Please help- Profile evaluation needed

[ashutoshtyagi]

Dear Veritas Prep Consultant,
Hi, I am from India (male), here are my details:

GMAT: 720 (QA:51 VA:39) /5.5.

Graduation: Mechanical Engineering from one of the top 15 colleges in India(70.2%).I am a state topper in physics in class (12th).

College Extra-curriculars: Have organized technical and "Arts-&-Crafts" festivals for two years in a row. Have tutored my juniors for the preparation of placements and various MBA-entrance examinations.

Work-experience: Worked with IBM for 5 months but then i moved to a financial services firm( total experience 4 years). have international experience in south-east asian countries. I progressed from role of testing to being an application consultant in a period of 4 years. have worked on investment banking projects in the capacity of consultant and even project manager (SCB, OCBC, UOB, JPM, etc). i have a failed start-up also.

Post-education extra-curricualrs: worked (as a volunteer) with NGO's for 3 years (teaching blind people, slum children) and even had a social group of my own working on the solid waste management projects.

Professional examinations: CFA levels 1 and 2 both cleared.

I have an interest working either in an M&A role or in a private equity role. can i target top 10 colleges? can you please suggest me which colleges to aim for looking at my profile. i will be applying to b-schools this year.

[Bryant@VeritasPrep]

Thanks for your posting. You appear to have a great core profile, and seem to have the potential to overcome many of the obstacles which typically face applicants from such a large pool. I like that you have worked for a large US corporation (unlike many Indian applicants), even though the time there was brief. You will be compared to others applying with a similar background, so to stand out amongst them is the goal of course. The typical Indian applicant is in IT, so you should emphasize that your experience is in finance. The CFA is very impressive to that end as well and you should demonstrate in your essays how this achievement will make you valuable to your classmates. Your GMAT score is great and you are involved outside of work (and have a history of involvement). In short, you posess all the key attributes of a to 10 candidate. Finding which school is the best fit will take some homework and hopefully, some in-person visits if you have the time and budget to travel. Given your post MBA goals, I would recommend schools in the US or London/Europe, depending on where you want to be when you graduate. There are plenty of schools who excel in international finance, but the New York schools might be of top consideration.