Dear community members,
First, a big thank you for the great job you are doing and I'm postive that your insightful information is very helpful to many MBA aspirants like myself. Keep up the good work. I'm trying to evaluate my chances with this post for getting to a few select schools of my choice (listed below).
Let me start with my intended admission scheduled - Fall 2008, preferably, apply in Round 2 since I'm way too late for Round 1 already. I'm scheduled to take the GMAT on Nov.10, I'm also simultaneously looking to get started with the applications for the following schools (the order of priority is not reflected in the list):
1. Harvard
2. MIT
3. Stanford
4. Wharton
Reg. my background, I'm a US permanent-resident (green-card holder) and also an Indian citizen Started my career as a Civil Engineer in 1996 after finishing my Bachelor Degree in Engineering from a Tier 2 university in India. Very first assignment was on a World Bank Funded water supply project in South India and I toiled for 7 months learning the engineering trade first-hand. In that brief time on site, I realized an MS degree in Civil engineering would really help propel my career and arrived in the US in 1997 August with an admission to West Virginia University.
As I drew close to finishing my Master's thesis, I opted to take a break (but finished all the reqd. courses) and work a couple of years to get a better understanding of what I've learned in grad. school, in a practical context. So, started the professional career in the US around May 1999 as Junior Transportation Engineer/Planner in a large, regional firm n Pennsylvania. By June 2000, I moved to the Washington, DC area to work for a large firm (one the top 3 Engineering consulting firms in the World at that time) and started building Intelligent Transportation Architectures for Washington, DC and Syracuse, NY regions. These architectures connected several transportation communication networks operated by federal, state and local agencies, providing a regional communication framework for exchanging information in real-time to handle traffic congestion, reducing delays, saving lives during emergencies (such as 9/11) and other roadside incidents.
Then in 2002, came the opportunity to work for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a contractor supporting the US Dept. of Transportation (USDOT) in a large project, a once in a lifetime chance to get behind the decision-making involved in technology deployment that was happening in 78 major metropolitan areas and many small towns nationwide. Been with the same group, which is now operated by a private firm and got promoted a couple of time in the past 5 years. Now I am working as Senior Transportation Management Specialist, providing programmatic support to the executive leadership at the Research and Innovative Technology Administration of the US DOT. in helping manage a $110Million annual budget. More and more I'm finding myself immersed in management related assignments and started to feel the necessity for a degree that will help understand the nitty-gritty of Management ( the science and the philosophy behind managing people and programs fascinates me more these days than doing engineering work sitting behind a computer all day). I felt that going back to college to finish my Master's Thesis in Civil Engineering is not going to add value to what I do everyday, other than the possibility of a couple of thousand dollars added to the annual salary, and hence I decided to pursue the MBA and selected these 4 schools.
A few more notable volunteering elements on the professional side include being a Member & Secretary, respectively, for two technical committees of the Transportation Research Board, an arm of the National Academies of Science (NAS), that focuses on the development of new technologies in Transportation. Also, have contributed by peer-reviewing scientific publications and continue to manage the websites for these two committees. In 2003, I had the privilege of serving as one of the National Judges for the Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF) competition conducted by University of Central Florida, and evaluated several student projects submitted by teams across the nation.
On the social spectrum, I've volunteered with several organizations in the Washington, DC area helping them with project implementation in India. Also, I've been serving as the co-founder/Manager/Program Coordinator for a local non-profit's Marathon Training Program. This innovative fundraising program aims to transform any couch potato from any background in the community to run a marathon with intense training, and in return the runners raise funds for the organization to conduct its projects. It is a Win-Win for everyone involved - runners, organization, and the communities where the projects get implemented. Being a part of the team and managing it, I have completed 2 marathons and currently training for the 3rd one, due in October. Started in 2005, till date the program has graduated close to 35 runners (who either completed a 13.1 mile (Half-marathon) or a full 26.2 mile marathon) and raised over $35K. This year in 2007, the team boasts 35 runners and is expecting to raise another $30K (total would come up to 65K in three years). Apart from managing this marathon program, I'm also serving as the online membership manager, where membership requests are submitted by interested volunteers from around the world. Also, continuing to as the alumni coordinator for North American for my UG alma mater for the past 3 years.
Now, the following are some of the questions I have reg, my prospects for admission in the above listed schools, given that I manage to score around 700 in GMAT.
1. What pool of applicants will my application fall under ("Indian-Engineering-IT" pool, or the US Permanent & Permanent Residents pool, or something else that's considered "unique")?
2. The value of recommendation letters - Do you think a letter from someone I've known for only 6 months through my marathon program (he is a Stanford Alumnus and works as the Director in one of the World Bank affiliated agencies? Also, I've gotten enthusiastic O.K. from several people who are willing to write a recommendation letter, and most of these folks have either worked with me either in a non-profit setting, or at work, or through technical committees that I'm a part of in the professional circles. Also, I've secured confirmation from a couple of folks on the client side (some Senior Executive Service aka SES level staff) who knows me well over a 5 year period. Do you think this would make a strong case if I managed to get letters from people of this kind?
3. How would that incomplete Master degree would be looked at by the AdComm? I can make a positive reflection on the essays explaining what and the why involved behind this conclusion to discontinue the Master degree in Civil Engineering? FYI, I have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in this discontinued program.
4. Do you think a GMAT score of 700+ would nicely compensate for any "perceived" shortfalls in the academic performance (with above average academic performance from a not-so-well-recognized institute half the world away)?
5. Finally, if you were a member of the AdComm in any of the above mentioned 4 schools, would you consider lending me an opportunity to get interviewed, thus qualifying me for further consideration?
Thank you for patiently reading through this long post and I'd be grateful for any input regarding my questions. Look forward to hear from you and the rest of the community. Keep up the good work.
