top paid research assistant in the university)
Made two international visits to France and Malaysia to present my research work in international conferences.

Innovation:
Three IEEE research paper publications
Two invention disclosures

Work ex:
More than 5 years of work exp in top semiconductor company. (specifically into Automobile industry)

Sr. Engineer - Germany (3 years)
- Senior project lead of technical team; supervision of tasks and responsibilities, project management
- Spearheaded team of 8 engineers from 5 different countries to successfully execute one of the most complex projects of automotive microcontroller (100 million program)
- Challenged past executions; innovation and new methodologies led to saving of 10% on project (about 400k€)
- Integral part of team and conducts interviews to hire best-fit team members for our team.
- Mentor to a junior engineer. Joined as an intern under my supervision and later, he was offered permanent position.
- One promotion within a year, after moving to Germany. Excellent ratings every year.
- Youngest in the team until last year. Youngest in the team to lead projects.

Engineer - India (3 years)
- Project lead of technical team of two engineers.
- Led successful engineering efforts on most critical modules of airbag systems and engine management systems (150 mil program)
- Won awards for outstanding achievements for myself and for team.
- One promotion within a year. Excellent ratings every year.
- Youngest in the team to lead project and win awards.

Extra curricular:
- Volunteer work/Social entrepreneurship
Co-founder and President of Technical institute which provides skill development training to below poverty line students in various streams such as mechanical fitter, welding, computer. More than 200 students have graduated till now, positively impacting lives of 1000+ poor family members. Collaborated with state govts and various private organizations in India to deliver fast-track skill training programs. More initiatives are being undertaken.

Student Placement Lead of Master's students.
- Initiative taken to organize placements for more than 60 MS students first time in university.
- Organization and co-ordination of Placement Team i.e Placement Co-ordinators, Sub Leads. (Supervised team of 8 co-ordinators)
- Got placed 98% of the batch, each with multiple offers.
- Won award at the institute for outstanding contributions

- Co founder and team lead of fun club at my company. Organized three major events like off campus trips, birthday parties, game events for team building and culture growth.
- was company's top20 talent in India and worked with marketing teams for better brand exposure. Worked with marketing team to organize customer days and roadshow events.

Career goal;
To transit from R&D project management roles to business development roles. I feel limited with my current management skills and want to expand my leadership and behavioral skills, plus learn business and operation skills to approach problems with different thought processes, and enable myself to take strategic decisions that can positively impact businesses on global level.

Short term: To seek business development manager roles in automotive industry such as Tesla, GM, BMW, and contribute with innovative solutions and create new markets for future automobile applications. I plan to grow into these roles with exposure to multiple business groups of a firm.
Long term: To develop my career into executive president or CEO positions in which I can drive and grow company's businesses, while impacting lives of billions of people.
On Social level; To continue work on education related development programs in developing country, and contribute in agriculture industry to replace age old farming methods and increase livelihoods of poor farmers.

Schools I am looking into (general management/tech focused):
1. HBS
2. Stanford
3. Haas
4. UCLA Anderson
5. MIT Sloan
6. Texas McCombs

With my profile, what are the chances? What aspects do you find interesting in my profile to highlight in college essays?

Thanks much in advance for your feedback! :)
Show more

Hey there!
And very good to hear from you!
So you have some very good stuff in your profile - an excellent GMAT for starters, a good industry (automotive) and REAL international experience!

The challenges you will have are first and foremost your applicant pool - Indian/Male/Tech, and your undergrad which is a non-IIT and as you pointed out the GPA wasn't stellar.

And the main thing for you to work on is to hone your background and story so that you are presenting something unique and fascinating. Because for an applicant such as yourself the main danger is that you might "Fall through the cracks". So it's sooooo important to STAND OUT!

Your school list is, given your profile not all that realistic. HBS and Stanford are likely out of range. And MIT will be very tough. I'd suggest dropping HBS and Stanford, although keeping MIT as a stretch school (and maybe adding Kellogg too?). At Anderson and McCombs you should be competitive, so you may want to add another 1-3 schools, competitive and safe. Sinc eyour target industry is automotive, the best would be for you to target schools which send people to those firms you are targeting.

Other than that, really like I mentioned above, hone your story into uniqueness!

Best of luck,
And if you have anything else, do not hesitate,
Jon
avatar
ansh1234
avatar
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
Last visit: 10 Apr 2017
Posts: 7
Given Kudos: 2
Posts: 7
Kudos: 0
Profile evaluation request Updated on: 24 Jan 2017, 15:52
Originally posted by ansh1234 on 01 Jun 2016, 10:43.
Last edited by ansh1234 on 24 Jan 2017, 15:52, edited 1 time in total.
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Thanks
User avatar
Admissionado
User avatar
Admissionado
Joined: 30 Nov 2009
Last visit: 26 May 2024
Posts: 9,229
Own Kudos:
2,075
Given Kudos: 69
Location: Chicago, IL
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: HBS - Class of 2005
Posts: 9,229
Kudos: 2,075
Profile evaluation request 06 Jun 2016, 08:21
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ansh1234
Hi Jon,

Thanks for your good and honest feedback. I really appreciate it!! :)

I totally understand HBS and Stanford are highly selective; However, I am very much interested to know - what could help my profile to be competitive at these schools.

I understand my undergraduate GPA is average but that is one part (I wish I could have done better :();

(BTW one interesting info; The college I studied at (IIIT-Hyderabad, it is non-IIT), is constantly ranked among top 20 engineering institutes in India (above some of the IITs), and I had to score an all india rank of 1400 out of 400,000 candidates to secure a seat. We have young alumni but most of them are working in top MNCs and some have post-graduated from top US schools (including Stanford, MIT and Booth))

What I would like to highlight is the kind of character and maturity I built over the years during postgraduate studies, travels, work and social initiatives. I would also like to discuss in college apps that landing up in present company was not a matter of chance; but I struggled to get into this company (automotive, european and semiconductors), because of my passions.

In my industry, especially in Germany, I have hardly seen anyone at my age, performing the similar roles and responsibilities. (Experts sometimes here are in awe of me :D). My leadership experience have been solid while working on high stake projects with high quality and safety requirements in automobiles, and supervising experts who were like 15-20+ years exp with diverse backgrounds (culturally and geographically), while I was just 3-5 years exp. I can bring about lot of anecdotes to highlight; conflicts that I resolved and how, how I gathered trust and respect from experts, how I motivated and aligned everyone to stay focused on targets during peak phases, when to remain calm and when to assert your control over situations, how I worked with management to project right information as well as defend my team. Also, the most important; what actually I learned from these experiences, while discovering my strengths and weaknesses.

Also, the most important story, close to me personally, is what motivated me to start the Non-profit technical training institute in India in a small city, and how managing that institute has shaped me as a person with more humane qualities and motivation to contribute in significant ways towards social development. Plus the limitations I face that could not be resolved without a holistic knowledge of all aspects of running organizations and businesses.

I want to be in a classroom where I can learn from the best and contribute with my anecdotes about the experiences in international team setups (especially working with Germans), how automotive market is shaping up and the kind of disruption that is gonna come up (I work on products, that you will see in the market after 5 years), and the challenges of social initiatives along with opportunities in developing country such as India.

My next questions would be;

1. Can I really bring about these experiences to overcome the average GPA and differentiate myself or is that the pool is so competitive that even these experiences are not unique?

2. Wow.. like minds. I am actually researching Kellogs for last two days, and have kept it as an open option. I will seriously look into more details. If I drop Harvard and Stanford; What other 1-3 schools you would recommend as competitive and safe?

Thanks again and look forward to your insightful feedback.

Hope we can also get in touch, for more candid discussions!!
Show more

Hey there,
Soooo if you want the honest answer: I don't feel like there's much you can do at this point to make your profile competitive at HBS or Stanford. They will have enough Top grads from IITs (from which they draw the vast majority of their Indian students) and with a low GPA at a non-IIT, unless you have somehting crazy unique (And I'm talking, your dad is like the Minister of Finance) they just will have people with better profiles to choose from. Don't let this get you down though. My advice: Focus on doing the best you can with what you have. Again, if you really want to to apply to HBS AND you have the extra time you can try it... but realize your time and effort will be limited, and the school applications will take a LOT more time and energy than you think, so my suggestion is to keep it realistic.

Your story will help, and an awesome application will help. But only to a point... and I think you should consider opening up your school list to Top 25 schools, again keeping on schools that will help you reach your goals.

Best,
Jon
avatar
ansh1234
avatar
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
Last visit: 10 Apr 2017
Posts: 7
Given Kudos: 2
Posts: 7
Kudos: 0
Profile evaluation request 06 Jun 2016, 14:15
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Thanks Jon for your honest feedback. You have a good argument.
I will take your points well into consideration!
User avatar
Admissionado
User avatar
Admissionado
Joined: 30 Nov 2009
Last visit: 26 May 2024
Posts: 9,229
Own Kudos:
2,075
Given Kudos: 69
Location: Chicago, IL
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: HBS - Class of 2005
Posts: 9,229
Kudos: 2,075
Profile evaluation request 07 Jun 2016, 06:32
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ansh1234
Thanks Jon for your honest feedback. You have a good argument.
I will take your points well into consideration!
Show more

Happy to help!
Good luck!
And if you need further advice, just drop us a line: https://admissionado.com/free-consultati ... n=mba_blog

Cheers,
JF