Please evaluate my profile!!

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Please evaluate my profile!!

by myst_ari » Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:03 am
Interested in:
1) Haas ewmba
2) UCLA femba
3) Booth weekend
4) Kellogg weekend
in that order
Could you please evaluate my profile, I am in a huge dilemma debating between retaking my GMAT (not so confident about making a huge increase) Vs spending time to prepare for apps.
-GMAT 2nd attempt 650 (Q45/V34), 1st attempt 620 (Q47/V28)
-Senior Software Engineer with 16 years of experience (Indian male IT professional in the bay area)
-B.E. Computer Science (about 68% aggregate from an Indian University)
-Extra curricular: Toastmasters for about 2 years- Been Secretary and VP Education,
conducted speech contests and organized a lot of meetings.
-Been helping a friend in his potential start-up in terms of software development/ideas during spare time.
-Lots of start-up experience (7 years) starting from the ground up but as an engineer(5 start-ups in 5 years at one time)
-Demonstrated leadership and mentoring experience as a Lead/Senior Engineer.
-Influenced senior management/VP in companies I worked for.
-2nd Engineer of a branch of a bay area company started in India -involved in ground-up work.
-Community experience- helped organize meetings and actively volunteered against an apartment management for better facilities. This eventually led to a lawsuit. Also volunteered in temples.
Source: — Ask mbaMission |

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by mbaMissionBrianE » Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:17 am
Hello myst_ari, thanks for your question.

It's a tough question about the GMAT, but let me ask you: how much prep did you do for your 2nd attempt? If you did an extensive amount, then you might not be able to raise your score much more. If you did not, then there is a higher upside to taking the test a third time. Especially for schools like Booth and Kellogg, your current score could be a potential obstacle.

You have some interesting experiences in and out of work, and I think these will be the strength of your application. Your competitiveness will come down to the quality of your leadership experience. Can you draw upon "moments" when you truly led: influenced individuals and organizations, drove results, took initiative? The more you can do this, the more competitive you will be.

You haven't mentioned your post-MBA goals - I assume you'll want to focus on entrepreneurship? The more you can paint a picture that cohesively ties together your past, present, and future, the more compelling your story will be. Demonstrate to the admissions committees that your desired career path necessitates an MBA.
I hope this helps!

Best of luck,
Brian
Brian Eng
Senior Consultant
mbaMission

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