Need Guidance in building my profile

[mba_sailor]

I'm 25 years old now and have 2 years of experience till date. I wish to join a world class program for class of 2015. Then I will have 4 years work experience. Please guide me by evaluating my current plan and suggesting any tips to strengthen my profile.

Undergrad: B.E(Marine Technology) top 15 engineering school, India. GPA:3.1 (Included 18 months international internship on-board largest ships in the world)
Work experience: Marine navigator, responsible for multi-million dollar cargo ship and 30 lives.
International Exposure: Worked in and visited 25+ countries. On-board crew 6+ nationalities. Mentoring and training role of international cadets.
Current career: possibility of promoting to one rank above. after which I need to spend 1 year gaining certifications. (Insted of this I want to pursue MBA)
Side projects:
1. Running news-gathering website (shipping related), running for 1 year, 1000+followers on (twitter+facebook)
2. Running a reselling business of high end mobile phones with 6% profit margins. (All self-effort in making the relevant contacts.) (Just started planning to continue)

for the next 2 years I plan to:
1. Continue working with the worlds largest shipping company
2. Continue my New aggregation website
3. Continue my re-selling business
4. gain a writing degree from writersbureau.com

Kindly comment if I will be competitive in the top 15 mba program applications if I continue on my present path, gain solid Gmat scores and have proper reasons in my essays.

If not where should I set my sights.

Best Regards

[Heidi Granner]

mba_sailor,

Thanks for your post.

I'll review each of the sections of your background and suggest ways for you to enhance your profile over the coming year.

For the Academics section, graduating with a quantitative degree from a strong university will be a strength to your application, but it appears your GPA is below the average for top business schools. If you did not graduate in the First Class or First Class with Distinction, then I suggest you consider supplementing your transcript with a couple part-time business courses. UCLA Extension offers online courses that could be done while you are travelling. Taking a couple classes like economics or finance and scoring an "A" will help demonstrate your abilities and interest in business education.
The GMAT score will be another important part of the academics section. I suggest targeting at least the school average for your target schools, with an 80+% on both the verbal and math sections.

For the Work Experience section, showing career progression and increase in responsibilities will be important. So over the next year, I suggest looking for any opportunities to demonstrate your people and project management abilities and formal increases in title and compensation.

Extracurricular activities are the third important section to your application. Again, opportunities to demonstrate leadership are important. This will be more difficult given your travel schedule, but continuing to run your news aggregation website and seeking out any other ways to be involved will be helpful.

I don't think the writing degree will be relevant to MBA admissions.

Hope that helps!

Heidi