Indian 29 male with 8 years work experience in IT

[georgestephen]

Hello,
8 years work experience including 2 years full time entrepreneurial experience ( Co-founder of a Social Enterprise)
6 years in IT ( Currently working as a Lead Consultant in a Top 5 IT MNC), with over 5 years of leadership experience
Masters in Software Engineering from BITS Pilani, India (Work Integrated Learning Program)
Graduation - 1st class (61%)
Masters GPA - 6.5/10
GMAT - 720
I am also involved in a number of NGOs in different capacities for over 3 years.
What are my chances of getting into the Top 10 B schools in US and the Top 5 in Europe?

Kindly advise.

Best Regards,
George

[mbaMissionJenK]

Hi George,

Thanks for your post. Congrats on the solid GMAT.

Overall based on the limited info we know about you here, sounds like your strengths are:

-GMAT
-academics
-entrepreneurial experience (depending on what else you can tell the adcomm about the 'social enterprise', this could REALLY help you stand out and be a huge plus, but would need to know more about it)
-"leadership experience" though as self-described, not sure what this consists of
-NGO involvement (though that is common among similar applicants)

Potential weaknesses or challenges:
-standing out from large pool of Indian IT applicants with high GMAT scores
-you're actually getting pretty high on the # of years of experience; some Exec programs start at about 7-8 years of experience for example. Doesn't mean you need to do Exec, but you're getting to the point in time where you'll be more pressed to explain the WHY... why get the MBA at all? Is it necessary? What are your short and long term post-MBA goals? and WHY NOW? Why at this point in your career have you made this choice?

Note that European b-schools tend to have a slightly higher average years of experience among the class, so that could be a small plus for Europe. All that said, with excellent essays and interviews, you could have a shot at top programs in the US and Europe, it just really depends on what all you present in your application, how well you convey your story in the essays, and what other qualified applicants you end up competing against, as it's certainly very competitive to get into top programs. Good luck, let us know if you have further q's, and if you'd like to speak in more depth, we do offer a free 30 min consult option, at https://www.mbamission.com/consult.php if interested at any point.

[georgestephen]

Thank you very much Jennifer for taking time out to respond. Appreciate it!
Cheers, George

[mbaMissionJenK]

You are welcome, good luck to you!