Profile Evaluation

[arpiray]

I am 24yr old female from India with the following scores
GMAT : 680(33V,49Q)
GPA : 76% (We did not have GPA system in my college)
I have been working with world's top IT/consulting company for the past 2 years.
I can get good recommendation letters from my job, I have also secured 4/5 rating for my performance and a promotion.
I have authored technical paper on Networking, which was published in ACM's digital library (Association for Computing Machinery, which is the the world's largest educational and scientific computing society)
Link : http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1 ... N=16430795

I have won national level painting competitions (and many more extra curricular activities)

I am the President of Rotaract Club Of New Bombay(RID : 3140) for the current year.
All Rotaract efforts begin at the local, grassroots level, with members addressing their communities’ physical and social needs while promoting international understanding and peace through a framework of friendship and service.
I have a lot of leadership and management to be shown through my rotaract work. Also I can get a recommendation letter from my Rotary President.

Can you please suggest the list of colleges I should target.What is the best time to apply to these colleges so that I can get a scholarship or some financial aid and also increase my chances to get through? I want to do my MBA as soon as possible. I do not intend to take my GMAT again.
Thanks in advance!

[mbamission]

Hi Arpiray,

Thanks for writing in. It's really tough for me to suggest schools without knowing what your reasons for seeking an MBA and your post-MBA goals. As you likely know, the Indian IT sector is overrepresented in the MBA pool, so you'll be heavily evaluated on your differentiation points. You seem to have several things you can point to on that front -- your extracurricular leadership and painting expertise would certainly help you stand out from the crowd.

The best time to apply as soon as you can submit your best application -- R1 is certainly preferable, especially if you're looking at some "reach" schools.

Some general advice on schools you may want to research include NYU and Cornell (near-reach). Your scholarship chances will likely go up if you look at schools such as Indiana or Georgia Tech, where your GMAT score makes you more competitive.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[arpiray]

Hi,

I am planning to pursue a consultant management profile post MBA.
Can you please let me know my chances of getting though the following schools:

1. ISB
2. NUS
3. Nanyang
4. Cornell
5. Texas - McCombs
6. Olin

I am planning to apply during R1

Also, although I do not have a high GMAT score(I have mentioned it above in my 1st post), I do have leadership work to showcase and lot of social service experience through Rotaract. Can you suggest which top 20 US schools give greater preference to a profile like mine?
How competetive do you think is my profile?

[mbamission]

Hi again,

Thanks for the follow-up. I think for the U.S. schools you picked a good array -- as Cornell is probably a near-reach, McCombs is competitive and Olin should be very-competitive for your profile. Unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with the three international programs you listed to comment on your competitiveness in light of this new information. Your social service work should definitely be noted in your essay as it is a big differentiator and shows the non-technical side of your interests -- though I don' think you can pinpoint that one school is going to take a higher interest in it than others.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (14 individual school titles)

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[arpiray]

Thank you for the quick response.
I have one more question

How good are the technical colleges for MBA(consulting management)
1. USC
2. Georgia tech

By the US news ranking - they are ranked within top 30
Also , what are my chance of getting through.

I am basically interested in good placements after my MBA. Do these colleges have promising placement history that I can actually rely on?

[mbamission]

Hi again,

As you note both programs have top-30 rankings from US News -- USC's tends to have a stronger reputation than Georgia Tech in my opinion, but there's also a huge geographic component there, as most candidates would have a preference for the West Coast of the U.S. or the Southeast -- it's rare a candidate would look at both schools with equal weighting. Based on our previous exchange I would think you should be competitive at those two schools.

Good luck!

Dan Richards
daniel@mbamission.com