Profile Evaluation please

[Resp007]

Hi Jon,
Hoping for a bit of direction here. Details are as follows:

Male
28 years
Indian
GMAT1 600
GMAT2 640 (Q47 V31 IR5 AWA 5) (Will retry since I have had Mock scores of 700 after the first attempt)
TOEFL 106 (all sections above 24)

Work EX:
I am currently working in TCS. I will have 4 years of Work experience by March next year in Consulting in SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool, mainly in SAP Material management. The work Experience revolves around implementing new ways in already existing ERP process in SCM. This requires studying existing system and implementing new functionality as per the Client so that they would have more transparency in the the current system. I do directly interact with clients, ranging from IT heads to workers at warehouses or Stores.

I was promoted once in last 3.5 years, and was offered another one 6 months back, but I declined as I wanted to move to some other project with different technical profile.

Have lead 3 teams, combined 13 people, but left this position after a year. During this time, we used to have quarterly joint meetings with UK client and representatives from Capgemini, I used to represent from TCS side.

All the Work Ex is in India. However, I did travel to US for leisure for a month and might go later this year to visit these schools. If you may notice these colleges are mostly on east cost around IL. Also, while I was promoted to lead, I was working with UK clients extensively. We had daily meetings and numerous mail exchanges.

Engineering: Tier 2 or 3 Undergrad college (Neither IIT, nor any other govt college) with 66% passing score overall.
Reason for low score: Tried to launch my own company that dealt with the real time monitoring of people in a campus. I developed the product with college friends but couldn't support the high import costs of hardware and couldn't sell the prototype, so joined the job later.

Extra curricular activities in college:
Represented college in inter college Maths Olympiad.
Was chairman and organised many social events like Farewell to seniors, Teachers day etc.
Represented college in Table tennis
Was captain of Cricket team for my branch for final 2 years

One question: How important are these details in College applications, considering these were the activities that I did some 4-5 years back?

10th 82%
12th 84%

Interests for MBA:
Have done basic search and would like to go for MBA in Strategy or General Management, not sure if entrepreneurship would be a good idea. I hate finance and don't want to be tied to a operations specialization.

Colleges:
Madison School, Wisconsin
Foster, uni of washington
Smeal,pennsylvania
Purdue Krannert, Indiana
Terry College, Georgia, GA
Kelley, Indiana

Dream:
Booth
MIT - Mainly because of their annual entrepreneurship competition

Goals:
Short term:
Unburden myself with the loan I would have because of MBA, and earn some money to save for the long term goal.
Long term:
Start my own venture, mostly in Tech or IT. Hence MIT / Georgia.


Questions:
Could you please evaluate and tell me which of these colleges would be a stretch or competitive.
Also, considering my long term goal, any recommendations for colleges?
Any other suggestions that may be missing in my profile?
How my profile would look like to you with a GMAT score of say 690 or 700 ?


Many thanks

[Resp007]

oops

[Jon@Admissionado]

Hi Jon,
Hoping for a bit of direction here. Details are as follows:

Male
28 years
Indian
GMAT1 600
GMAT2 640 (Q47 V31 IR5 AWA 5) (Will retry since I have had Mock scores of 700 after the first attempt)
TOEFL 106 (all sections above 24)

Work EX:
I am currently working in TCS. I will have 4 years of Work experience by March next year in Consulting in SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool, mainly in SAP Material management. The work Experience revolves around implementing new ways in already existing ERP process in SCM. This requires studying existing system and implementing new functionality as per the Client so that they would have more transparency in the the current system. I do directly interact with clients, ranging from IT heads to workers at warehouses or Stores.

I was promoted once in last 3.5 years, and was offered another one 6 months back, but I declined as I wanted to move to some other project with different technical profile.

Have lead 3 teams, combined 13 people, but left this position after a year. During this time, we used to have quarterly joint meetings with UK client and representatives from Capgemini, I used to represent from TCS side.

All the Work Ex is in India. However, I did travel to US for leisure for a month and might go later this year to visit these schools. If you may notice these colleges are mostly on east cost around IL. Also, while I was promoted to lead, I was working with UK clients extensively. We had daily meetings and numerous mail exchanges.

Engineering: Tier 2 or 3 Undergrad college (Neither IIT, nor any other govt college) with 66% passing score overall.
Reason for low score: Tried to launch my own company that dealt with the real time monitoring of people in a campus. I developed the product with college friends but couldn't support the high import costs of hardware and couldn't sell the prototype, so joined the job later.

Extra curricular activities in college:
Represented college in inter college Maths Olympiad.
Was chairman and organised many social events like Farewell to seniors, Teachers day etc.
Represented college in Table tennis
Was captain of Cricket team for my branch for final 2 years

One question: How important are these details in College applications, considering these were the activities that I did some 4-5 years back?

10th 82%
12th 84%

Interests for MBA:
Have done basic search and would like to go for MBA in Strategy or General Management, not sure if entrepreneurship would be a good idea. I hate finance and don't want to be tied to a operations specialization.

Colleges:
Madison School, Wisconsin
Foster, uni of washington
Smeal,pennsylvania
Purdue Krannert, Indiana
Terry College, Georgia, GA
Kelley, Indiana

Dream:
Booth
MIT - Mainly because of their annual entrepreneurship competition

Goals:
Short term:
Unburden myself with the loan I would have because of MBA, and earn some money to save for the long term goal.
Long term:
Start my own venture, mostly in Tech or IT. Hence MIT / Georgia.


Questions:
Could you please evaluate and tell me which of these colleges would be a stretch or competitive.
Also, considering my long term goal, any recommendations for colleges?
Any other suggestions that may be missing in my profile?
How my profile would look like to you with a GMAT score of say 690 or 700 ?


Many thanks

Hey there!
So from a look at what you have written here, what seems to be strongest is your work experience and leadership.

On the more challenging side, is your so-so GMAT combined with a so-so GPA from a non-taret school.

So the first question I'd ask as a consultant is: What about retaking the GMAT? The answer is not automatically less, buuuut if you believe you can get higher, then it is for sure something to consider. I wrote a looooooooooong post about this that might help you think this through: https://admissionado.com/mba/resources/t ... -the-gmat/

Otherwise, from your list, you have some reasonable schools there. The two dreams schools are not really worth applying to with your current GMAT. Even with a 740 they'd remain dream schools (because of low GPA plus non-target university), so it's probably not really worth your time to apply there. From the list you do have, Kelly will probably be the toughest of the bunch.

Let me know what you think about the retake and any thoughts or further questions you have,
Best,
JF

[Resp007]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the analysis.

I will retake the GMAT and will try to hit that elusive 700.
I did read many of your posts and hence added the international travel part to add 'international' in my profile.

If I do get a nice GMAT score, it should offset low GPA and average undergrad college?
Could you please throw some light on prospects of scholarships at these colleges wrt my profile? Is it too much to aspire for?

And yes I do understand the part about the dream colleges, but some part in me tells me to apply


Many thanks

[Jon@Admissionado]

Good idea!



With a 700 and a good application, a LOT of options open up for you, and your school list starts to look good (with even a chance at scholarships at some of the schools, although this is a bit harder to evaluate than acceptance).

With a nice GMAT score, you will be essentially "Hey I may have done not so great in my studies... but I had a reason... And to PROVE that I am smarter than that here is that GMAT!" Which is why in a case like yours (so-so GPA from a non-ranked school) this is particularly effective.


So in the meanwhile, best of luck on that GMAT.

And come back and let me know how you do,

Best,
Jon

[Resp007]

HI Jon,

How are you?

So I gave the test again, and scored 680 with Q48 and V35.


Does these 40 points+ make any difference now?
I, most likely, will not be appearing for the test again.


umm coleges now looks like:
Kelly
MIT - (I have to try for that 100K thing here )
SMEAL
Madison
Foster

Regards,

[Jon@Admissionado]

Of COURSE it makes a difference! And it's awesome! That's a huge jump there, and you have just gone up from "Applying to tier three schools" to "Applying to tier two schools",

MIT, frankly, forget about it. I mean it's not just dream, but dream dream, and the Indian applicants they are letting in are like at GMAT 730... And if I were your consultant, I'd say okay dream schools are good, but this is really a stretch, so why not stick another school you can actually get into? On the high end, I'd look at Tepper, on the lower end a school like Georgia Tech.

Good job!

Best,
JF

[Resp007]

HI Jon,

Thanks for your time in analysing my profile.
I do have some questions for which I might drop you a message.

Thanks for your help.

[Jon@Admissionado]

You got it,
Happy to help,
Best,
JF