Profile Evaluation Request

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Profile Evaluation Request

by keshavlc » Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:58 am
Hello! I am planning to apply round 1 this year for a full time MBA. I am a Canadian (of Indian origin). Your comments on my chances would be appreciated. Here are my details-

25 years old male

Target Schools: Wharton, Kellogg, Sloan, Booth, Haas, Anderson

GMAT:

1st attempt: 680 (q49, v34) in 2013

2nd attempt: 710 (q48,v39) in 2016 (could improve it but don't really want to take GMAT a 3rd time)

Undergraduate:

Mechanical Engineer, University of Toronto. Specialization in energy and mechatronics

Graduated in 2014

CGPA 3.83, Rank 3 in graduating year, Rank 2 in first year. Last year GPA 4.0

Final project involved working on creating robotic system for seniors. Built 1st gen prototype and published a paper for Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers

Work Experience

Prior to graduation:
Summer research assistant: 4 months at a fuel cell laboratory. Co-authored a paper on new anode material created and published in reputed journal (high impact factor)
Internship: 14 months at an engineering consulting company - Did practically everything from doing field work to getting new clients

After graduation:
2014 - Present: Mechanical Design Engineer at a nuclear power plant. Specialized engineering work. I dont manage people as I am in a pure technical position, however I have started many initiatives at work for improving our engineering. I am the youngest engineer to be selected to prepare our station for a technical audit conducted by International Atomic Energy Agency. Promoted once in 2 years.

Other part time work:

-Tried to launch two ventures, both got very limited success:

First venture was to sell hardware to big box grocery stores. Failed to raise any capital after personally pitching to technology leads of biggest grocery chains in Canada

Second venture involved peer to peer transit for inter-city travel. Got 2000 users to use the service and completed around 2500 peer to peer rides.

Any input would be appreciated!

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by Jon@Admissionado » Fri Aug 05, 2016 1:33 am
Hey dude,
Great to hear from you.
Overall your profile is quite good, but you are aiming too high.

Your GMAT is lower than the average for most Top 10 schools, and certainly so for Indian applicants (I know! you are Canadian! But I fear you may be pooled with the Indian-Americans).

Also, mechanical engineering is good but not necessarily a great pre MBA industry, and given the stiff competition I would suggest you aim for schools in the 10-25 range (and top Canadian schools too if you are considering that)

'd love to help you out but without more info it's gonna be hard. What do you do? How quickly have you advanced? Do you have any leadership? What are your great achievements? Do you have notable community service or extra curriculars?

All of these will play important roles in your evaluation.
Best,
Jon
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by keshavlc » Fri Aug 05, 2016 4:59 pm
Hey Jon, thanks for looking into my profile.

Top 10 - 25 schools you say? So as per 2016 Financial Times rankings, would this be a little more accurate? Realistic: Kellogg, Stern, Yale, Anderson. Stretch: Haas, Booth, Sloan

So I'm going to write some more details about myself. Excuse the excessive details.

Current Work

Nuclear industry is very rigid, hierarchical and bureaucratic. Therefore getting promoted fast in this industry is not the norm, we actually undergo at least 2 years of training before becoming ready for the job. Anyway, my work is on design of mechanical components such as pumps, valves, gaskets, heat exchangers, fuelling machines in Outage specific situations. What is Outage? It means when the nuclear reactor unit is not producing power, aka when reactor power is reduced by pulling down the graphite shutdown rods. Unit Outage can occur for two reasons: 1. Unexpected developments that bring the unit down or 2. Planned maintenance work. Each day that the unit does not produce power, the company loses revenue to the tune of millions of $$'s (cant say the exact number). Thus my work is always in a time sensitive high stress situation. I am also one of the few engineers who supports the Outage Centre. Think of this as more like the Air Traffic Control centre for an airport. Being here means I have to coordinate (not design) all engineering work (such as procuring parts, align engineering with maintenance etc) to ensure outage does not get extended. Along with my regular work, I have started knowledge retention programs in the company as my management noticed a big gap in knowledge and skills between new and experienced engineers. I have also been selected for several high profile projects for the company,


Outside of work

Although I bombed my GMAT math, but I think am fairly decent at it. I have been teaching since 1st year. I used to teach 4th year students when I was in 2nd year. I have gotten students who had very little confidence in their academic abilities to get admitted to their universities (by bringing up their score). Now this wasnt all volunteer, because I did take payments sometimes. But for most part, I taught not for $$'s but for the students.

Since 1st year, I have participated in many engineering competitions. Some highlights from my Uni days:

-Built a magneticly assisted low friction skate board which travelled longer than the existing ones (1st year)

-In 2nd year I took on a research assistant job sponsored by the Government of Canada. I created a new ceramic material to improve efficiency of fuel cells (documented in a scientific publication. My paper sells for $40, I don't get anythng from it though).

-Built an autonomous garbage sorting machine, which used material properties to determine if a material was recyclable or not right at the source.

-Certificate (like a diploma) in entrepreneurship from UofT. I followed a marketing company owner and wrote her biography to learn about the life of an entrepreneur. Ive also written formal business plans to determine business feasibility.

-Director of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at my universtiy. Organized many student events. Also participated in inter-university consulting competitions and won some analysis award in one of them.

-Got selected for UofT's in-house entrepreneurship accelerator and built a small wearable device to help improve efficiency of grocery stores. I did the mechanical, electrical and software design. This concept got shot down due to no retail chain willing to pay upfront to build the device.

-14 month work term as an acoustics engineer. Travelled all around the state working on environmental noise and vibration projects. The company used basic noise measurement instruments. I developed a remote noise monitoring system for the group. Basically I got a low power compact industrial PC, integrated it with a solar panel (for self power) and attached the old noise instruments to create a custom remote sensing equipment that could be deployed anywhere and access data in realtime. I also did extensive noise modelling for highway traffic and by the time I left the company, I was the traffic noise expert for them.

-Coded many robots to react to inputs such as light, voice, depth. Built a light following solar panel model. Built an autonomous Bingo machine that could be deployed at senior residence's to allow seniors play a game of Bingo interactively.

-After graduation, applied to Next36, one of Canada's biggest entrepreneurship accelerator and got selected for the final round. Did not go through with the program due to contractual conditions requiring quitting of job to focus full time on the accelerator.

-Pursued entrepreneurship projects along with my day job. That is when me and a bud started the peer to peer intercity ridesharing service. We got a lot of success early on but logistical problems like people cancelling and double booking costed us. Facebook groups offering rideshare was also too much of a competition. Now we are working on another project which we realized helps remove one of the biggest barriers that killed our peer to peer ridesharing service.

Hope this help you get a picture of my profile.

Thanks!

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by Jon@Admissionado » Sat Aug 06, 2016 7:07 am
Hey dude,
Good to hear from you.
So first of all, when I say 10-25 its a super rough estimate. And also it would not be according to FT, who's ranking are great internationally, but for the US are frankly a bit nonsense.

Let's just say that Tier I schools would be tough - H/S/W Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Columbia (the so-called "M7")

Now you have done a lot of very interesting things scientifically, or technically, but let's say the B-schools are going to be more interested into how this can translate into something related to BUSINESS - to impact, and leadership and organization.

It's great that you are good at the science, but it's not enough. We need you to be good at it all, well at all the MBA stuff at least.

Best,
JF
"Hands down the best MBA admissions consulting firm of all-time, and boy, what an incredible founder!" -- Raj Patil, Founder of Admissionado

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https://admissionado.lpages.co/50-essay ... ked-vol-4/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/case-studies-lp/
https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm

Reach out, and let's gab. Our only requirement is that you don't prefer warm milk over cold milk. Everyone else, 100% welcome.
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Contact us via web form you lazy git: https://admissionado.com/contact/
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by keshavlc » Sun Aug 07, 2016 4:10 pm
Hey Jon,

Good to hear from you as well.

Alright, I guess I get the picture. Thanks for taking the time out and looking at my profile. Appreciate your input :)

-KL

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by Jon@Admissionado » Tue Aug 09, 2016 9:01 am
You are very welcome!

If you want us to dig deeper, feel free to drop us a line on our website:

https://admissionado.com/free-consultati ... n=mba_blog

Best,
Jon
"Hands down the best MBA admissions consulting firm of all-time, and boy, what an incredible founder!" -- Raj Patil, Founder of Admissionado

Something for everyone:
https://admissionado.lpages.co/admissio ... nter-2018/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/50-essay ... ked-vol-4/
https://admissionado.lpages.co/case-studies-lp/
https://admissionado.com/mba/reviews/
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Admis ... 700945.htm

Reach out, and let's gab. Our only requirement is that you don't prefer warm milk over cold milk. Everyone else, 100% welcome.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 866-409-4753
Hit us up on WhatsApp.
Ping our satellite: 0884#&@-2#101101
Contact us via web form you lazy git: https://admissionado.com/contact/
Mostly, email Claudia.