profile eval

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tom09: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 10; Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:13 am

by tom09 » Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:22 am

I have following schools in mind:

stanford, chicago booth, columbia, mit and wharton.

I will have 3 years of full time work experience working as engineer supporting manufacturing & operations in high tech (think apple, microsoft or google)

I hold bse in electrical engineering from top 10 engineering school and mse in computer engineering from top 5 with full ride. ugpa & gpa is 3.5

I took gre (v161 q170 -> gmat 750 using ets conversion tool)

extra curriculum involves many years of volunteering and teaching kids math and science; some investment club activity

I would like to pursue consulting post mba career serving high tech & biotech device companies which require controlled manufacturing, supply chain & operation process.

How do you see my profile against these schools?

Thanks in advance for any feedback

Source: Beat The GMAT — Ask Stacy Blackman | Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:22 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

MargaretStrother: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 351; Joined: Fri May 01, 2015 9:10 amFollowed by: 9 members; Location: Brooklyn, NY; Thanked: 44 times

by MargaretStrother » Tue Aug 04, 2015 12:30 pm

Hi Tom,
Not sure we have quite enough information here to evaluate your candidacy: I'd want to see your professional and community leadership roles, and a strong sense of your post-MBA goals. Not a lot of differentiation here in the consulting/engineering profile, so you'll want to be thinking about how you stand out from other applicants. My sense is that you are at the beginning of the application-exploration process, so I suggest that you take another year to research these schools, visit the campuses during the school year, crank up your community service leadership, and consider taking the GMAT instead of the GRE. Getting into a top MBA program is very competitive and comprehensive, and you want to be sure you've got all your ducks in a row well in advance of your deadlines.

Good luck!

Margaret Strother

Margaret Strother
Senior Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting

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tom09: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 10; Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:13 am

by tom09 » Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:04 pm

Thanks Margaret for your feedback. Very helpful thou allow me to ask bit more..

In terms of professional & community leadership roles: I have led effort to work/partner with major firms including tech & consulting to lead a project which led to >$1M manufacturing cost savings.. and I started organization with some other professionals to mentor foreign students interested in engineering & business career... other community services include basic teaching & mentoring kids. Been teaching for quite a few years now since high school. also received best teaching assistant nominee during graduate school. The reason that I would like to pursue post-mba consulting is that previously I have been working with one phd + professor consultant who founded his own consulting firm on one of the projects I was working on. And I became particularly interested in consulting and eventually starting my own practice helping startups, tech and biotech devices firms to which my experience and skills can be helpful.

Is there particular reason that I need to take GMAT over GRE? I have talked to Columbia & Stanford admission representative f2f directly and all told me not to take gmat since I already have a decent score. Not sure they are being completely honest with me...fingers crossed

tom09: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 10; Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:13 am

by tom09 » Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:04 pm

Thanks Margaret for your feedback. Very helpful thou allow me to ask bit more..

GMAT/MBA Expert

MargaretStrother: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 351; Joined: Fri May 01, 2015 9:10 amFollowed by: 9 members; Location: Brooklyn, NY; Thanked: 44 times

by MargaretStrother » Wed Aug 05, 2015 3:35 am

Hi Tom,
I know many top business schools are telling people the GRE is just as good as the GMAT in their eyes, but I can only speak from experience: I'm not yet seeing the same track record for acceptance with applicants whose GRE is comparable to a high GMAT. This could be coincidental, but until we have some numbers to track, I'm just passing on my observation here. If you are dead-set on the MBA, it's my advice to bite the bullet and take the detested GMAT.

Margaret Strother

Margaret Strother
Senior Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting

Learn more about me

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