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Hi,
Thank you for your great evaluations, it's really helpful to me.
This is my first time applying for b-schools.
My profile:
Vietnamese, Male, 29 years old
GMAT: 1st 540(M50, V14, AWA 3.5), 2nd 670(M51, V28, AWA 4.5)
Toefl: 71, i'm gona retake it sooner (I guess it might be around 90)
GPA: 3.3 - Engineer

Work Experience: 6 years in IT
5 years ago, I started a business in IT industry with other people and it's going well.
I have spent 2 years in teaching programming and software development subjects and 4 years as Project Manager in Software development at my company.

Extracurricular Activities:
Member of Boards of Director my company, won some prizes with my team at nation-wide IT contests.

Target:
I would like to study entrepreneurship and product management.
Please advise me some schools that fit my profile.
I'm considering to apply for: Maryland Smith, Babson, USC Marshall, Boston U, Boston C.
What do you think about my chances at these schools.

Thank you very much again.

Hi vnbean and thanks for your post. Please see my comments below:

My profile:
Vietnamese, Male, 29 years old
GMAT: 1st 540(M50, V14, AWA 3.5), 2nd 670(M51, V28, AWA 4.5)
Toefl: 71, i'm gona retake it sooner (I guess it might be around 90)
GPA: 3.3 - Engineer

While you don't mention your univeristy by name or the year you graduated, I can tell you that your GPA is on target for the programs you are considering. I am glad to see you retook the GMAT, congratulations on increasing your score! Hopefully you are able to increase your TOEFL score when you sit for the exam again, this will certainly help to strengthen your academic profile and competitiveness at your selected programs.

Work Experience: 6 years in IT
5 years ago, I started a business in IT industry with other people and it's going well.
I have spent 2 years in teaching programming and software development subjects and 4 years as Project Manager in Software development at my company.

This is great! It's nice to see that you are a successful entrepreneur! This will certainly lend a lot of potential topics for your essays. This combined with your solid work experience will be a nice feather in your cap in your applications.

Extracurricular Activities:
Member of Boards of Director my company, won some prizes with my team at nation-wide IT contests.

This might be the weakest part of your application. You should look to highlight other personal interest and activities that awill help you stand out and distinguish you from others in the applicant pool.

Target:
I would like to study entrepreneurship and product management.

I need a bit more clarification around your career goals. Why do you need an MBA to be an entrepreneur when you have already started a successful company? Can you clarify your goals a bit more?

Please advise me some schools that fit my profile.
I'm considering to apply for: Maryland Smith, Babson, USC Marshall, Boston U, Boston C.
What do you think about my chances at these schools.

You've compiled a solid list of schools. It's a bit challenging for me to recommend others without your full profile, but I would suggest that you UCLA, Tepper and Emory as they all have solid programs in entreprenuership.

Please feel free to share a bit more information and I can offer up a bit more advice on school selection.

Best,

Stacey

Hey, thank you very much for your comments, Stacey.
I graduated in 2003, at Hanoi University of Technology, one of the best schools about technology here.

I want to share a bit more about the reason why I want to pursue an MBA.
First, I still think I'm viewing the business with the eyes of an Engineer even though I've archived alot of experience with my company. I want to get an MBA to get a better view in the business world and better business skills.
Moreover, few years ago, we started a product aiming to make it world wide, but we failed. It's not because of the technical problem. It's because we lost in the worldwide environment. So, I want to experience more and become more worldwide, more international to improve my chances.

About my personal hobbies, I play many sports usually such as soccer, swimming, billiard, chinese chess. Do these help me in the extracurricular activities?
I've checked out UCLA, maybe it's a long short for me. I'm not very confident about this, but I will consider it.
Thank you very much again.
Best Regards,
Viet

Hi Vnbean,

Thanks for the additional information. Your reasons for seeking an MBA are certainly valid, however, you will want to be much more specific in your applications. You will want to outline specific short and long term goals and exactly how the MBA combined with your experience to date can help you achieve them. Simply stating you want to expand your world view and gain more business skills isn't specific enough.

I'm glad to see that you regularly pursue sporting activities. Perhaps you will be able to pull examples from your experience swimming, playing soccer or chess to use in your essays. You want to be sure your essays highlight more than work related experiences. You should look for ways to highlight your leadership and teamwork skills with non-work examples. This will help you stand out in the applicant pool.

Best of luck with your applications!

Stacey

Thank you very much for your kind reply.
It's very helpful for me.
I will think more about Why MBA to be more specific.
Best Regards,
Viet