Ask Veritas Prep Admissions Consulting

Dear Sir/Madam -

I will be applying to HBS, Wharton, Columbia, and MIT this year and would greatly appreciate an expert opinion on my applicant profile (in reverse chronological order):

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EDUCATION -
Graduate School: Columbia University
Degree: MS, Electrical Engineering
CGPA: 3.60/4.00 [Magna Cum Laude]
Research Project(s) with IBM TJ Watson Research Center (Fishkill, NY), Carnegie Mellon University, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
GMAT: Prepping right now...

College: University of Mumbai
Degree: BE, Electronics Engineering
CGPA: 4.00/4.00 [Valedictorian/Summa Cum Laude]
Research Project with D-Link (India) Ltd.


ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS -
- Awarded RANK III in Mumbai, 2004 by University of Mumbai
- Achieved 91% (among 38,137 students) nationwide at Indian Institute of Technology's (IIT) GATE 2004 entrance exam


WORK EXPERIENCE:
Industry: Wireless (4 yrs)
Company: Spirent Communications, Plc (New Jersey) - Headquartered in the UK
Title: Product Development Engineer
- Responsible for development of multi-million dollar (ISO 9001 certified) wireless products for deployment of 3G/4G cellular networks of Verizon, ATT, Motorola, Nokia, and Apple.
- Awarded Spirent Spot Award in 2007 recognizing collaborative efforts as the youngest team member for developing 3 years ahead of time, a high-speed 3G system capacity, generating $2,500,000 in revenue in < 3 months
- Contributed to a 300% increase in stock price over 4 years through the development of an innovative and niche product line.

Technical Consultant, Columbia University Information Technology (CUIT) (1 year)
Webmaster, The Charles H Revson Fellowship at Columbia University (1 year)

LEADERSHIP EXTRA-CURRICULARS:
1. Co-Founder/Co-Chairman, Social Media committee at Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (CBSAC/NY) <https://www.cbsacny.org/article.html?aid=140>
2. Co-Founder, Indian Students' Association at Columbia (ISAC) - Columbia University
3. Spirent Softball League - 5 victories against Avaya Telecom, ATT, and Withum-Smith Brown, etc.
4. Student Member, IEEE - University of Mumbai

I will have 3 recommendation letters:
- From my Work manager
- From Columbia B-school non-profit work
- From Columbia University's EE Department Chair re research projects

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I am shooting for a GMAT score of 750. Is that reasonable? What aspects am I missing for the Fall 2011 MBA programs? Also, would it be competitive enough to try for Stanford GSB (the acceptance rate for Stanford is ~7%) ?


Greatly appreciate your feedback.

Much Regards,
Ashish

First of all, I think your profile looks very competitive. If you do score in the 750 range then there is nothing in the information you provided that would keep you out of a top school (Stanford included). It is now just an issue of putting together an application/essays/recs that will get you in.

Did you receive your master's degree four years ago? (is all of your work experience post-MA?). I ask this because, as counterintuitive as it may seem, candidates that already have advanced degrees may have a more difficult time crafting a compelling story as to why he/she needs another advanced degree. You will need to conven to the Adcom why you are now interested in business (and how this interest came about - especially since only recently you were pursing an advanced degree in engineering!). To mitigate this, remember to keep focused on business examples in your essays and, to the extent possible, I would suggest using your first two recommenders (I realize some schools want 3 recommendations in which case the Engineering Department Chair would be fine - particularly if he is familiar with your non-engineering skills or can stick to more general skills such as analytical ability, work ethic, personality, leadership, initiative, etc.).

Good luck to you!

Jessica - Thanks a lot for the motivational feedback!

Yes, I graduated from Columbia in May 2006 and all the work experience is post my MS. And I know exactly where you are coming from - I can promise I have done all the ground work! I want to switch careers from R&D in Technology to Management Consulting. Many people I know who pursue PhDs, MDs, JDs, etc. also pursue Consulting as their careers in a client-facing role. I want to move from Product Development (R&D) to Product Management/Marketing where I will get to meet customers/clients and thus, transition from a quantitative/analytical problem-solver to a strategic business problem-solver - do I make sense? For instance, instead of stressing on the core technical details of the several wireless projects I worked on, I would emphasize the revenue and business development aspect of those projects and how they translate to strategic growth of the wireless business segment.

The Department chair is a professor from UC-Berkeley, and I believe he would be more well-versed with my engineering expertise, which I can ask him to elaborate my project leadership capabilities.

Now, time to crack the GMAT open.