Please evaluate for profile for a top MBA

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Allow me to introduce myself, I'm from Perú and I would appreciate if you evaluate my profile and which are my posibilities to get into a top MBA program in one or two years. Besides, my weak and strong points in my profile.


GMAT- not taken yet.
Age - 25 years old
Work experience - 1 year (intership), 1 year 4 months (work as a consultant in Mexico)

MBA goals:
My MBA goal is to focus on General Management, as well as further develop my skills and leadership. My plan, as currently imagined, would be to continue my career in consulting or banking sector, ideally in South America, and achieving increasing levels of management responsibilities.

Target schools:
HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, Chicago Booth, MIT, Columbia

Education:

Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (Top public university in engineering in Peru)
-Bachelor of science (2nd out of 73) / top 2% / GPA 3.72/4
-2009-I, 2009-II and 2010-I Dean's Lists
-Participation as a university team member in programming competitions.
-National finalist in the 3rd National Mathematical Olympiad Laurent Schwartz organized by the École Polytechnique (Paris, France).

I've been admitted at LSE Methods Summer Programme is a summer school for this year.

Work experience:

-CRM intern at Interbank (one of the largest bank in Peru) - 1 year (Lima, Peru)

-Business consultant at Management Solutions (Spanish international consulting firm) - Project in one of the biggest bank in Latin America (Mexico City, Mexico)


Hobbies and extracurricular activity:

-Volunteering: Salesiano Project - Volunteer teacher giving classes to children from rural areas (Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, Ecuador)..

-Sports: Team captain of the school's chess club/ Green belt in karate (3rd kyu).

Are you sure that I can reach these programs?
Which of this schools do you think I can fit in better?
What are my weak points I have to improve?

Thanks a lot

GMAT/MBA Expert

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by MargaretStrother » Fri May 06, 2016 6:45 am
Without a GMAT it's hard to make a strong determination about chances, so I'll work with what you have so far: Your university performance, both academically and socially, looks strong. However, I'm seeing you as maybe a year premature for application to top MBA programs. Three years of professional experience (excluding internships) is generally preferred; H/S/W will sometimes take younger applicants, but they will be looking for your professional experience to be augmented by a major community-service leadership role, which I'm not seeing at present.

My recommendation about how to move forward: spend this year cranking up all the markers you'll need for the MBA, and start working on your applications early in 2017. Some admissions consulting companies, including Stacy Blackman Consulting, offer "plan ahead" services, where we could sit down together and plan a course of action for the next year. I'd love to see you get the GMAT out of the way this year (720 or higher is ideal for H/S/W), while in parallel expanding into leadership in the workplace AND finding a community service role where you can lead groups -- not just volunteering yourself, but organizing and leading peers, possibly volunteers from your workplace. Give yourself 12 months of leadership in these roles, and you'll have some great achievements to discuss in your applications next year.

The combination of a year of enhanced leadership (meaning, start NOW), a strong GMAT, and to really add value, coming to the US for campus visits at each school you're considering, would put you in a dramatically more competitive position for these top-tier MBA programs.

Good luck!
Margaret Strother
Margaret Strother
Senior Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting

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