Ask mbaMission

Hello,
Would really appreciate if anyone can evaluate my profile and advise areas I need to work on. My main concern is that I belong to a large Indian IT applicant pool and want to understand what I can do to stand out.

Profile:
Nationality: Indian
Education: B. Tech (Engineering)
GPA: 3.2
GMAT: 720, 5.0
Designation: IT Business Consultant
Work Ex: 8 yrs IT Experience, mostly in US. Supporting family business (as an Advisor) in India since last 12 years.
Extra Curricular: Executing various innovative small IT projects part time. Providing Career consultation to students in under-developed areas.
Career Progression: Promoted frequently. Moved from Technical to Business Role coz of exta initiative. Lead various teams and handled multi-million dollar accounts.

Target Program: FullTime MBA

Target Schools:
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
Kellogg

Thanks for reading this post.

Cheers,
Monk

Monk -

Thank you very much for posting your profile, and congratulations on a solid GMAT score.

You are absolutely correct that your demographic profile (Indian, male, IT background, and 8 years of work experience) will hinder you. It is a good sign that you were able to transition from the technical side into the business side, and it will be critical that you share that story and your role, leadership experience, etc., in your essays. Also, your recommenders can help show that you have "more than IT" in terms of your professional development to date.

However, I am a bit concerned that there are no major extracurricular or personal stories that really "pop"! In short, the candidates that generally get into the schools you listed are stellar professionally, academically, and personally. You are solid but maybe fall a bit below that level. Have you considered Michigan, Duke, UCLA, etc.? Those might be worth investigating, especially if you are dead set on going to business school next year.

Good luck to you,
Jennifer