lousantace wrote:
Hi Alex,
I would really appreciate a review of my profile.
Based on my profile and post-MBA goals, do the schools I have short-listed make sense? Any other recommendations?
Am I competitive at the schools I am applying to?
Am I still considered part of the Indian male demographics even if I lived in the US almost all my life and completed all my schooling here?
My profile:
Age and Ethnicity: 26 at Matriculation, Indian-born US male
GMAT: 710 (Q48, V38) AWA 6.0, IR 8
School: Regionally well-known STEM university in northeast US
Major: Double major in Biomedical Engineering and Molecular Biology, Minor in Computer Science
GPA: 3.61/4.00
Background and Work Experience: I was born in India but moved to the US when I was 12. All my higher education (high school and beyond) was done in the United States. After graduating with high distinction with a double major, I switched focus from R&D to Operations. I started out as an analyst in the Process Excellence group and after 6 months, got my first promotion where I became a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt. I started a Process Excellence program for a manufacturing site and became part of the site management team. Got a second promotion after 2 years where I got an additional site for which I am the Process Excellence leader and part of the new site’s management team as well. Currently, have two temporary direct reports (summer intern for 3 months and grant writer for 9 months). Total work experience right now is 37 months and at matriculation it will be 50 months.
Extracurricular: I was a Math and science tutor for GED students for a year during which I spent 5 hrs/week on tutoring. I am an Everybody Wins! Reading Mentor for elementary school kids since November 2012.
Leadership: I have had multiple leadership roles in my work environment but none in my extracurricular activities. I mentored projects in various functional areas such as R&D, Project Management, Quality, Production, Internal Sales, Sales Support, and Logistics. Led several Lean Six Sigma projects that span three group functions with cost-savings of more than $1M.
For Fun: I won’t be mentioning this in my app but I enjoy museums a lot so I have started volunteering at an art museum soon after I finished my GMAT. Gives me a different perspective and it’s a change of pace from my technical and scientific work environment and colleagues.
My Career Goals:
Short-term Goals: Right after completing my MBA, I would like to work as a consultant for a boutique biotechnology management consulting firm (Putnam Associates, Heath Advances) or for the life sciences arm of a general management consulting firm (Bain, LEK).
Mid-term and Long-term Goals: After gaining experience and exposure as a consultant, I would like to work as a corporate strategy analyst at a biotech/pharmaceutical company. In the long-term I would like to continue working in corporate strategy and eventually, would like to head the group at a leading life sciences company.
My School List: Harvard, Wharton, MIT LGO, Tuck, Duke, and Kellogg
Thanks in advance!
In short, I think you're targeting the right range of schools -- although it really comes down to what you're willing to risk as well. If you want to be more assured that you'll get in somewhere next year, you may want to apply to 1-2 other top 16 schools (maybe look adding Ross and Darden to make it 8 schools total?). The top 8 schools including HBS and Wharton are stretches (but not long shots) for you -- basically you have enough of a chance that they're worth a serious shot, but not to the exclusion of not applying anywhere else. MIT is a hard one to get into because it's tiny - AND the fact that it's like Mecca for any engineer (their applicant pool is even more overrepresented with engineers - yes, their incoming class also has a greater % of engineers than other schools, but still it's competitive in way for engineers that is unique to MIT). What you have to your advantage is that you're not an IT/software engineer - being in manufacturing/operations helps. When you mentioned that you have leadership experience at work, I'm not surprised because the nature of your industry and job offers those kinds of opportunities that many other industries do not at a relatively junior level (financial services, consulting, tech, etc).
So the fact that you have leadership experience at work but not in your extracurriculars is not a bad thing at all - in fact, it's a good thing. A lot of applicants seek out extracurriculars precisely because they lack the opportunities to take on leadership responsibilities in the workplace.
And finally no -- you are American! Technically you'll be considered "Asian-American" in the admissions process, so you won't be benchmarked against the Indian nationals (most of whom are engineers - but even then, they are IT/software engineers). Furthermore, there's a disproportionate number of Asian-Americans applying to b-school who are in finance, so that will help you as well.
At this point, it's really about focusing on the applications. You probably won't get in everywhere, but that's the point - if you did, it means you're not shooting high enough. If you don't get in anywhere, it could mean that you were shooting too high, or you ran into really bad luck somehow. Assuming you apply to 8 schools (including say Ross and Darden), my hunch is that you'll likely get into a few of the schools (and you may find that the results will be random and a crapshoot at times - i.e. getting into a higher ranked school, and dinged at a lower ranked one).
Finally with your GMAT - it's a smidgen below the average, but not enough to worry about. If you feel you can score say a 740+ without any additional effort (i.e. your 710 was a "bad hair day" so to speak), then reconsider taking it, but otherwise it's unlikely worth retaking it (your GMAT is good enough).
Good luck
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23 Feb 2014, 04:17
