Beat The GMAT

whizdude_1983 · Fri Oct 10, 2008 3:07 am

Hi,

Can you please take a look at my profile and let me know about my FIT factor for some of the B-schools mentioned below:

Male/Indian/IT
GMAT: 710 (Q49/V38) / AWA - 6.0
Intend to apply for Fall 2009

Academics:
SSC (10th) - 78.13%
HSC (10+2) - 84.00%

Engineering (Computers), Mumbai University -
Sem I 68.00% December 2001
Sem II 69.00% June 2002
Sem III 69.11% December 2002
Sem IV 63.50% June 2003
Sem V 62.54% December 2003
Sem VI 64.89% June 2004
Sem VII 60.63% December 2004
Sem VIII 70.14% June 2005

Overall: 65.07%
Note: getting above 74-75 % in any Sem in my institute means becomming an Institute topper.

Work experience:
Current work ex 39 months .....will be 50 months by next august...incudes IT Product Development and IT Services...worked in multi cultural teams.

Working (was working) as a Software developer in an endangered IB....the biggest bankruptcy till date.....

Can manage good recos...but since i have been working in IT...leadership activity is limited here...team contribution can be highlited in the recos...

Awards and Certifications:
SCJP and SCWCD Certs,
A few scholarships during HSC and engineering,
Certificates for performance is Physics Olympiads
Certs for participation in projects in college (but only a few)

Extracurricular: Involved in the Community Services team at my company. My recommenders can mention this in the recos.

Also do some personal contributions to Community Development but i have been doing it on an informal basis since last 8-10 years. Dont know how to prove it but can surely mention this in the essays and relate it to my personal background.

Interests and fun: Tennis, Trekking and Driving

Desired Post MBA career - Strategy or Financial Consulting

Target Schools: ISB, Wharton, MIT, Tuck, Darden
Can include: UNC, Kelley, NYU and NUS.

Please let me know if my profile is respectful for my target schools and if not then which schools from the other list should i include in my list.

I can actually wait for a year to build my profile but then i will be only able to add a few more certs related to my finance and also do a little more community work....will that help? I am a bit spectical about the community service since it will be evident that i did it only to build my resume.

My dream school is Tuck....struggling on the deadline for R1...is R2 good enough for Tuck...considering that Tuck has an Early Action round as well....what do they prefer?

Awaiting your response...

Thanks in advance.

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whizdude_1983 · Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:15 pm

Anyone there???

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Graham · Wed Oct 15, 2008 4:02 am

Dear whizdude,

Thanks for your post. Please see my comments below:

Male/Indian/IT
GMAT: 710 (Q49/V38) / AWA - 6.0
Engineering (Computers), Mumbai University -
Overall: 65.07%
As you are likely aware, this is a very common academic profile in the MBA applicant pool. Keep in mind that you will be competing against other Indian males who have graduated from one of the IITs with equally strong (if not stronger) marks, and GMAT scores that run 730+.

Current work ex 39 months .....will be 50 months by next august...incudes IT Product Development and IT Services...worked in multi cultural teams.
Working (was working) as a Software developer in an endangered IB....
Can manage good recos...but since i have been working in IT...leadership activity is limited here...team contribution can be highlited in the recos...
You have a decent amount of work experience, but I am not seeing much here to help differentiate you (as IT posts of this kind are relatively common). Ideally you will be able to stand out by sharing strong anecdotes in your essays and focusing on the lessons in team work you learned, etc. I noticed that you wrote "was working" - does this mean that you are presently unemployed? If so, your #1 task at hand should be to get back into the workforce, ASAP, since it can be harder to get into b-school if you are unemployed.

Awards and Certifications:
SCJP and SCWCD Certs,
A few scholarships during HSC and engineering,
Certificates for performance is Physics Olympiads
Certs for participation in projects in college (but only a few)
These look fine - although your technical certifications with Sun/Java won't be viewed as "awards" - nor will they be terribly relevant to the adcom. University scholarships are nice - high school-era awards aren't usually relevant.

Extracurricular:
Involved in the Community Services team at my company. My recommenders can mention this in the recos.
Also do some personal contributions to Community Development but i have been doing it on an informal basis since last 8-10 years. Dont know how to prove it but can surely mention this in the essays and relate it to my personal background.
Interests and fun: Tennis, Trekking and Driving
It looks like you have some things to work with here. You might look to formalize your 'informal' community involvement if at all possible. While there is always the fear that it looks like resume-boosting, I think that if you can present it as a continuation of a long-standing involvement you should be fine.

Desired Post MBA career - Strategy or Financial Consulting
This is fairly basic. Any target firms you have in mind? Industries you would like to focus on? A region of the world you hope to target?

Target Schools: ISB, Wharton, MIT, Tuck, Darden
Can include: UNC, Kelley, NYU and NUS.
At present, I am not seeing a lot in your profile that makes me think Wharton, MIT and Tuck would be likely to accept you - but it's always hard to make this kind of call based on a simple profile posting to the forums. NYU, Darden, Kelley, UNC, ISB and NUS may be more likely targets, but I think a lot of this will come down to how you go about presenting your profile to the adcom - and whether or not your rec letters are overly 'techie' etc.

I can actually wait for a year to build my profile but then i will be only able to add a few more certs related to my finance and also do a little more community work....will that help? I am a bit spectical about the community service since it will be evident that i did it only to build my resume.
Waiting a year is certainly an idea - assuming you presently have employment and can work to perhaps boost your outside activities, consider another look at the GMAT, etc. I am not concerned with the adcom thinking you are merely 'resume-building', as long as the things you do are related in some way to past activities, etc.

My dream school is Tuck....struggling on the deadline for R1...is R2 good enough for Tuck...considering that Tuck has an Early Action round as well....what do they prefer?
See my comments above about your overall competitiveness. The best admissions odds at Tuck are always in the first round, but I wouldn't race to submit if you do not feel that your application is absolutely polished. You can always apply in the next round, which offers pretty good odds since it's only the second of four rounds anyway.

Best of luck,

Graham

Awaiting your response...

Thanks in advance.[/quote]

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whizdude_1983 · Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:32 am

Hi Graham,

Thanks a lot for your response. Here are a few more points from my side:

Desired Post MBA career - Strategy or Financial Consulting
This is fairly basic. Any target firms you have in mind? Industries you would like to focus on? A region of the world you hope to target?

I am interested in Risk Consulting. Target Companies are: McKinsey, Olive Wyman and Parthenon Group. Industry: No Preference. Region: Emerging markets in the short term but for the long-term its India.

If you have some important idea on this as well..then please let me know about it.

Thanks a lot....

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