Please evaluate my profile: do I have a shot at top 20?

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Hello all,

I am in the process of preparing for MBA application. Realizing that certain things on my profile are working against me (particularly GPA), I would like to know if there's still any chance for any of the top schools in the US or Canada. Harvard, MIT, Duke, Emory, and Queens are schools that I am shooting for. Though, realistically, I'd be more than happy to be at any of the top 20 schools.

My profile:

Nationality: Ecuadorian, Taiwanese (parents are Taiwanese but I was born and raised in Ecuador. I speak Mandarin Chinese, English, and Spanish)
Academics
Undergrad: National Taiwan University: Computer Science and Information Engineering (The most prestigious school in Taiwan, if that matters) GPA: ~2.8
Masters Degree: National Taiwan University: Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics GPA: 3.25
GMAT: 730 (is what I am aiming for, I've not taken the real GMAT yet, but am consistently getting above 700 on any practice tests, GMATPrep, Veritas, Manhattan)
Age: 30

Work Experience
Years of Work Experience: 5
1. Interned at Quanta Research Institute (QRI) while I was getting my masters degree. QRI is a very prestigious center in Taiwan that collaborated with MIT in various research programmes. 2 months
2. Worked full-time at QRI under the title software engineer. Job function included 50% software development, 30% entrepreneurship, and 20% product/market research. 3 years
3. Worked as a product manager at a private company owned wholly by a mentor of mine. Managed two teams of 5 people each. One was an e-commerce software development team. The other was developing slot machines for a large North American firm. 2 years
4. Currently, I am a senior engineer at Qnap Systems (you can find our products on Amazon!) Here I assess software architectures suitable for future products. 4 months and counting.

Other activities
1. President of Oversea Chinese Student Association at NTU - 2009
When I took over there were less than 10 active members. I worked to make it a thriving community that it later became.
2. National Taiwan University Varsity Team Handball - Player - 2005 ~ 2012
3. National Taiwan University Foreign Student Dragon Boat Rowing Team - Trainer, Co-captain - 2012
The team consisted of foreign students of NTU representing 10 countries. I was really into cross-fit and stuff back in those days so I volunteered to train the team whenever we trained without a coach.
4. 3rd place winner of The 2015 Job Accommodation Contest hosted by Taiwan Ministry of Labour
My girlfriend and I noticed that, in many places, cleaning staff who are cognitively impaired face a certain problem that prevents them from performing without supervision. We invented a simple electronic device that could alleviate if not solve the problem, enrolled the said contest, and won! We also ended up selling a few of the devices. But as the demand for the kind of product is very low, and the stuff we invented was only a working prototype, we stopped selling them before the sloppiness of the prototype ruins my reputation.


Now if you're still with me. I feel like I should explain my poor GPA.
I grew up in an impoverished, single-parent family. My mom and I could not afford to rent anything larger than a studio apartment (we were not only US poor or Taiwanese poor, but also Ecuadorian poor). So I had to share a room with my mom up until I graduated from high school when I left Ecuador for Taiwan. There was even a year during my college which my mom lost her job in Ecuador and had to come to Taiwan to share a tiny studio with me to save costs. So the two things that ruined my GPA were:
1) I took on a lot of part-time jobs to finance my college. (some of the kids I tutored ended up in Ivy League schools, so I am proud of that)
2) I felt like I had missed out on a lot of joys of childhood due to poverty and single-parenthood. So in college, I tried to make that up by participating a varsity sport and other activities. The fact that I experienced culture shock when I moved from Ecuador to Taiwan did not help. If I could do it again, I would ditch the cool extra-curricular stuff, and focus more on studying. Young me was not wise.

I guess that summarises my story. If anyone can help me assess the likelihood to get admitted to a top school I would be very grateful. Even better if anyone can give me suggestions on how to increase my odds.

One more question! My former employer, QRI, would like me to join the team again. The only reason that I left in the first place was that I was snatched away by a mentor of mine who promised me a lot of great things. If I were to return to QRI, how would that look on my MBA application?

Thank you all for your time and efforts!

David

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by GeneralEducation » Fri Dec 29, 2017 6:58 am
Hello there,

Glad to see your profile. You over all carry an excellent profile. As you have a genuine story behind your low GPA and also as you are expecting a good GMAT score, I don't think there's any loop hole in your profile. You should definitely target top 15-20 B-Schools. We can definitely help you with your over all application process which includes shortlisting of right b-schools based on your profile, essay editing, resume editing, LoR and interview preparation.

Please feel free to contact us on +91 9980044412 or you can also visit our website for more details.
https://www.genedmba.com/services/?key=TNMzR6UpRd
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General Education - India's premier GMAT & Application Consulting company

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