Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

FaRiKo wrote:Dear MBA admission consultants,

Could you please review my profile and provide your insights and opinions regarding chances of mine to be admitted to the schools listed below. Thanks each and all in advance for your valuable insights.

Harvard Business School
Stanford Graduate School of Business
MIT Sloan School of Management
Haas School of Business

I'm 30 years old executive from Azerbaijan, Baku. For most of you the name of my country might tell nothing since it used to be part of the Soviet Union and located far away from USA to which I would like to take my journey. Moreover, it is just small:) Yet I believe it might enhance my profile because there have been few applications for top MBA programmes from my motherland.

As for my work experience, currently I'm Director of Development Company and, at the same time, Chief Strategy Officer of the parent company which has activities in following spheres: real estate development, publishing house, and largest printing company in Caucasus. Previously I had been working in telecom for almost 10 years and was CEO of the biggest Pay TV in Azerbaijan in terms of footprint of its broadcasting network prior to joining Baku European Games Operations Committee (BEGOC) which was established with a sole purpose of organization of the first ever European Games. Before that, I managed the nation-wide project regarding deployment of digital terrestrial television network and simultaneously worked as Head of Business Development of the company in charge of this project, which then was the part of the biggest Telecom Group in Azerbaijan which had two mobile operators and other telecom and IT companies in the Group.
In parallel, I have had some start-up experience (I developed First Pay Radio Project in Azerbaijan (although it didn't become a full-fledged company) and consulted start-ups in the sphere of fin-tech, retail, media, and education).

On top of that, I fluently speak 4 languages: Azerbaijani (native), Russian, Turkish, and English.

Why do I want to get an MBA degree? In essence, unlike dozens MBA candidates (no offense intended to brilliant MBA candidates out there for whom I wish nothing but best), for me MBA is not as much about increase in salary or the honing of my management skills and the acquiring of knowledge, as about overall experience it provides. It is like a destination you want to travel and constant immersion in environment where you will be part of something significant whether it is people, projects, or new knowledge. As for my post-MBA plans, I want to pursue my journey in in some start-ups or venture capital firms or companies which is trying to have an impact on as much people as possible like Tesla, SpaceX, and the like.

Below are my scores:

IELTS score - 7.5
GMAT - 650/76%
Verbal - 38/85%
Quantitative 41/48%.

As for references, I can provide references from peoples ranging from the former minister (of the ministry I worked with on some projects) to current CEO of the Group I work in and Deputy CEO of one of the biggest banks in Azerbaijan.

I believe that my sub-par quantitative score (which is result, based on my CAT experience, of silly mistakes and bad time-management) may make admission committee raise eyebrows and may result in my application being rejected and, therefore, I would like to know how I can strengthen my overall profile.

Thanks all once again in advance.