please evaluate my profile

Question

Hi, im asking gurus here to evaluate my profile.

I received b.s. in electrical engineering from a top10 engineering school, and m.s.e in electrical and computer engineering from a top 5 engineering school.

My undergrad GPA is 3.45 and graduate GPA is 3.5 with GMAT of 750.

I have been working in a high tech company (e.g. MS, google) for 3 years.

I also own a small nonprofit online consulting service ompany .

Im trying to go to MBA for.career switch to.finance BC it seems intetesting and im sick of being engineer.

Currently I have passed cfa level one and look forward to taking next levels.

So do you think I have a good.chance of getting into columbia, booth, Wharton and possibly with fellowship for ED for Columbia?

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hi there,

I'd love to help you but I need a LITTLE more information. For example, what is your role at this high tech company? What's your impact looking like? What about this non profit consulting firm? What kind of projects? Clients? What about your extracurriculars? Both in school and after?

When you're talking about chances at a top 10 program, the more information you can give us the better. At that level it's far more than just pure stats. A lot of qualitative components come into play.

Look forward to learning more!

Bhavik

tsunghop · Answer

At the tech company, I was responsible for having quality product. Thus, I would spend much time traveling to China, Europe, South America to manage and ensure our production line and production test line is good so that we could meet our necessary deadlines. I would also design, build and support necessary production line and off-production line machines.

And the non-profit company, it is more like careers & graduate studies consulting for mostly foreign students who are considerably more handicapped in US. My focus area is Electrical and Computer engineering related career and academics, whereas others I am working with are covering other areas, such as business, accounting, etc.

Regarding my extracurricular, they are mostly engineering related. My team has built robots to compete in national and world competition, and won several awards and even recognition letters from US Senate and US Congress. And I have also worked in lab and my research helped me get grant and scholarship from IEEE (most renowned electrical engineering society worldwide, for this award only 8 worldwide and 2 nationwide were awarded). Besides engineering, I have been involved in Investment Club where we share our ideas regarding economics trend, interesting investment, etc.

For my volunteering works, I tutored undergraduate engineering students for a while without charge. And until now, I have helped teaching kids on weekends for about 2~3 years.

Hopefully information above can help you understand my situation a bit more clearly.

Thanks.

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hi,

You have a decent profile and a very good GMAT Score. As per your profile and area of interest I would suggest you to target Columbia, Chicago Booth, Cornell University and Yale University.

The Business Schools you have chosen are excellent but I will suggest you to apply few more which I have suggested above as they have good acceptance rate and employment record. Also get in touch with the alumnus of B-School which you are targeting to know more about the B-School admission procedure.

You would need to cleverly prepare yourself for questions like the reasons you want to switch from IT to management, your rationale behind applying for a specific B school, so on and so forth.

The next step for you is to focus more on your application essays and recommendations for these Business Schools.

Please visit  https://tinyurl.com/cnpsl4a  to see more about online Essay Evaluation and Interview Preparation. If you are happen to based in Bangalore you can also attend the workshop organized by the alumnus of top business school and ISB admission team on 27th October 2013. You can register for the workshop here  https://tinyurl.com/cjy62uh

Feel free to post any other query or concern that you might have.

Cheers!!
Neha Singh

tsunghop · Answer

Neha Singh,

Thanks for your comment.

Is there chance if I can also receive fellowship applying columbia for early decision?

I appreciate your time and any more comment.

Best,

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hey there,

Thanks so much for the additional info! Definitely very helpful. You've got some really strong parts to your profile and what I particularly like is the fact that while you have a technical job, you have demonstrated ability on the business side of things as well. That's a pretty key component that a lot of times engineers can lack.

When it comes to the schools you've listed, I definitely think you should apply to them. Wharton is a stretch (but if you're trying for Finance go ahead and apply) but Booth and Columbia are more along the lines of stretch/aligned. I think getting scholarship money at Columbia is going to be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. There are a lot of factors that go into scholarship award decisions and, honestly, the things we assess to determine your chances of getting in are only part of a larger picture when it comes to money.

I think you should also target a couple of schools in the top 15 range (so between Columbia and Johnson or so) to round out your apps and hedge yourself a little bit. Also, if scholarships are a key component for you, then the drop from top 10 to top 20 might be fruitful.

There are definitely some other school options to get into finance but it varies by region, type of finance, etc.

Let me know if you have any other questions - I'm happy to help!

Bhavik

MBAPrepAdvantage · Answer

Oops. I responded in the other thread.
You have a good shot but positioning yourself as a transition to finance might not be the best strategy. Schools, like Columbia, are wary of double-career switchers (switching both function and industry) so if you apply with these goals you might wish to stay in the technology industry so you are only switching function.

Also, about the scholarship money. Usually (not always) more money is available as you apply to less selective schools. There is also usually scholarship money for different ethnicities or people with different career focuses. Check out the web pages of each of your target schools.

Good luck,

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