Profile Evaluation Greatly Appreciated

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Profile Evaluation Greatly Appreciated

by swbluedevil » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:02 am
Hi, would you mind commenting on my profile?

Background: At time of matriculation, 25 year old male of mixed ethnicity (half white/half asian)

Undergrad: 3.15 GPA (3.35 junior and senior year + dean's list during junior year) from top 5 school with electrical engineering major/ classical studies minor. I did ROTC for 4 years and worked part time 2 years to finance my education. I served as the Wing Commander my final semester (like a student group president) for my ROTC detachment senior year and I was also the Chief Financial Officer of a student company with $500,000 in sales and 100 employees.

GMAT: 750 (Q 50 95th percentile, V 40 89th percentile)

Work Experience: I'm a military officer working in an Air Force unit tasked with conducting test rocket launches on the West Coast. I'm currently in charge of a 3 man team responsible for overseeing the production of 2 $85 million rockets. We work with several defense contractors (i.e Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, etc.) and work with them to improve their processes and integrate them with base agencies. I'll have 4 years of work experience by the time I hope to matriculate. I'm also trying to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan sometime in the next six months.
My achievements at work include being designated junior officer of the quarter in my unit (out of 69 total junior officers). I was also selected as a Distinguished Graduate (top 10% for academics, leadership, and officership) at my functional training (space and missiles training) and outstanding performer (top 15% for academics) at our Air Force basic officer training.

Extracurriculars - I'm in charge of providing community service opportunities to 600+ young officers on base. My most significant achievements in this capacity are providing 15 commited volunteers to volunteer to be tutors at the local library, providing 10 commited volunteers to read to children at the local health clinic, raising volunteers for various literacy promotion events, and leading a base wide fundraiser that provided 1500 books to donate to disadvantaged children in the local area. All of this effort culminated in my organization being awarded the Air Force Association Outstanding Community Service Award (awarded to one organization on each Air Force base)
Currently, I've taken the iniative to set up 5 fundraisers to raise $5000 for various community service organizations in the local area. In addition, I've led 2 fundraisers for my unit to raise $2500 for Air Force widows and Airmen facing financial hardship. Lastly, I play intramural soccer on base (just thought I'd throw that in there).

Alternative Transcript - A's in Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting. Currently taking macro econ (A so far) and will take micro econ next semester.

Career Goals: management consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain)

Looking at Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, UC Berk, UCLA

What do you think of my chances and do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!
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by Lisa Anderson » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:40 pm
Dear swbluedevil:

I think you have a good chance to get into many great MBA programs and would encourage you to submit an application for any school you wish to target. Based on your background, it sounds like you will approach applying to b-school with the proper due diligence and hard work on your applications to present the strongest applications possible. I think if you do those things, then you should see some positive results from top programs. The only thing that concerned me was your comment of being deployed this year. As long as you feel you can get your applications in while in Iraq/Afghanistan (or before you go) and can get back to the US for the start of the program, then go forth and apply.

Good luck!
Lisa
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by swbluedevil » Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:21 am
Thanks Lisa, is there anything else I can do to mitigate my GPA from college? Do you think it will be a big concern to adcoms? Or do will my GMAT, alternate transcript, and recent work experience deflect attention from it?

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by Lisa Anderson » Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:15 pm
Dear swbluedevil:

I am really not concerned with your GPA. While it might be below the average for some of the schools, you had a difficult major at a good school and showed improvement in your last two years. More importantly, you scored very high on the GMAT demonstrating your aptitude to succeed in the classroom. Basically, I think you have done all possible to mitigate the GPA and simply need to make a compelling case in your applications.

Regards,
Lisa
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