Profile Evaluation request - Kellogg 1Y Program

Question

GMAT is Q49/V41 Total 730 with AWA of 5.0.

Age :31 Years old, will be 32 this Aug. (Yep! Old)

Undergrad : 3.9 Average School in India (Comp science)
Grad 3.4 US Tier 2 school. (Comp science) (Not great)

Indian Male Married / one child

8 years of progressive IT consulting experience in Unix, Storage Area Networks, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery with a major disk storage company.
Design solutions for Data Center migrations and Technology refreshes and execute the migration and refresh projects.
Received 2008 North American services award for designing and executing a complex data center migration.

Now in a pre-sales technical consulting role in which I work with sales representatives to close deals and act as a trusted adviser to my customers.

Extra Curricular activities

Vice president of a non profit organization that focuses on high skilled immigration and entrepreneurship. 
Responsible for strategy, grass roots efforts and advocacy
Identify champions and help push policy efforts through counsel.
Ran a grass roots effort that had significant impact on approx 500K employment based immigration applicants.
Coach members of the organization and help them present their and their employer's immigration problems to their elected representative

I am targeting Kellogg 1Y program and currently taking the course work required to satisfy eligibility. While I am not a business major in either undergrad or grad, I feel that my extensive experience and the course work I am taking to satisfy eligibility requirements will make me ready for the program. I consider myself a career advancer and not a career changer. I have been in Post sales and currently in Pre sales technology consulting and would like to move into strategy consulting.

Let me know your thoughts about my fit and chances to get into the 1Y program

scottshrum · Answer

Hello,

Yup, you rightly keyed in on your age (i.e., years of work experience), which will probably be a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, Kellogg is a little more open-minded about age than are other top programs. As you may already know, the challenges are in convincingly answering the "Why now?" question and making sure that you don't appear to be making this move just because you've stagnated in your career.

I understand your thinking re: being a career advancer vs. a career changer, but hiring companies (and therefore Kellogg) will still view you as a career changer. That's not a terrible thing, although Kellogg will want to see that you get the challenge of hitting the ground running in the job hunt just months after you start the 1Y program.

Your extracurricular experience is terrific -- should be lots of good material for you to draw upon there.

So, your age does give me pause, but Kellogg 1Y is a worth a shot for you.

Good luck!
Scott

icandy · Answer

Scott,

Just curious, Were you in the regular 2Y program or 1Y program? Do you have any consultants or head consultants on board at Veritas who graduated from the 1Y program?

There are very specific reasons, which were out of my control and did not allow me to get back to B school earlier as I had actually intended. So I am hoping that I can explain them convincingly in my essays.

Thank you for making it blatant that Kellogg would like to see me in the job hunt with in a quarter.

Thanks

scottshrum · Answer

I was in the 2Y program. We have a lot of great Kellogg consultants, and I can think of at least one who did the 1Y program. She works with all types of applicants, but she came from the 1Y program.

Like I said, Kellogg is fairly open-minded about "older" applicants than many of the other top schools are, so I think you can still break through as long as the rest of your app adds up to paint a picture of someone who's pursuing an MBA at the right time in his career!

Scott

icandy · Answer

Scott,

Thanks again for responding! I looked at your website and unfortunately Veritas does not seem to offer free 30 min consultations like some other admissions consulting companies do. I understand that your and other admissions consultant's time is valuable and value your input here on GC.

I noticed that your hourly consulting rates are 250$ an hour. 
(1) Are there any special rates for GC members? 
(2) Are 30 min appointments available?

If not, can the money paid towards the appointment be deducted from the package fee, If I decide to hire a veritas admissions consultant.

Thanks.

scottshrum · Answer

Take a look at this page, halfway down on the right: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/business-school/ Look for the phone number under "Free Consultations"... :-)

Scott P.S. If you call in, I recommend that you speak with someone OTHER than me, to get a good feel for who we are are to hear another point of view than just my own!

icandy · Answer

Thank you for pointing that out. Apparently, I did not see it.

I will call and schedule a consultation with the consultant who graduated from the 1Y program.

Profile Evaluation request - Kellogg 1Y Program

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