Profile evaluation, please!

[infinitysquare]

I'd appreciate it if you guys can evaluate my profile.

Age - 30
Gender - Male
Nationality - Indian

Education/GPA: PhD - 4.00; MS - 3.50; BS - 3.75
All 3 degrees in Chemical Engineering
BS is from a non-IIT but a very good school in India
MS & PhD are from really good US Universities.
I have lots of journal publications, presentations in global conferences and a pending patent.

GMAT - Taking it next month but I've been getting 730-770 consistently in the prep exams. So I'm fairly confident that my real GMAT score would be in the same range as above.

I'm targeting 2011

Work Experience - 3 years as a process engineer in an US semiconductor company. The plant I was working in was recently shut down. All 1000+ employees lost our jobs. I was on the shortlist for a managerial position just before the announcement of shut down but did not get the promotion. I did have couple of glowing annual performance reviews from my manager while I was employed. Also, one of the projects I was working on got really good press from the NY State Department of Energy Conservation. I was featured on a few articles on their website. Even my company headquarters profiled me and my project in one of our annual engineering reports. I've been unemployed for the past couple of months. I might have a job offer in couple of weeks from one of the 2 companies I recently interviewed with.

Extracurricular activities: I was actively involved with church organizations during both my MS & PhD programs in visiting and helping out old people in nursing homes and kids in orphanages and inner city schools (I haven't had the time to get involved after I started working full-time). Involved with student organizations during all 3 of my college degrees. Hiking, traveling, photography and writing are my passions. Played intramural sports - soccer, baseball, ultimate frisbee, flag football - during my college days. Captained couple of the teams.

Leadership:

-I have successfully mentored couple of interns and helped them with organizing and executing their internship work by developing a road-map and having frequent meetings, etc.
-I've led many projects which involved cross-functioning with other departments in the company that saved the plant $$$$$$s
-Being an avid hiker, I have lead many group hiking activities. This might sound cheesy, but during one of the trips I single-handedly saved a friend from drowning in a river while the other group members (almost everyone was a non-swimmer) were watching from the shore (Yes, I'm going to use that story in one of my essays!).
-I have tutored Math and Chemistry to Freshmen neighbors during my MS program and helped them drastically improve their grades from mid-term to final exams.
-I was also part of the leadership group of the organization that took students to the orphanages, inner city schools and nursing homes.

Objectives: I have always been innovative. My PhD work involved making an alternate fuel in a fast and cost-effective manner (pending patent) than the current market methods. In fact, from the knowledge obtained from my PhD work, I designed and developed a home-made reactor to produce the alternate fuel in one of my colleagues' garage. He uses the fuel produced in the reactor in his garage to heat his house and also uses it to run a diesel car. Coming to my objectives, I want to use my scientific knowledge and the knowledge gained from B-School and be involved with the booming energy sector (Work as a strategic consultant in a big firm). Also, sometime in the future I want to start my own alternate fuel company.

I know I fall into the most common demographic - Indian, Male, Engineer. But I would hope that me being a non-IT professional (Chemical Engineer) and having a PhD with journal publications and presentations should make me stand out a little bit.

Like most people, I'm targeting the best of the best schools: HBS, Kellogg, Wharton, Chicago, MIT, Tuck, INSEAD, ISB, LSB, etc.

What are my chances?

Many thanks in advance.

[mbamission]

Hi -

I'll try to address the different aspects of your candidacy.

Should you score between 730-770 on the GMAT, this is obviously quite strong. Your academic record is solid as well. And, the fact that you have published work/patents is certainly a differentiating factor. It sounds as though you have meaningful community service but it is a bit dated since you have been less involved over the past three years while working. Some of these experiences could serve as relevant material for your essays but the farther removed they are, the less I would suggest relying upon them. With that in mind, why is it that you are waiting to apply? (I believe you said you were targeted 2011.)

You are right in that you are coming from an over-represented applicant pool. Being on the non-IT side of things does help and your professional goals over the long-term seem to leverage both your academic, professional and innovative spirit. With that said, you should look to develop a balanced list of schools to which to apply.

As it relates to your list, I would think that HBS and Wharton would be stretches. Kellogg, Chicago, MIT, Tuck are also quite competitive. INSEAD, ISB, LSB tend to favor older applicants on the margin which could work to your favor. My suggestion would be to pick 1-2 schools from each of these buckets and also look to add a school like Duke, Darden, UNC to give you a bit more balance.

Lastly, you should also know that the schools will want to know what you have done with your time off. You will not be penalized for being laid off - in this economy that is the unfortunate reality for many; however, making sure you have addressed your employment gap and taken advantage of the time (i.e. community involvement) would be my suggestion.

Best,
Erin

Erin Schuhmacher
Senior Consultant
mbaMission
www.mbamission.com