Greetings to all.
I have recently given my GMAT and am now caught up in the much more difficult process of actually applying to and securing an admit in a top B-school. I am aiming for the top 15 but since i am the typical (yaawn) Indian / Male / Tech although non-IT (i am a shipbuilding engineer), I think i would do well to set my sights a little lower also, maybe the top 30. This post is gonna be slightly on the lengthy side – sorry about this but i am not good at summing up things in short
My profile looks as follows right now-
GMAT: 750 in GMAT (Q49,V44 –> Q87%,V97%) and 6.0 in AWA – did i beat the GMAT or is it a draw?
Academics:
I am a Mechanical Engineer from a National Institute of Technology in India. (engineer – red flag???)
My undergrad GPA is 8.77/10 (the institute uses a 10-point scale) which i guess should translate roughly to 3.7 or 3.8 on a 4-point scale.
Secured 90% in both high school and inter (std XII) with 95% in science and math.
I am currently working for a major engineering firm in India, more specifically, for their shipbuilding division. The division specializes in the construction of naval vessels.
I have 2.5 years work experience in this industry. I have worked in 2 departments so far and although there was some amount of technical work involved, both departments had me in charge of a group of people, mostly workmen, on the shop floor whom i would supervise and monitor. I have also held training classes for these people.
The organization holds several training and advancement programs. Because of my performance in one such major program, held every year for fresh trainees, I have been promoted to ‘management trainee’ from ‘engineering trainee’ after my first year of work. Am continuously involved in cycle time reduction and cost reduction for any process i work on.
Extracurricular activities:
Not great after college. In college i was a member of various Media clubs such as the music club and film club. I have also taken part in organizing certain aspects of our annual cultural program. During college, i also took up a computer animation course and used these skills to develop the first ever 3-D animated theme video for the college cultural fest.
I have also taken part in the first-ever BAJA India event organized by SAE India. The competition required students from various engineering colleges to indigenously design a single-seater Off-Road vehicle and race it on an artificial desert track. Our team bagged the second place on the national level. Through our success in this event, we were able to convince SAE India to form a students club in our college, which now recruits several members each year and selects a few outstanding members for the yearly BAJA event.
Now the Achhile’s heel: My weak point is extracurricular activities after college. I am a regular participant in the monthly cultural event held by the organization – i play guitar / piano and sometimes perform in a small drama. However i do not have any community service to speak of.
As our first project at work was in the final phase at the time that i joined, the organization was working tremendous overtimes to meet pressing deadlines. It was not unusual to arrive at 8 AM and go home at 10 PM each day. There was hardly any time for anything else. Although the project was completed a few months ago and now the overtimes are few and far in-between, i have not been part of any community service programs after college. Although i have participated in a few community events held by our organization, these are like once in 4-5 months and for 1 day only. I have friends who work for various NGOs – i am planning to take up some volunteer activity with their help. However with my current work schedule it will be difficult for me to devote myself extensively to community service.
Well the questions circling in my head right now and giving me spinning headaches are:
1. Indian/Male/Engineer (non-IT) – 750 good enough or a higher score required (note that Quant %ile is 87 – will this be considered low for my demographic?)
2. Will my lack of community service after college be considered a significant weakness?
3. Although i have been in charge of a team, though mostly workmen, at work, i have no real business experience as such. Will the other work experience be relevant enough to project as a factor for my candidacy?
Thanks for any help with this. And if you are still here, thanks for your patience in reading this extra-long post
I have recently given my GMAT and am now caught up in the much more difficult process of actually applying to and securing an admit in a top B-school. I am aiming for the top 15 but since i am the typical (yaawn) Indian / Male / Tech although non-IT (i am a shipbuilding engineer), I think i would do well to set my sights a little lower also, maybe the top 30. This post is gonna be slightly on the lengthy side – sorry about this but i am not good at summing up things in short
My profile looks as follows right now-
GMAT: 750 in GMAT (Q49,V44 –> Q87%,V97%) and 6.0 in AWA – did i beat the GMAT or is it a draw?
Academics:
I am a Mechanical Engineer from a National Institute of Technology in India. (engineer – red flag???
)My undergrad GPA is 8.77/10 (the institute uses a 10-point scale) which i guess should translate roughly to 3.7 or 3.8 on a 4-point scale.
Secured 90% in both high school and inter (std XII) with 95% in science and math.
I am currently working for a major engineering firm in India, more specifically, for their shipbuilding division. The division specializes in the construction of naval vessels.
I have 2.5 years work experience in this industry. I have worked in 2 departments so far and although there was some amount of technical work involved, both departments had me in charge of a group of people, mostly workmen, on the shop floor whom i would supervise and monitor. I have also held training classes for these people.
The organization holds several training and advancement programs. Because of my performance in one such major program, held every year for fresh trainees, I have been promoted to ‘management trainee’ from ‘engineering trainee’ after my first year of work. Am continuously involved in cycle time reduction and cost reduction for any process i work on.
Extracurricular activities:
Not great after college. In college i was a member of various Media clubs such as the music club and film club. I have also taken part in organizing certain aspects of our annual cultural program. During college, i also took up a computer animation course and used these skills to develop the first ever 3-D animated theme video for the college cultural fest.
I have also taken part in the first-ever BAJA India event organized by SAE India. The competition required students from various engineering colleges to indigenously design a single-seater Off-Road vehicle and race it on an artificial desert track. Our team bagged the second place on the national level. Through our success in this event, we were able to convince SAE India to form a students club in our college, which now recruits several members each year and selects a few outstanding members for the yearly BAJA event.
Now the Achhile’s heel: My weak point is extracurricular activities after college. I am a regular participant in the monthly cultural event held by the organization – i play guitar / piano and sometimes perform in a small drama. However i do not have any community service to speak of.
As our first project at work was in the final phase at the time that i joined, the organization was working tremendous overtimes to meet pressing deadlines. It was not unusual to arrive at 8 AM and go home at 10 PM each day. There was hardly any time for anything else. Although the project was completed a few months ago and now the overtimes are few and far in-between, i have not been part of any community service programs after college. Although i have participated in a few community events held by our organization, these are like once in 4-5 months and for 1 day only. I have friends who work for various NGOs – i am planning to take up some volunteer activity with their help. However with my current work schedule it will be difficult for me to devote myself extensively to community service.
Well the questions circling in my head right now and giving me spinning headaches are:
1. Indian/Male/Engineer (non-IT) – 750 good enough or a higher score required (note that Quant %ile is 87 – will this be considered low for my demographic?)
2. Will my lack of community service after college be considered a significant weakness?
3. Although i have been in charge of a team, though mostly workmen, at work, i have no real business experience as such. Will the other work experience be relevant enough to project as a factor for my candidacy?
Thanks for any help with this. And if you are still here, thanks for your patience in reading this extra-long post
