Profile Evaluation

[kr.santosh]

Hi,

First of all I want to thank you for helping MBA applicants.

Here is my profile:

IT professional/MALE/ Indian "Applying for FALL 2010 "

Total years of full-time Exp by sept 2009: 8 Yrs (all in software development)

Age : 30

Current JOB: Software Product Development
(Experience in current company 2 yrs.)

Location : Bay Area, USA

Work exp in USA : 3.5 yrs (rest in India)

Current title: Techincal Team leader (interact with other teams e.g sales, product management, qa and international team in India and UK)

Recommendation: Can get Excellant reco. from current Manager

Under Grad : B.Tech. from IIT (One of the top univ in India)

Major : Manufacturing Sc & Engineering (Mechincal Engineering)

CGPA: 8.16/10

Adv Degree : not applicable

GMAT: 710 (Verbal 38, Quantitative 50, AWA 4.5)

Extra Curricular: not much after college. In IIT, contested student election for general Sec. but didn't win. member of National social service for one yr during my second yr in IIT.

After work Activities : last yr, worked with a startup company as partner and helped to design its sotware product, but the company didn't become successful.

Interested in : General Management/entrepreneurship

Schools interested in:
MIT
ROSS
UCLA
HAAS
DUKE
CORNELL
LBS

Questions:
1. Do you think the choice of schools is right?

2. Do you think that I should join some community service for few months to improve my credential on extra activities?

3. If yes on prev questions, what kind of community service would be best fit for short time.

4. Do you think retaking GMAT and adding 20-30 more points could help in my case?

5. Is it good to get both reccomendations from the current employer?

6. Please suggest if I should add any other B-school in my list

Thanking you in advance.

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear kr.santosh,

1. Do you think the choice of schools is right?
I think you have a list of highly competitive and selective schools. The schools are great, but admissions for all is extremely tough--especially since you are in an over-represented segment of the applicant pool. I would suggest narrowing down your list a bit and adding in some safety options.

2. Do you think that I should join some community service for few months to improve my credential on extra activities?
Schools like to see that there is more to your life than work. They also like to see you take on leadership roles in organizations if you are early in your career. While it would be good to join something for application purposes, it is better to join something that you are truly interested in and will make the time to participate in.

3. If yes on prev questions, what kind of community service would be best fit for short time.
see #2

4. Do you think retaking GMAT and adding 20-30 more points could help in my case?
A higher GMAT score can never hurt. Based on your list, it might be worth trying to increase your verbal and AWA scores.

5. Is it good to get both reccomendations from the current employer?
You will be expected to have at least one from your current employer. If you get both from the same company, that is perfectly acceptable and not a negative.

6. Please suggest if I should add any other B-school in my list
I would suggest adding some safety schools to your list. There are many great programs outside the top 10 and within the top 50.

Good luck,
Lisa