Profile Evaluation - GMAT 720 (6 AWA)

[Mariya.Nikiforova]

Hello - please evaluate my profile for admission into the following schools:

1. Columbia
2. Wharton
3. Stanford

Profile Specifics
GMAT: 720 (47M/42V), 6.0 AWA
Age: 26
Gender: F
Nationality: Ukrainian (American citizen for 15 years)
Undergrad: City University of New York
Concentration: Finance Major, Mathematics Minor
GPA: 3.7

College ECs: Mixed Martial Arts Club, President of Semper Fidelis Society. Participated in training to become a Marine Corps Officer in Junior/Senior years of school, with 8 weeks of training completed in Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, VA. I did not continue with training due to a severe hip fracture, but I was extended an invitation to return by the Colonel of the school. Worked 2 jobs throughout the 4 years I was in college.

Employment (3.5 yrs upon matriculation): Search Engine Specialist and Project Manager with an online marketing start-up. I have led projects with budgets from $250,000 to $1,000,000+ comprising of 2-4 team members. Our firm specializes in online lead generation and internet marketing consulting to help companies transition into this new medium. I am able to speak about specific experiences where my projects resulted in improved performance for the client and instances where I was able to enhance cost efficiency of the company’s operations.

Post-College ECs: Habitat for Humanity volunteer crew leader (2.5 years) - I do this every weekend and even own my own power tools at this point (I actually lead crews, not just pretend like I know what a chop saw is for); Habitat Young Professionals Marketing and Communications Chair, started January 2010 (aside from heading event marketing sub-committees, I also created the website for our organization along with a neat social networking feature, which helped establish our paid subscription membership base). Other ECs that I used to do: YMCA Adult Basic Literacy tutor in Math (1.5 yrs); completed 3 half marathons, but did not win awards. Launched own non-profit website, which was well received by the online community, but ultimately did not succeed.

Goal: work for a large technology or search engine company (Microsoft, Google, IBM), in order to ultimately go into e-commerce type consulting and/or management (perhaps even start my own company). I actually interviewed with Google this year - my experience was in line with what they were looking for, but ultimately they decided to go with a candidate with an MBA.


Recommendations:
1. CEO of my company
2. Director of Operations of my company
3. Executive Chair of Habitat Young Professionals


Concerns:
1. Super-weird industry - no big brand power
2. Only 3 years of experience so far
3. Young

Thank you for your help, and I appreciate your insight.

M.

[mbamission]

Hi Mariya,

Thanks for sharing those details. You certainly have some great experiences to talk about in your essays -- from your military training to your project management and Habitat work.

I think you will be a competitive applicant at those schools, with the caveat that those are three of the top schools and there are many competitive applicants in the pool.

I don't think the world of SEO and e-commerce is all that "weird" in the MBA world these days -- Stanford has a long tradition of working with Silicon Valley, and Google and Microsoft are now major MBA employers.

Age 26 and three years experience is certainly within range of most class profiles, and is unlikely to be a real issue with your application.

Best of luck!
Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[Mariya.Nikiforova]

Thank you Daniel - this gives me a little confidence!

Best,
M.