Would you assess my profile. Thanks

Question

Hi!

Thanks in advance. 

Age:26
Born and lived in Spain until September '06
Currently: Live and work in NYC


Education:
BS Engineering (5 year degree). Concentration in Agriculture and Enviromental Engineering - June 2004. 
GPA= 2.3 Top 20 percentile of my class. (Engineering schools in Spain have a very tough grading system. Completed degree in 5 years. Average years to conclude this degree 7 years. First year: 20% of drop outs.

2001-2003: Student Representative and member of the University Student's Association
2002-2003: Treasurer of the University Student's Association

2003-2004: granted scholarship to do final thesis between University and a UK Company. (published two scientific communications derived from that project) 

2003-2004: Member of the National Association of AgroEngineering

Work experience:

Sept 2004-Aug 2006 - IT/Management Consulting Firm, Madrid --> Analyst. Worked in several IT projects for major UK bank.( Led a team of 3 people, led workshops and worksessions with the client. Developed strong technical acumen and high client visibility)
Sept 2006 - Present - IT/Management Consulting Firm (same firm - transferred to the NY office), New York/Phoenix/Chicago --> Senior Analyst ( Business Consulting role. Online strategy for a major Travel Company)
I have recently been promoted to Consultant. 

I am aiming to start program fall 2008 - (Total working experience 4 years).

Target schools: UCLA, Berckley, NYU, Wharton, MIT, Kellogg

Doesn't it look suspicious if I start to volunteer now? What type of volunteering, I guess it needs to show my leadership abilities, am I right? 

Thanks a lot for your dedication.

PaulBodine · Answer

Cucussa,

With a 700+ GMAT score you may have a shot at some or all of those schools. Your profile looks good. Regarding community involvement, schools don't care what your motivation behind getting involved is. (Of course, if you state in your essays that you got involved in order to get into B-school they'll ding you.) What they do care about is the magnitude and impact of your involvement -- what you accomplished, how it changed you, etc. So if you have not been involved in the community up to this point I would recommend being ambitious, which means (a) finding a *leadership* role with a community organization (leading people, sitting on board), (b) making your involvement intensive enough to be able to point to significant impact, and (c) -- hopefully -- choosing an organization that you can really be passionate about and that's not one of the usual "pre-MBA" volunteer organizations. Be creative.

Good luck,

cucussa · Answer

Thanks Paul,

I will definitely try to get involved into Community activities aiming to assume a leading role. The problem is that working in Consulting, my weeks are usually between 50-55 hours, sometimes even weekends, so I will have to find something during the weekends.

My GPA is also a concern, but I assume with a good GMAT it wont be a problem.

Being a foreigner, with work experience in Europe and the US, it seems to me this factor contributes to ebhance my profile.In this line, I was wondering if I should aim at certain schools (in the US) that have a certain policy regarding foreigners cap. ItÂ´s just a thought!

Thanks again,

PaulBodine · Answer

cucussa, 

I'm not sure what you mean by U.S. schools "that have a certain policy regarding foreigners cap." Schools don't use hard "caps" or quotas and Europeans would probably have a small advantage in the "diverity game" relative to Americans, Indians, and to some extent Chinese.

Would you assess my profile. Thanks

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