Please evaluate

[vek.chaudhary]

Hi,

I gave GMAT last weekend and would like to know what are my chances at top 20 schools in US:

Here is my brief background:
- GMAT: 690 (Quant 49; Verbal 35)
- AWA: 5.5
- 7 years of experience
- HS 80%; SS: 65%
- Indian IT male; Age: 30 yrs

Professional Background
- Working as Assistant Manager in a IT consulting company
- Plenty to show for as accomplishments and awards
- 4 promotions in 7 years
- Started Hyperion Financial Management practice in my company. First to get certified and then helped in setting up the team and practice.
- Nominated and won Computer World award as a Project lead Category: "Innovation and Promise in business intelligence"
- As an IT consultant provided break through solutions to clients and helped my company won multi-million dollar deals
- Had been doing pre-sales and sales apart from IT consulting for the last 3 years
- Good International exposure: worked at India, Singapore, Australia and US. Proven customer satisfaction in all the three countries. Was instrumental in growing all the three accounts
- Organized different events and outings in my company

Have taken up challenging roles whom others wouldn't dare touch and have excelled in all such roles. Can get good recommendations

Academic Background:

- GPA 3.1/5
- BE (Electronics and Comm)
- School cricket team captain
- Represented school in Badminton and 4*100 relay at Regional Level
- College secretary of ECSA and helped organized technical conference
- Avid Quiz buff, represented college quiz team in the youth festival

The reason why I am looking to do MBA is now I am at a position in my company where I need more managerial tools and skills to excel further and stay ahead of game. I am not looking to change my domain.

I am taking the GMAT again and hoping to get into 700s (close to my avg practice score of 710). Please let me know what are my chances of getting into top 20 schools.

Thanks
Vivek

[mbamission]

Hi Vivek,

Thanks for writing in. It seems that your work experience shows many examples of accomplishments and evidence of upward trajectory. Since you fall into the "male Indian IT" category, you'll need to draw on these examples of differentiation to separate you from your competitors in the application pool. I'd be very curious to learn more about the roles you took on that others wouldn't touch.

You also seem to have a good grasp on the "Why MBA?" question. At age 30 you're going to be among the older candidates, check out our post on applying as an older candidate.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... am-too-old

Assuming you get that 710, I think you could be competitive in the top-15-top-20 range.

Good luck!
Daniel Richards
daniel@mbamission.com