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Profile Evaluation WE:3+. 690. Indian. Non IT.

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Profile Evaluation WE:3+. 690. Indian. Non IT.

by sarangjn » Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:27 am
Hi,

I would really appreciate if someone could evaluate my profile.

________________________________________________________________
GMAT :

1st Attempy : 660 (Q51/ V28/ IR 5/ AWA 5)
2nd Attempt : 690 (Q50/ V34/ IR 6/ AWA 4.5)

Education
Visvesvaraya Technological University - Bangalore
Bachelor of Engineering - Mechanical Engineering from a top 50 ranked Indian College.
(First Class with Distinction)

* Designed and developed a single seat solar powered vehicle.
* Co-founded my college chapter of Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) India in 2009-10.
* Elected as the Secretary of SAE collegiate club in the period 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, during which we became the largest (by number) SAE club among all Karnataka Engineering Colleges.
* Finalist in SAE BAJA 2011 (a National level Inter Collegiate Competition).


Coursera (not sure if this makes a difference) :

* Foundations of Business Strategy - Darden
* The Power of Microeconomics - UC Irvine
* An Introduction to Operations Management - Wharton

Employment 3+ years of WE

Jan, 2014 - Present
Stress Engineer at a leading German based aerospace MNC

* Working with a team of 5 on the Stress Analysis for a critical Wing component in A350 XWB Aircraft.

Apr, 2012 - Dec, 2013
Assistant Engineer

* Selected to work at a Airbus India (Client location in Bangalore), where I was handling Material Testing.
* Coordinated with various testing facilities and Test Leaders across Europe to facilitate the testing.
* Handled testing of over 2000 specimens for A350 XWB Aircraft (complete testing for this aircraft was handled by me)
* Was responsible for conducting the tests, validation of the conducted tests, creating Reports, shipment of specimens to and from manufacturing units across Europe and finally delivery of Test Results back to Airbus Europe.

Jul, 2011 - Mar 2012
Trainee Engineer

* Worked on various projects related to crash analysis of automotive and rail road vehicles.

September 2013- present

* Helped a Bangalore based Travel startup (which has recently shifted to New York after being selected by an Accelerator program) in multiple domains.
* Responsible for creating an internal system to shortlist and select suppliers (travel agencies).
* Expanded our suppliers into 6 countries across Asia.
* Handling all Social Media responsibilities.
* Conducting travel based events in Bangalore to build brand image.

Community Service & Leadership

Jan 2012 - July 2012
India Literacy Project (ILP)
Volunteer

* Taught English and Math to kids on weekends at the ILP chapter in Bangalore.
* Coordinated with a leading Aerospace company to take the Bangalore chapter of ILP as part of their Corporate Outreach Program. Although it didn't work out due to technical reasons, gained lot of exposure.


Jan 2014 - Present
The Ugly Indian (TUI)
Volunteer

* The Ugly Indian is a not for profit group which is involved in reclaiming the beauty of cities back by conducting spot fix events across India. This is done by coordinating with local authorities and residents and helping them clean public spaces with a group of volunteers.
* Participated in multiple Spot Fix events across Bangalore.

Additional Skills / Competencies
* Captained the college football team in various Inter College and Inter Zone Football competitions.
* Member of the college theatre group.
* Quiz Enthusiast.
___________________________________________________________________

I would be getting my LOR's from my ex boss at Airbus and the CEO of the travel based start up.

I want to do an MBA from a top 20 US university in Operations Management. The schools I am right now looking at are:

1. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
2. University of Michigan-"‹Ann Arbor (Ross)

3. University of Texas-"‹Austin (McCombs)
4. Cornell University (Johnson)
5. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
6. Emory University (Goizueta)

7. Indiana University-"‹Bloomington (Kelley)
8. University of North Carolina-"‹Chapel Hill (Kenan-"‹Flagler)

Could someone please guide me in :
a) what are my realistic chances at these universities.
b) How should I divide these universities between Round1 and Round 2.
c) I know my GMAT is much lower than most in my pool. But I truly don't think I can get a better score than this. Even so, the only way I would attempt again is if I don't stand a chance in the above mentioned universities.
d) Should I be looking at any other university (in US).
e) Is there something that I can do now to improve my profile.

Thanks,
Sarang.
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by sherry.holland » Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:47 pm
Sarang,

First of all, thank you for providing a comprehensive synopsis of your profile - it makes the assessment much easier! :-) I will do my best to provide you with answers to your questions based on what I know:

a) You have selected a very good list of schools. You have a mix of reach schools and schools that are more realistic based on your stats. Your biggest challenge is to create a compelling/engaging application that will successfully differentiate you from the competition.

b) Ideally, you would apply to all the schools to which you are applying in round 1. If this is not feasible, I recommend applying to the less competitive schools (e.g., Kenan Flagler, Emory, Tepper and Ross) in round 2.

c) I have worked with clients with similar GMAT scores who have been successful at these programs. Your quantitative subscore is solid, so the Adcoms will know you can handle the academic rigor of the program. They might be concerned about your English speaking and writing ability which you can help mitigate in your essays and interview.

d) You might also consider Wash. U/Olin, Vanderbilt U./Owen, Georgetown/McDonough, and/or University of Notre Dame/Mendoza.

e) Make sure your English speaking and writing skills are strong, continue your volunteer activities (the Ugly Indian is an interesting attention grabber!) - Adcoms like to see that prospective students are active in their communities as it means they will probably be involved as students.

I wish you the best of luck!

Sherry
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by GeneralEducation » Wed Jun 04, 2014 4:07 am
Hi Sarang,

List of shortlisted schools looks decent and realistic with respect to your profile.You need to dedicate more time for your applications and need to start applying early. You may split the schools based on your choice like you may apply to ambitious schools in R1 and realistic and safer schools in R2. If you are based in Bangalore you can visit our office to discuss further regarding your profile and also attend our application strategy seminar in association with ISB.

Regards,
Manish
www.general-ed.com
Try Chances of B-School tool visit https://goo.gl/11s5zu
sarangjn wrote:Hi,

I would really appreciate if someone could evaluate my profile.

________________________________________________________________
GMAT :

1st Attempy : 660 (Q51/ V28/ IR 5/ AWA 5)
2nd Attempt : 690 (Q50/ V34/ IR 6/ AWA 4.5)

Education
Visvesvaraya Technological University - Bangalore
Bachelor of Engineering - Mechanical Engineering from a top 50 ranked Indian College.
(First Class with Distinction)

* Designed and developed a single seat solar powered vehicle.
* Co-founded my college chapter of Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) India in 2009-10.
* Elected as the Secretary of SAE collegiate club in the period 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, during which we became the largest (by number) SAE club among all Karnataka Engineering Colleges.
* Finalist in SAE BAJA 2011 (a National level Inter Collegiate Competition).


Coursera (not sure if this makes a difference) :

* Foundations of Business Strategy - Darden
* The Power of Microeconomics - UC Irvine
* An Introduction to Operations Management - Wharton

Employment 3+ years of WE

Jan, 2014 - Present
Stress Engineer at a leading German based aerospace MNC

* Working with a team of 5 on the Stress Analysis for a critical Wing component in A350 XWB Aircraft.

Apr, 2012 - Dec, 2013
Assistant Engineer

* Selected to work at a Airbus India (Client location in Bangalore), where I was handling Material Testing.
* Coordinated with various testing facilities and Test Leaders across Europe to facilitate the testing.
* Handled testing of over 2000 specimens for A350 XWB Aircraft (complete testing for this aircraft was handled by me)
* Was responsible for conducting the tests, validation of the conducted tests, creating Reports, shipment of specimens to and from manufacturing units across Europe and finally delivery of Test Results back to Airbus Europe.

Jul, 2011 - Mar 2012
Trainee Engineer

* Worked on various projects related to crash analysis of automotive and rail road vehicles.

September 2013- present

* Helped a Bangalore based Travel startup (which has recently shifted to New York after being selected by an Accelerator program) in multiple domains.
* Responsible for creating an internal system to shortlist and select suppliers (travel agencies).
* Expanded our suppliers into 6 countries across Asia.
* Handling all Social Media responsibilities.
* Conducting travel based events in Bangalore to build brand image.

Community Service & Leadership

Jan 2012 - July 2012
India Literacy Project (ILP)
Volunteer

* Taught English and Math to kids on weekends at the ILP chapter in Bangalore.
* Coordinated with a leading Aerospace company to take the Bangalore chapter of ILP as part of their Corporate Outreach Program. Although it didn't work out due to technical reasons, gained lot of exposure.


Jan 2014 - Present
The Ugly Indian (TUI)
Volunteer

* The Ugly Indian is a not for profit group which is involved in reclaiming the beauty of cities back by conducting spot fix events across India. This is done by coordinating with local authorities and residents and helping them clean public spaces with a group of volunteers.
* Participated in multiple Spot Fix events across Bangalore.

Additional Skills / Competencies
* Captained the college football team in various Inter College and Inter Zone Football competitions.
* Member of the college theatre group.
* Quiz Enthusiast.
___________________________________________________________________

I would be getting my LOR's from my ex boss at Airbus and the CEO of the travel based start up.

I want to do an MBA from a top 20 US university in Operations Management. The schools I am right now looking at are:

1. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
2. University of Michigan-"‹Ann Arbor (Ross)

3. University of Texas-"‹Austin (McCombs)
4. Cornell University (Johnson)
5. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
6. Emory University (Goizueta)

7. Indiana University-"‹Bloomington (Kelley)
8. University of North Carolina-"‹Chapel Hill (Kenan-"‹Flagler)

Could someone please guide me in :
a) what are my realistic chances at these universities.
b) How should I divide these universities between Round1 and Round 2.
c) I know my GMAT is much lower than most in my pool. But I truly don't think I can get a better score than this. Even so, the only way I would attempt again is if I don't stand a chance in the above mentioned universities.
d) Should I be looking at any other university (in US).
e) Is there something that I can do now to improve my profile.

Thanks,
Sarang.
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by CriticalSquareMBA » Wed Jun 04, 2014 6:55 am
Hi Sarang,

Thanks for inviting me to post - I'm happy to provide my $0.02 on your profile. Hopefully you find the feedback helpful and, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Ok, so let's see what we've got here, shall we?

Academics

Ok, let's call out the big things first. GMAT score? It's ok, but definitely below the average for your applicant pool. You probably know that and hate folks telling you that but it's important so it bears repeating. School? You went to a Tier III Indian school. It's not an IIT, it's not a NIT, and it's not one of the ten or so other programs that adcoms like. However, grades? You did really well! First class with distinction is always a noteworthy accomplishments so kudos to you on that! You also did it in a challenging engineering degree so brownie points there! There are also some interesting components to your undergrad experience I think are worth highlighting. A single seat solar vehicle is pretty cool! I hate paying for gas, so mind sending one this way? :)

Overall, your academics are ok. They're nothing special and, when comparing apples to apples, you're behind your peerset average.

Oh, almost forgot. Coursera. This won't really matter. We very rarely include it in our clients' applications because, in most cases, there aren't too many good spots to do it. However, it's a good talking point. I'm glad you did it but it won't do much to move the needle.

Professional Experiences

From a professional standpoint, you have some interesting parts to your profile that I really like! Firstly, your structured work (engineer) is pretty cool. You're working for a leading corporation with a global footprint that has massive companies as their clients. From a formal leadership perspective, you seem light but that's not that new for an engineer. You have led some interesting projects and workstreams, however, and those can highlight leadership themes just as well.

What I really like, however, is your work with this start up! It is an absolute departure from your day job and I love it! Also, it seems to be doing really, really well which is fantastic. This is something we would definitely want to dig into. It's an awesome thing to have gotten involved in!

You also have some great recommenders lined up, which is great.

Involvement

Ok, here, you're really light. It's an interesting organization, but you're just a volunteer. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you're out there getting your hands dirty. However, it lacks impact / scope that other candidates will have. So swinging a hammer for Habitat for Humanity on the weekend is great, but helping them reimagine their volunteer management processes is better. See what I mean? You could say the start up straddles the line between community / extracurriculars and professional work but it isn't a non profit so that's stretching it.

Schools

I agree with Sherry here. You've got a solid list of programs. The ones at the top end of the range are going to be stretches, but you should definitely apply to a couple of stretch programs. After all, if you don't try, you won't know! You also have a pretty good chance at converting a portion of the list which makes the schools you've selected the right type and range.

As Sherry mentioned, definitely add Owen. One of the best ops programs out there, hands down. You get a lot of recruiters coming there just for that. You might also want to consider Scheller (Georgia Tech).

Overall

Like I said, there are parts of your profile I really like. You've also picked a good mix of programs. You should try to get as many in R1 as possible, but if you're going to bump a few to R2, don't push realistic programs simply for the sake of putting another stretch into R1. You want to balance the applications between AND within rounds.

I hope that helps and let me know if you have any questions. If you want to chat about any of this in more detail, the process, or our firm, I'm more than happy to help. You can sign up for a free consultation [here].

Good luck!

Bhavik
Critical Square | MBA Admissions Services

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by Jon@Admissionado » Wed Jun 04, 2014 7:56 am
I was gonna quote your post, but that was one heck of a long one!
Don't worry, I'm not complaining. On the contrary, I'm very thankful for the excruciating detail. It makes things a lot easier, and a lot more precise.
:)

Sooo, let's get started!

Strengths:
Work experience - You seem to have had good employers, and a good run. I'm sure you are a technical expert. The ADcom will want to know though how you can translate this into Business Success.
College Extra-currics - you have plenty of good stuff here.

Weaknesses:
Relatively unknown college
A very tough applicant pool
A good, but not great GMAT
Only recent Volunteer work

Question Marks:
GPA???

Now with all this in mind, I don't wanna be no negative Nancy, but you sticking ONLY to Top 20 schools with a 690 from an unknown school is probably not gonna work out great for you. I'd leave top 10 schools out of your list altogether, and add some schools ranked 20-40 if you plan on applying as is.

OR, another option would be to retake the GMAT. You aren't that old, or with too much experience, so you actually have plenty of time. Now, if you are really at your max, as you mention, that's fine. Don't retake just with a vague "Hope" that you will get 40 points higher. If you are at your max, then okay, there are plenty of great schools outside the Top 20, and I would suggest start doing your research there to see which schools fit you, which schools hire from your industry.

So what do you think?

Best,
JF
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by apphelp » Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:37 am
Hi Sarang,

Your work experience looks good and diverse and will naturally blend with an operations management story post MBA.

Extra currics also look decent.

You choice of schools is good. You may want to add Purdue in the list.
They only weak factor is low GMAT score which will make the candidature weak for Kellogg, Ross, Cornell and Tepper. These schools are highly competitive. Rest are possible with 690.

If you feel that you can get a 720 or so, we recommend that you take a month or 45 days and give another attempt to GMAT. Improving your score will not leave things to chance and if your essays are decent you will be able to crack few of the schools on your list.

Feel free to contact us for any queries.

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All these questions have a single answer : APPHELP (apphelp.co.in)
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Sun Jun 15, 2014 9:53 am
Building on top of what the others have said I would suggest retaking the GMAT to mitigate against the lesser known school (although you did graduate with a First Class With Distinction).

Second, look at schools particularly strong in Operations Management that are not as competitive. Go to MBA School Rankings to see some rankings in Operations Management.

McCombs and Tepper are excellent stretch schools. Krannert , Kelley and Fisher are good target schools. Carey is another school. Examine the respective career reports and ask questions to see how many of their international students are able to obtain jobs (with working visas) following graduation.
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