Request for profile evaluation

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Request for profile evaluation

by ys91 » Mon Aug 18, 2014 7:36 am
Hi, I would like to get a fair appraisal of my chances at getting admitted to one of these schools:
HBS, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Booth, Kellogg, Tuck (possibly Cornell, Yale and Haas)

I am 27-yr old Indian Male.

Education: Bachelors Engineering from a top-50 school in India (first class with distinction, ~68% although my university is notorious for giving out low %age with highest being only ~75% university-wide).
MS - Industrial Engineering Virginia Tech (top 20 engineering grad schools in US, and top 4 for Industrial Engineering)

Work Exp: Solid ~4.5 years work ex at this stage in financial services (risk management, capital planning, modelling roles for International consumer lending portfolios) at two of the biggest US consumer lending institutions and currently I am at one of the largest international banks. Currently manage risk area for international lending in UK, Germany and South Africa and have a team of 3 people (2 are international to cover time difference). I've always been reviewed at top 5-7% of peers in my performance evals at work, and had 3 promotions in the last 4 years (not sure if salary is important, but I went from starting at 60k to now at a bit under $130k w/o bonuses, which can vary from 15-30%).

Ideal Post-MBA goals:
Want to get back into consumer finance in a more senior role in managing international lending. Product development suitable for markets where traditional products aren't as suitable.

GMAT: Gave GMAT once in 2012 when I was thinking about PT-MBA at Booth, got a 680 then. Decided not to go for PT-MBA as I thought I needed more experience before going in. now thinking about Full Time MBA, so sat for GMAT again and got a 710 (due to some work issues, I wasnt able to prepare last 2-3 weeks, so might have been able to score a bit more..GMATprep were 710 & 740.. but dont feel like giving GMAT again honestly, unless absolutely needed.


Volunteer/extra-curriculur:
Currently volunteer with New York Cares for SAT prep and college/career mentoring for middle school and high school kids.
Volunteer with a >100 yr old organization here in NYC in adult computer education.
Mentor 4 young boys as part of Young Men's Initiative.
Volunteer 2-3x/yr with Junior Achivement through work.
As time permits, I'll arrange walks, charity runs, etc at work (part of 4-person citizenship committee).
Currently I average ~7-10 hrs/week of volunteering (and have been consistently doing this since 2011 in Chicago and NYC)
Co-founded a non-profit movement with some friends during undergrad for improving literacy among children of GMAT workers where we improve compiuter literacy among them so they can compete for decent paying jobs and wouldnt need to enter family trade.
Student body head (gen. secy.) for college chapter of Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) and executive head of college fest organizing committee.


I would really appreciate if you could please provide a fair appraisal of my chances at these schools. I am honestly in a good place career-wise and want an MBA to open up more doors and learn new things which will be critical as I move up in the chain. But if pedigree is what I am going after, I wouldnt want to go for anything other than CBS, HSW, Booth, Kellogg, Tuck and MIT. I might consider Yale, Cornell and Haas due to international name recognition, but not much else. I feel any other option may be sub-optimal for me as against doing a Saturday MBA at columbia or PT-MBA at booth/Kellogg. I'd really appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

P.S.: Apologies for the long post :)