Profile Evaluation please - Canadian Female Engineer

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Hope I'm not duplicating my post....


Profile:
Nationality: Canadian, Chinese ethnicity
GMAT: Female
Age: 27 upon entry
Education: B. Eng Honours; P.Eng pending this year
GPA: 3.54 - school: second tier engineering school in Ontario
GMAT: 690, 4.0
Designation: Engineering/Process Manager (background industrial engineering)

Work Ex:
-Internship + 3 years experience as engineer, two of which as engineering manager for the region of Canada directing IS personnel in 6 locations
-10% productivity improvement in region overall; some branches 40% improvement
-trained/mentors programming personnel; grew CA analytics group from 2 programmers to 10 without adding head count
-provided management training on process improvement
-implemented 40+ projects personally; directed 200+ projects

Entrepreneurship:
-developed e-business platform (in the middle of beta-ing; currently don't want to provide much detail until launch date)
-developed business plan, "hired" resources (mostly convinced programmers to work for me for free for equity), market research, successfully marketed to 100+ test users

Extra Curricular Undergrad:
Co-founder of Engineers without borders at university
Course union president - engaged student body; delivered 15 events including cross discipline sports tournament
Engineering Newspaper rep
Women in Engineering speaker to under privileged youths
Research assistant

Current Extra Curricular:
Marathon Running - Running instructor for 5k group
Triathlons
Various Young Patrons Circles membership
Various boards of smaller galleries
Touring of all art galleries in Ontario
Habitat for Humanity
Business

Awards: Averaged 1.5 awards/scholarships for leadership and academic excellence per year; women in engineering leadership award; entrance scholarships

References:
1. Chair of my engineering school
2. Business partner
3. ???

Target Schools: 2012 entry
Harvard


So my dilemma is that I really really want to go to HBS. I see my weaknesses are my undergrad educations, my GMAT score and my lack of volunteering after my undergrad ( I focused on personal development). I've done well at my current job, but my current employer also do not provide references and I don't know how HBS will receive that. Even if they were to make an exception for me, I'm not sure I want them to know how I will be timing my MBA.

Any thoughts on my overall competitiveness for HBS or how to overcome my weaknesses will be most welcomed.
Source: — Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant |

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by Cindy Tokumitsu » Thu Feb 10, 2011 5:40 pm
Hello,

I don't see your undergrad record as negatively as you do. The GPA is not great, but it's still good in a rigorous major, even though a second-tier school. The GMAT is a tad low, but I consider the score to be mainly a non-factor - neutral. The work experience and leadership are strong,a s is the entrepreneurship (depending in part also on relevance to your goals). Overall I'd consider HBS a reasonable reach. Also, HBS is changing their focus/approach a bit now to open up to a wider range of applicants which I think would serve you well.

To strengthen your chances I suggest continuing to volunteer and try to take a leadership role, continue to build leadership and impact professionally. Although, if you're doing your own business alongside a job, that will obviously consume much of your "extra" time.

In an optional essay or additional information section explain your company's policy about references; that's all you can do. They shouldn't hold it against you. That said, If you can find someone related to your job to provide a reference, it would help to round out your application.

Best regards,
Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, Accepted.com
www.Accepted.com