Profile Evaluation Request

Question

Education
----------
GMAT Score 700 AWA 4.5
Grad marks - 78% (Topper being 86%)
Age - 29 now

Background
-----------
East Indian moved to USA a few months back

Work Ex
--------
Started in 2001 as a founder member of a vc funded small company with 12 others. Worked for 2.5 years, the company has now grown to 300+ employees.
Moved to Oracle India.
Moved to Microsoft India. As a part of MS team, visited China and stayed for a couple of months to takeover a component.
Moved to Microsoft USA.

Worked mostly as a software developer on ebiz backend. total Work-ex of 6+ years including 3 years in Microsoft.

Extra Curricular
---------------
Associated with Mukto-mona (from 2005), an organization of freethinkers. As a part of the team, I am working towards building a science-aware society. I am responsible for translating or writing science or scientific articles in Bengali - includes The Selfish Gene and some DNA related stuff. A lot of my articles are already published in various books.

GMAT Target
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Is there any chance that I could be through to top 20 in USA? Or Even INSEAD (Asia/Europe)/ LBS/ MBS (Aus)?

Accepted.com · Answer

digantasarkar,

Based on the info you gave me, I think you have a shot at breaking out of the "Male Indian IT" trap, i.e., you seem to have a fairly distinctive profile, e.g.:

--co-founder of startup
--work experience with major brand firms
--experience in China 
--extracurricular writing/publishing background is unusual

Still, you have negatives:

--age (not huge negative)
--software developer implies little leadership, little fast-track career developer--not good.
--not sure if Mukto-mona has a direct 'helping people' theme. While that theme is not absolutely essential, it helps.

I therefore think some top 20 schools are definitely doable for you, though perhaps not most top 10 schools (Ok to apply to some as 'long shots'). You should have no trouble getting into Melbourne, but given the negatives I mentioned above, LBS and INSEAD would probably be long shots for you.

Good luck,

digantasarkar · Answer

Thanks a lot for an interesting feedback. Given the conditions and constraints, what are the ways I can get out of the "Indian Male Software Profs"?
1. Involve in people-oriented activities
2. Start up own website
3. Take the GMAT again to score higher

Accepted.com · Answer

digantasarker,

1. Involve in people-oriented activities
 -->Doing this is necessary but not sufficient. I.e., everyone aiming high should and usually does have such involvement. You need *leadership* roles in such activities.

2. Start up own website
 -->Might help a little if it's done well and is distinctive, useful, but won't help alot.

3. Take the GMAT again to score higher
 -->Will probably only help if you get a really great score like 750 or above, but even that won't break you out of the box, where high scores are not unusual.

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