800saurabh800 wrote:
GMAT - 730
Undergrad - B.Tech in Biotechnology (major) and Computer Science (Minor) (Undergrad) from IIT Guwahati (Top 10 in India)
GPA - 8.6/10 (Top 15% in my class)
Background - Indian - non IT Male
Total Work Ex - 5.5 years (~1 Year in IT consulting and ~4.5 years in consumer tech startups)
Brief Summary
During my 2 month B.Tech internship at University of Strasbourg - France, I published a research paper on HIV in International Journal of Virology. I have spent almost 3.5 years in a early stage start-up , where I was the first Data Analyst to be hired and went on to lead the Analytics team as Associate Director - Data Analytics. I was also working on Central Growth strategy and helping the CEOs office in raising a $50 Million Series D funding. I am currently working in a mid stage startup as a Sr Manager in Strategic Business Planning Team, scaling and commercialising the Commercial Interior Design vertical and refining the Annual Operating Plan for the entire organisation. I have also worked with an IT MnC in India for about a year as a Validation Consultant for the Regulatory Domain in the Medical Devices Vertical where I was helping the clients as well as internal teams to create products compliant with the FDA rules. I have done volunteering work with an NGO for 2 months, during which I trained the students from Primary Government School to participate in city level competitions where the children secured top positions. I have also taken a few online courses on Data Science and a executive course on Project Management from IIMB, one of the top B schools in India. I can get recommendations from the Founders/CXOs in the startups which I have worked. My short term MBA goal is to get into a startup and contribute in a larger capacity or join a corporate strategy team of a big organisation. Long term goal is to start a business on my own.
It's a little bit hard to provide feedback without talking to you directly, but you have a lot to be proud of in your application: IIT grad (that's what all the schools prefer in your extremely competitive demo), international work/academic experience, good professional experience with demonstrated career and EC leadership.
Your GMAT is fine for GSB from an objective sense given its overall average, but it's on the lower side for an Indian Male IIT applicant. Still, your GMAT shouldn't be a deal breaker, even though you will probably be evaluated on a relative basis rather than an absolute one.
Although your academic experience is very impressive (masters, published status), I wouldn't focus on it too much in the application outside of the resume. GSB will impressed with academic accomplishments but it's best if they are combined with a great history of promotions, professional leadership, and ambitious goals for which you are imminently qualified given your past professional experience.
It's great that you had a 2 month commitment to a civic organization that empowers Indian youth, but GSB will want to see continued and sustained extracurricular involvement. It's better to be involved in an EC commitment for many years than for just 2 months. So to the extent that you can build out that general passion of mentoring/helping kids as a deeply-held interest that's spanned multiple years (even if that particular position was only 2 months), that would be ideal.
One note on your espoused career interests - especially your start-up vs. corporate ambitions: AdComs want non-US international students with imminently plausible their plans are given the immigration realities in the U.S. Vanishingly few companies can reliably sponsor international workers now. Top banks, consulting firms and tech companies have the resources and budget to sponsor international workers, but smaller start ups don't. That, combined with the high cost of tuition and resulting debt-load post-MBA, is one of the reasons why many GSB international students move to large corporations where they can get green card-tracked as quickly as possible post-MBA and put off their entrepreneurial/start-up plans a few years until after the have a greencard. All of this isn't to dissuade you from your start-up career dreams, but you should be smart about how you articulate them to the AdCom in your application. No AdCom wants to risk somebody who can't do what they say they want to do in their application - that's bad from a rankings perspective.