Please evaluate my profile

[saransh11]

Hi Guys - I m yet another Indian male with work-experience in Finance IT. Wanted your feedback:

Age - 29 (turning 30 in a month!)

GMAT:

Total Score: 710 (92 percentile)
Quant: 48 (80 percentile)
Verbal: 40 (89 percentile)
AWA: pending

GPA: 81% marks from University of Madras in Computer Science, graduated with "distinction"

Additional Certs: CFA
Work Experience till now - 6.75 years

I work at Goldman Sachs in New York as an IT/quant type guy for a trading desk doing programming for a Prop desk's risk management system. Also do some automated trading strategies. The trading book is > $5bn and I m the main tech lead. Since its based in brazil i ve gotten to travel down there for work as well. Also got promoted to VP earlier this year, and manage a couple of people.

I m looking to segway into the asset management/investment management business, specifically either a hedge fund or as a portfolio manager sort of opening at a buy side shop. Also interested in trading gigs. I do harbour some dreams of private equity/venture capital since I m involved in the NY Tech start-up Meetup scene but I dont wanna throw that into my admission essays since I feel I dont have a connecting theme there yet.

Extra-curricular: Did after school tutoring with a volunteer group for 3 years, and for the past 5 years, I ve done at least one bike ride or cancer-run sort of fund raising event every year. I was a pretty good student in school and have tons of awards for quizzes, improv events etc(pretty random) as well as some honor certificates for academic accomplishments.

I am targeting the Top 10 B-Schools. I ve got these on my list so far:

Booth
MIT
Columbia Uni
Wharton
Harvard
LBS

Also have NYU parttime mba as a backup since my work will pay for me to go parttime, although a big motivation for me to leave my job is basically to effect a career change and I m not sure how effective a part-time mba will be on that front.

I m not thrilled about my GMAT score being a touch low, especially since I tested higher in practice, so definitely taking the test again.

My worry is the usual overcrowded pool of male Indian IT guys/engineers with extremely high gmat scores. I m also worried about being too old and locked-in to my current job path since I ve been here nearly 6.5 years, and would be above the average applicant's age at a lot of schools.

Do you think I have a decent shot? I m also gonna put time in school visits as school kicks off the next couple of weeks, do you think that could help as well ? (will visit all schools except LBS!)

[Stacey Oyler]

Hi and thanks for your post! You have a pretty solid understanding of your profile - strengths and weaknesses. I agree that your work experience at GS is a strength and your goals are logical and the path clear. However, I would agree that your GMAT score is your weakness. While the score itself isn't low, it is below average at the schools on your list as well as compared to applicants with similar profiles in the pool. That being said, I don't think it's a deal breaker in terms of gaining admission to a school at your list, but it does mean that you will need to compensate for it by impressing the adcom with the other parts of your profile.

Your extracurricular activities at one time appear to have been pretty consistent, but now it appears you are no longer tutoring and are only completing one race per year. While this is okay, it would be great if you could use your races/competitions for one of your essays. Have you ever led fund raising efforts for any of these events? Perhaps you've had a chance to train others to compete or lead some other part of the event/planning? Using an example from outside of the workplace will be key for you - you need this to stand out in the very crowded applicant pool.

In regard to your age - you are on the older end of full time MBA applicants. You will want to clearly explain to the adcom that now is the right time to get your MBA. Essentially that waiting this long to go to bschool was always your plan (so the adcom isn't scratching their heads and wondering why you didn't apply 3-4 years ago). Be sure to connect the dots between what you've been doing and what you want to do and clearly explain that an MBA is necessary for you to achieve these goals.

In regard to your school selection, you have compiled a list of top programs. I am glad you plan to visit so that you can see these programs firsthand and determine if they are indeed the right fit for you. One thing you may wish to consider is adding a couple more European programs to your list. European bschools tend to value more experienced applicants and thus your age may actually work in your favor.

Best of luck!

Stacey