Profile Evaluation and School Fit Advice

Question

Hey, thanks in advance for taking a look! Appreciate all the candid feedback I can get.

Two main questions:
1) How can I refine my applications for the target schools listed?
2) Based on background and stated objectives, do any of the target schools listed seem to have a more natural fit for me?

1) Background
Hired out of school as a logistics engineer/business analyst for a Fortune 500 transportation services company
4 years of experience at the time of intended matriculation (Fall 2015)

Received 2 promotions within the same company: 
one vertically within the engineering department
one diagonally into a pricing/marketing management role

Sales Engineering
Initial work consisted of developing decision support tools for the CMO and senior sales VPs 
Designed and automated a customer score card
Quantitatively analyzes customers on several dimensions: quality of revenue, growth potential, operating characteristics, compliance to long term network design, etc. 
Currently used by the executive team as a barometer for customer relationship development

Sustainability Engineering
Acted as an internal and external subject matter expert on green transportation practices
Liaison to the EPA
Steward of an internally developed carbon emissions calculator
Conducted capital investiture analysis on green technology before and after purchase
Marketed carbon offset sales from the company's "green" services

Pricing and Marketing Management
Recently accepted an offer from the COO to transition into the company's business management
Business division had been losing money; asked to help turn it around
Directly responsible for the financial and operational performance of several Midwestern and Northeastern markets
Managing $50 million in annual revenue and growing
No direct reports under me in the hierarchy
However, I do provide the corporate strategy for the implementation teams in my markets
Act as an integration point between the sales, operations, and engineering/IT support teams

Over the past year, all KPIs associated with my markets have improved considerably
Youngest of my professional peers in a similar role; among top tier in performance

2) GMAT
730 47Q44V

3) Undergrad
University of Arkansas, 3.6 GPA, B.S. Industrial Engineering, 2011

4) Extracurriculars
Minimal community involvement since undergrad
Undergrad extracurricular activity included work as a peer mentor for freshman engineering students
Coordinated schedules with 20+students weekly throughout their first years
Provided guidance on how they can achieve their academic and personal goals

5) Certifications
No certifications

6) Target Schools
Northwestern, MIT, UC Berkeley, Duke, Texas

7) Application Timeline
Applying in R1/R2 2014-15
Matriculating in Fall 2015

8) MBA Goals
Career switching in a sense
Plan to specialize in General Management during MBA 
Intend to work in a consulting firm/supply chain company/tech innovation company for the first few years after graduation
Long term goal is to work for Google, Amazon, or similar industry disrupter in a product/services development role
Important to me to work in a capacity that is directly relevant to improving quality of life for the average American

Admissionado · Answer

Hey there,
Thanks for dropping by. Let's start with your second question. Cause it's a bit easier to answer: What does it mean to be a "natural fit"? You are going for general management, so basically you are a natural fit anywhere (although you may have personal preferences for location, region, etc.) In fact the rule of thumb is relatively simple - go to the best school you can get into. So, yes you fit into these schools, but would fit just as well in any other top 15-20 programs.

I think your school list is relatively fair while remaining ambitious (by Texas you meant McCombs, right? or Rice?). You have a bunch of top 10 schools (though not top3) plus one safe, so that seems to me to be a good reasonable strategy.

Basically things look pretty good. The only real weakness I see is your lack of volunteer work. Otherwise things are all sweet. 
You have good grades, seem to have a good job and just as importantly, a great promotion schedule. GMAT is fantastic!
So, see if there's not anything you can't do about that volunteer work (even if it's little and even if it's late, it's still better than nada)
And other than that, just get started as early as you can on your apps.

If there's any way we can help, just drop a line,
Best,
JF

tyler1123 · Answer

Thanks so much for the response!

My strategy thus far with narrowing down schools has definitely been to choose 3-4 "match" programs and 1 "safe" program.

Incidentally, the Texas school I mentioned is indeed McCombs. Do you think that is a fair assumption to make about my candidacy with McCombs? Or should I hedge my bets by swapping out one of my "match" schools for another "safe" school toward the bottom of the top 20?

I will admit I'm embarrassed about the lack of community involvement since I left undergrad. Not just for this application process but because it's a stark reminder that I still haven't mastered work-life balance yet. (Hopefully I get the opportunity to develop that skill during my MBA study!)

On the one hand, I agree that having nothing substantial in terms of volunteer work is disappointing.

On the other hand, I've heard there may be some backlash to shoehorning a ton of volunteer work into my schedule this late in the game.

I'm afraid it will come off as disingenuous - like I'm doing it solely for the admissions leverage, even if that is truthfully only one reason among many. Ideally, that perception shouldn't detract from the rest of the candidacy, but I've heard that it very well could. Above all else, I'd like to present myself in a way that is candid and sincere with these schools.

Does that sound unfounded? It's a bit of a catch-22 to me.

Admissionado · Answer

Tyler, Well I think it's good to choose a safe school that you LOVE. Cause once you are out of Top 10, does it matter if it's ranked 15 or 22? Not that much (although it might a bit depending on industry, so you know, there are banking schools and oil schools). But I like McCombs, and if you do too, stick with McCombs as your safe. For the safe school, the most important thing is that IF it be the only school you get into, that you would actually want to go there. I think your strategy of match plus safe is great. But get all those schools in round 1! You want to have a back-up plan (namely rounds 2 and 3

) For the volunteer stuff, it doesn't have to be disingenuous. Just come clean. Mean, find ONE thing that you are ACTUALLY interested in doing. It could be animals, church, teaching, red cross, whatever, and start. And when it comes to the application, just come clean: "I know I haven't done that much community service in the years since school, but as I prepared my applications, I realized this lack, and that there were things I always wanted to do, but have been pushing off because of other obligations. So I figured, what time better than now." And that's it. It's less good than if you do volunteer work for ten years, but better than if you apply with nuttin'.

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