Kindly review Profile

crusader · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject: Kindly review Profile

GMAT: 750 AWA: 5.5

Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer at a Silicon Valley startup.
Work ex: 2 years currently. (will be 3 years when i join a college in 2009)
- Rated as a Dream Employee with a rating of 5/5
- Have led many teams of size 3-5 and delivered many products with limited resources and time
- Have helped the startup setup its processes

Education:
- Computer Engineer, V.J.T.I. (Most coveted engineering college in Mumbai) - 69.7%
- Stood 10th in Mumbai in plus 2 exams with 94%
- Scored 99.01percentile in Comprehensive Adaptive Test(CAT) conducted by Indian Institutes of Management. Waitlistedfor IIM-Indore. One of the most competitive exams in the world.
- Awarded JRD Tata Scholarship for excellence in engineering studies in 2003 and 2004.
- Decent Business Knowledge. Have a couple of National Stock Exchange certifications.

Extra-Curricular Activities:
Thoroughly involved in extra-curriculars
- Founder of a national level health NGO. Setup the entire organization from scratch and led the team under tough circumstances.
- Good sports person. Have played football, hockey, cricket, carrom, athletics for school and college
- Head of Elite Athlete Management at Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2007 and 2008.
- Chief Coordinator (CEO), Technovanza '05 (National level technical festival, VJTI): 500 volunteers, 5000 visitors, 200 trans-India colleges. Directly headed teams for media, publicity, website, security, accommodation, decoration, events selection, finance, registration, prize distribution
- Competed in 21 km Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon.
- Regular donor for Child Relief and You (CRY). Run many charity marathons such as Terry Fox Cancer Research Run.

Business Specialization: General Management/Entrepreneurship

I am planning to apply to top schools in US. Kindly review my profile and gauge my standing in comparison to other candidates.
Also, Could you please let me know specifically which schools i should target for the intended specialization and where i have a pretty realistic chances of getting in. I would like to apply to 5-6 top schools.

Currently my application list looks like:
Stanford
Indian School of Business
Tuck
Kellog

Thanks a ton in advance!

VP_MBA_Guru · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 9:12 am Post subject:

Hey Crusader,
Thanks for your post.

You have great credentials and sounds like you are a good fit for the schools mentioned below. As you know, its hard to gauge your candidacy based on profile/stats, as much of the decision is based on your essays, LORs, interview. That said - here is my feedback.

Overall, you are (unfortunately) in one of the most competitive applicant pool - Indians with IT background. Therefore your biggest challange is how to best differentiate yourself. What makes you different from the thousands of Indian IT applicants that will apply to the same schools with similar stats (high GMAT, solid IT work experience).

Because of this, while you are competitive for the schools below, its hard to know the overall outcome. You might want to consider expanding your school list. I would be happy to recommend some schools if you could provide more information about your post-MBA career interests and other school-related criteria (region, program specifics, personality).

Some suggestions -

First of all - make sure you have clear post-MBA career goals. What are your short/long term career interest. How SPECIFICALLY will the school's MBA program help you achieve these goals.

Secondly, from your profile - it appears you have strong ECs and team-related interests/athletics. These will also help differentiate yourself from other Indian IT applicants - esp in your essays and interview.

Regards,

NP