Please Evaluate Profile and Suggest Schools

mba2012hopeful.

Thanks for your note. Please see my thoughts below:

I am considering applying to MBA Programs this year for admission in 2010.

Here is my profile

Indian, 23+, Male

Undergraduate Studies : B Tech Electrical Engineering, with a GPA of 8.75/10 (9.0 in Final 2 years) from one of the Indian Institutes of Technology
class rank not great (outside the top 10%)
published papers in journals
It sounds like you performed well academically at IIT. As long as you get a 710+ GMAT score, you will be competitive academically at top business schools.

Work Experience : 26 months @ 1st Sept 2009 in the IT organisation of one of the top 5 Investment Banks (selected in the Grad Program)
Not a Leadership position per se, but i have led project implementations, coordinated team efforts and have been recognized for my work a few times times Given the large number of Indian applicants who have IT experience working at a financial services company, you will need to stand out from the pack. One way to do this is to quantify your impact at work and highlight your leadership/project management experience.

gave CFA L2 in June this year. Awaiting results

GMAT : Will be giving it in August Ok, as I mentioned, hopefully you will get a 710+ on the GMAT when you take it.

Leadership : School Head Boy, Organised events at uni, treasurer of a student body, selected in company's leadership program I suspect that your leadership extends beyond these formal roles. For example, have you led projects at work?

Diversity: I studied for a couple of years in outside of India and all my work experience (FT and PT) is abroad (in Oz) I am glad that you have some international experience - this will help you stand out from Indian applicants without this experience.

Community Experience: part of social service scheme at school and uni, but not too much since i started working apart from charity contributions and odd thing here and there as part of my company's community work.

Extracurriculars: Debating, quizzing etc at school, member of student bodies at uni. But ec's have tailed off since i started working.
Ideally you should be currently involved in a group oriented volunteer activity. You might consider joining an organization if you have not done so already.

Career Aim: Transition to a Business role, work on both the sell side and buy side, and at some point open up my own fund if possible Ok, so you want to transition from an IT role at a bank to a banking role. This makes sense given your career to date. You will need to clarify your goals a bit more and explain why you want to pursue this goal.

Could you please evaluate my profile and answer the following questions

1. I am thinking of applying to
Chicago Booth, LBS, Kelloggs (Dream)
Insead, NYU Stern, Columbia, Stanford, and Haas (Other Options)
Do you think that i will be a competitive candidate at the schools mentioned or i am going overboard with my selections?
Assuming that you get a good GMAT score, clarify your goals and augment your community service, you should have the raw materials to be competitive at top 10 business schools. The main issue you face is that you will need to stand out from the many Indian IT applicants working in the financial services industry who want to move to banking. Given this issue, I think that it will be difficult for you to gain admission to a top program like Stanford, Chicago, LBS, and Kellogg. You would have a better chance at schools like NYU, Yale, Haas and Michigan assuming that you stand out from other Indian IT applicants and you show your fit at each school.

2. Apart from the schools above, which are the safe schools can i apply to ? It is hard to answer this question without knowing your GMAT score.

3. Do you think that the quality and quantity of my work-ex is sufficient? What other weaknesses do u see in my profile? - The biggest issue you face is standing out from the many other highly qualified Indian IT applicants.

4. I have read quite a few discussions about a huge Indian IT pool. How much of a disadvantage will that be for me? It is an issue - given the large number of qualified applicants, you will need to work hard to stand out.

5. How much does it disadvantage candidates if they don't submit a recommendation from their current supervisor? Ideally you should include a letter from your current supervisor. Of course, the adcom understands that sometimes you can't get a letter - so just include a short note explaining your reason for not asking your current supervisor.

6. And last a question about gmat. During my practice, I have observed that my total score is significantly lower using some of the 3rd party software compared to gmat prep even though my section wise scores are the same. What are the section-wise marks required for a 750 score roughly? This is a good question - you might want to pose this question to a test prep representative to get a precise answer. I estimate that you need 47-49 in the Quant section and low/mid 40s in the Verbal section to get a 750 score.

Sincerely,

Eliot Ingram
Clear Admit LLC