A plea for Evaluation!

[vivek1110]

Hey Stacy,

I would be delighted if you could scrutinize my profile and let me know how good/bad are my chances.

Nationality: Indian
Age: 23

Education:

Undergraduate degree: Bachelor of Engineering In Automobile Engineering

UG GPA: We don't have a GPA system, I was told a conversion isn't necessary: 78% (First Class with distinction) from one of the top Universities in India. I finished among the top 10 in my department.

Work Experience: 2 years till date, with a top manufacturing company.
Job description: I was picked up straight out of college. I worked for 4 months in Strategic Sourcing on a special project, which involved a lot analytical work. It was a rationalization of components project! After this I had a 4 month stint doing another project in designing a an ERP module to facilitate assembly operations at one of our factories.

For the last year, I've been working in operations, I am an operations executive, responsible for production, I've made many improvements since I joined productions, drastic reductions in PPM, many machine improvements and so on. The job involved managing 15 workers and 30 machines!

After working in production, I was picked by corporate and assigned a role in Strategy. This is my work experience till date and I will be working in strategy for the next year or so till I decide to attend B-School.

GMAT: I've taken the GMAT twice, first time I messed up, I joined a poor coaching centre, got a lot of wrong advice and messed up verbal. Got a 570 then (Q47, V23)

I finished my second attempt a few days back, managed only a 660 (Q47, V35).

Extra Curricular activities:

1. I have been playing Basketball since my high school days, represented, my club, school and zone till I was in high school. I continued playing in college, represented my college for two years, during which I represented my college in zonal level games. I had to give up my basketball during my final year, to concentrate on studies. I ahve subsequently played basketball for my company at the unit level.

2. I'm a guitarist, have been playing the guitar for 2 years now. I'm a solo guitarist, I've represented my insititute of music at a concert once.


Target B-Schools:

1. Michigan ROSS
2. Michigan state University
3. MIT ( I know, this is pretty much impossible)
4. Texas- Ausitn (McCombs)
5. Virginia (Darden)
6. Indiana (Kelley)
7. ISB
8. Carnegie Melon TEPPER
9. Oxford Said
10. LSE, an MSc in Management.

I'm basically looking to do an MBA in a big city, I want that exposure and think I might enjoy it. Also, I'm looking for a two year program, I've got only 2 years of Work-ex and hence a 1 year program may not suffice, this is actually one of the reasons I'm trying to stay away from UK. Although, I have mentioned Oxford, because I've always wanted to be an oxford graduate and LSE, because I love London!

Please evaluate my profile and give me your 2 cents.

Vivek

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear Vivek,

I think it will be tough for you to gain admission to the schools on your list with your current profile. You have some fabulous schools, but they all receive a high volume of applications and thus can be very selective. Your GMAT is low relative to other Indian engineers, and while you do have the preferred amount of work experience, the question will be have you accomplished enough in your short tenure to help distinguish you from the plethora of other Indian engineers. I commend you on your large increase on your GMAT retake, but it is still a score that is below the average for many of the schools on your list. So, you have some options to consider: 1) rethink your schools and apply to a mix that includes some where you will have a better chance of admission, 2) retake the GMAT again to try and get your score closer to/above 700, and/or 3) a combination of 1 & 2. Your GPA is strong and you have some positives in your profile, additionally you will have the essays/recommendations/interview to use to your advantage, but I think it will be hard for you to get an interview at some of your target schools with your current profile.

Good luck,
Lisa

[vivek1110]

Thank you for your honest reply! Yeah I do realize that it would be hard to get into most of these programs. Re-taking the GMAT, however, is not an option for me. Would you recommend I strike out all of the aforementioned programs and look at say programs ranked 20-30 on the US rankings?

Revised list:
1. Kennan Flagler
2. Kelley
3. Goizueta
4. Smith
5. Fisher
6. Olin
7. Krannert
8. Owen

Would I have a decent shot at these? If not, I probably will wait a year, and retake the GMAT. Thanks again!

Vivek

[Lisa Anderson]

You have to decide how much you are willing to invest for the risk. In other words, schools that seem to be more of a reach are a higher risk for your investment of time and money. You have to decide if you think you can submit a compelling, quality application package that will distinguish you despite a below average GMAT; do a thorough self-assessment of your work experience, writing skills and interview skills. If you think you have what it takes to present a stellar application package, then it might be worth investing your resources and seeing what happens. I think your chances are better at the schools in your second post, but I would not say any are safety or guarantees.

Good luck,
Lisa

[vivek1110]

Thank you for your response. Of course nothing is certain when it comes to applications, many people have recommended that I retake the GMAT; they also say, just like you do, that most of the schools I hope to get into would be a long shot. The opportunity to prove many people wrong, is one that I cannot pass up. So I'm going to go ahead and apply, and hope for the best.

Thanks again!