Indian, IT, and Male - Profile Evaluation Request

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Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
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Hi All,

Please evaluate my profile for acceptance with scholarship chances in the listed schools. Also, please recommend if I should include any other school to my list.

Nationality: Indian
Age: 29 (at matriculation)
Total Work Ex: 7 Years or 84 Months (at matriculation) in IT
International Ex: 1 Year in UK
Education: Bachelor in Technology - Mechanical Engineering
CGPA : 8.86/10 (top 1% of a state university, not IIT/NIT)
GMAT: 610(sept 2012), 650(may 2014), 770(june 2014)

Career Goal: Work in Consulting or IT Project Management for 3-4 years after MBA, then return India to do PhD in business and join education sector. OR join non-profit organisation (dream World Bank).
I consider large-scale IT project management is something that I should target based on my experience, but I would explore non-profit sector in b-school.
School Choice(preference): Small Class size, Case Study Method, Smaller City, Chances of Scholarship
Target Companies post study : Delloite, IBM, Accenture, (big 4 will be a dream)

Work Exp. Details:

Working in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from 2008. Have completed 2 projects till now and continuing the 3rd.
1st Project: I was instrumental in Bank Of America and Merrillynch database merger when I was only 1 and half years experienced. The job involved prolong 1 month co-ordination between 5 different teams (2 client and 3 vendors) of over 30 associates. I got lot of appreciations for this and became offshore lead for a 7 member team with so less experience. My reportees included people with experience 1-8.

2nd Project: I was selected for establishing banking domain account for 1st TCS office in a new city. I started the project from scratch and completed successfully. The new location had faced number of challenges including environment and project set up, shortage of skilled labor(both technical and managerial), quality regulation (absence of intercity disaster recovery setup) etc. This project also had same number of reportees with similar level of experience.

3rd and Continuing Project: Working for an insurance client in UK. Job involved establishing new development centre in new location and currently business analysis and project lead.

Also, I have mentored around 15 people so far.

Personal Background:
From a poor rural India , where I walked barefooted for 5 KM daily to attend school till my secondary education. I have funded my entire education and had additional financial responsibility. I had to leave studies for an year before my engineering for this. I could not get involved in extra curricular activities cause there was no scope in my initial years and later I worked on two jobs(one full time in TCS and part time as private tutor - though its illegal) until I came to UK.

Volunteering:
As I have said I could not do much for lack of time. However, I have participated in various corporate sustainability activities from TCS. From my initial 2 years,each week for 2 hours I tutored english for an underprivileged school. Then for 2 years in a women leadership program for rural india and 1 year for computer and english training for tribal students. The women leadership training was successful by making the participants win ward member election and now 4 of the 15 are representing 3000 villagers each. I got involved in all these activities as these were the causes for my childhood suffering.

Entrepreneurship:

Although I do not consider myself an entrepreneur, I have successfully set up a gym for my friend. After I moved to the new city for my 2nd project, I found the locality had only 1 gym and there was a lot of opportunity. The venture did not demand much involvement, so initially I tried to approach banks for loans, who did not trust me. I gave the idea to my friend and we worked together for the setup. Investment was $100,000, operational expenditure monthly - $3500 and revenue - $8500, with targeted break-even in 2 years.

Recommenders:
Two of my ex-supervisers, who are also aware of my involvement in corporate sustainability.

Schools:
1. Darden Business School, University of Virginia
2. Kennan-Flagger Business School, University of North Carolina
3. Tepper Business School, Carniege Mellon
4. Rotman Business School, Canada
5. Melbourne Business School, Australia
6. Judge Business School, Cambridge, UK
7. Cornel, Johnson

Questions:
1. Should I revise my school list ?
2. What to highlight and what to ignore in my essays ?
3. What are my chances of getting scholarship ?
4. How do I stand against my competitors ?
5. Any advice ?

Regards,
Ahmed

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GMAT Score:770

by GeneralEducation » Sun Jun 29, 2014 3:56 am
Hi Ahmed,

You have solid profile. Congratulations for scoring 770 in GMAT this will definately increase your chances for admit and scholarship. Get started with your applications and dedicate good amount of time on your essays. List of shortlisted schools looks fairly achievable, you can also include Berkeley Haas, Tuck, Yale to the list. Try Chances of B-school tool by visiting https://goo.gl/11s5zu

If you happen to based out of Bangalore, you may attend an MBA workshop organized by the alumni of top global B-School and admission director of ISB. For more information and registration visit https://goo.gl/GjmFdu

Regards,
Manish

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by ivyctor2010 » Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:22 am
770 coupled with solid years of experience would put you in a very comfortable position. Leadership experiences complemented with diverse exposures will help put you a strong profile. You should definitely consider revising your B Schools list a bit and include the likes of Said, Mc Combs, Kelley ,Ross etc
Ivyctor Mobile App packed with school selection, scholarship, application management and alumni connect
Download https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .app&hl=en

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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:50 am
Ahmed,

Wow quite an increase in GMAT score and an inspiration to those who score low the first couple of times. I just copied and pasted your thread to a client of mine who got a 610 on the first go-around. Congrats!!!

Let's answer your questions:

1. Should I revise my school list?

We do not have enough information to guide you on school selection. What are your career goals? What is your geographical preference? Do you wish to return to India post-MBA or work in the country in which you attend school? These are some of the questions applicants ask themselves when Choosing MBA Schools to target.

That said I agree with my colleagues in that you should be targeting more competitive schools. The specific ones depends on knowing more about you.

2. What to highlight and what to ignore in my essays?

This depends somewhat on the essay questions and your goals. But you should be highlighting your international experience. With your work experience you are merely stating what you have done but not how you personally overcame certain challenges or performed beyond your peers so it is difficult to advise you. Definitely highlight the personal obstacles you overcame growing up in poor rural India and your volunteering experience as well as your entrepreneurship experience.

3. What are my chances of getting a scholarship?

Predicting scholarship offers is somewhat difficult. Basically, the less selective the school is the greater your chance at a scholarship is. So you would be more likely to get scholarships at less competitive schools but the scholarship might be outweighed by the less secure job prospects and other factors.

4. How do I stand against my competitors?

Academics are very strong as is your story. Presently, though, the way you are telling your work experience does not make you stand out from other Indian IT applicants with international experience (but the international experience makes you stand out from those without this international experience).

5. Any advice?

See above.

I hope this helps.

Have a great weekend,
Michael Cohan
MBAPrepAdvantage Founder & AIGAC Board Director
305-604-8178
www.mbaprepadvantage.com

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