Hello There May I kindly request you to take a look at my Profile below and advise on my chances for MBA Applications. I will be appearing for GMAT in Nov'11 and I am targeting these colleges :- NYU Stern , Stanford GSB , Columbia , LBS , Harvard , ISB Hyd ( India ) , Wharton , Kellogg to name a few. I'll try to be as articulate as I can so that you have enough info to gauge my candidacy ----------------------------------- Work Profile ----------------------------------- Worked for 4 years and 2 months at HSBC Global Technology (HSBC's IT Wing ), India. I have been working as an Enterprise Architect with responsibility of preparing Architectural Software Designs and conduct reviews by developers. Have vast experience in Banking & Financial Services and in related Software Dev Life cycle. Was in UK - Worthing & London for a year ( 2008 ) where I worked as a Business & System Analyst designing an award winning banking product ( Asset Based Lending ). For my contributions have been awarded the most valuable team player ( yearly award ) twice. Have also received the 'Long Service Award' for my outstanding contributions to the firm. ------------------------------------- Academics ------------------------------------- 1) Was Awarded the Most Outstanding Student at my University ( Bharati Vidyapeeth Demmed Univ , Pune , India ) 2003-2007 in a class of 250 engineering undergraduates. This is awarded at the end of the four year engineering course for overall accomplishments , versatility and contributions of a student. 2)Was All India Rank - 629 in National Science Olympiad ( 1999 ) held all over India and more than 1 lakh students participate. SSC - 81 % , HSC - 67 % , Undergraduate ( Engg ) - 74 % ---------------------------------- Achievemnets ---------------------------------- 1) Won National Level Paper presentations during my Engg days on topics below : ( 2003 - 07 ) a) Page Rank Algorithm & Google - 2 national wins b) Neural Networks - 3 national wins c) Data Mining - 1 national win Mentored colleagues / juniors who went on secure further wins for our University. 2) Won a National Level Business Plan contest in one of the B-school contests in Mumbai.( 2010 ) 3) The same Business Plan written by me was selected for Power of Ideas - Govt of India , Economic Times and IIM - Ahmedabad national level B-Plan initiative and underwent mentoring by VC's. Its currently under incubation. ( 2010 ) 4)Co-founded a startup called Glookus.com - A Bollywood MP3 Search engine which helped people to access MP3 in an simple manner. Ha more than 5000+ hits on a daily basis without any promotion. Designed the Search Engine & prepared the User Interface and Business Plan for same. Had to shut it down for some reasons. But was a great learning experience. ( 2010 ) 5)Wrote a Research Paper titled " Innovation Through Intrapreneurship - A Management Perspective" which was published and presented at two International Management Conferences in Punjab Univ & IIFM , Dehradun. ( 2011 ) I even won the best speaker award in one of them at Punjab Univ and my Case Study got tremendous response at work place. 6)Was selected for the Young Leader's program at HSBC and underwent mentoring and workshops for Leadership at HSBC. ( 2011 ) -------------------------------- Other Activities -------------------------------- 1) Drafting a proposal for establishing an E-cell at my alma mater BVP - Engg College ( Dept of CS / IT ) to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. 2) I mentored and taught kids at NGO Aakanksha based in Pune for 6 months ( in 2008 ) during weekdays in morning before office. 3) I have subscribed to Adopt a Child - a CSR initiative at HSBC Glt where we mentor a kid for a time period. 4)As a member of Leo Club - Bharati Vidypaeeth Chapter i) Was Chief Editor of Leo Club Magazine ( 2006- 07 ) with a wide readership base in Colleges of Pune. ii) Was Organiser of FireBall - 2006 and 2007 the largest BasketBall College Event in Maharashtra.The funds went to St Anthonys orphanage. 5) I am a Greenpeace volunteer and support CSR and Go Green activities at my firm. 6) Won the HSBC company debate and group discussion contest in 2010. 7) Was runners up in HSBC GLT company wide Table Tennis competition . ( 2011 ) ----------------------------------------------------- I apologize for being so detailed as I thought this will give you a clear picture of my milestones across my academia and work place. Also let me know what should be the median GMAT score I should be tageting for colleges mentioned above. ( at strt of this note ). Waiting earnestly for a reply. Cheers Abhishek Ballabh 91-9860790381 ( abhiinbsg@gmail.com)