Profile evaluation

[amit.sharma]

Hi,

I just took the GMAT on the 11th July and scored a 720 (Q 50, V37) 94%.

I am Indian, Male. will be 26 at matriculation next year
I graduated from Purdue University, West Lafayette in electrical engineering with a GPA of 3.62 in 2007
At purdue I was involved in a cancer research project for over an year. I also interned with Motorola in chicago over the summer before my senior year.

Upon graduation I worked with Lutron Electronics in PA for 6 months as a "project electrical engineer" where I designed and executed automated testing equipment for several lutron products. At Lutron I was also involved in outsourcing some programming projects to vendors in India and Mexico.

While I was enjoying my work at Lutron, An opportunity came my way to take up a big project in my family business (real estate development in India), my entrepreneurial instincts took over and I decided to move back to India and join the family business. For the first 2.5 years I was responsible for leasing out commercial space in our shopping mall to national and international retail brands. I was managing a team of 3 sales executives for the project and was supervised by the leasing division vice president.

For the past 1.5 years I have been managing my own residential construction projects in Delhi which are funded by our investors. I interact with my team of vendors, engineers, architects, contractors, investors and government authorities as required to ensure smooth functioning of the project.

Also for the past three years I have been an active participant and volunteer for the Art of Living foundation and have organized cleaning drives, rallies to promote bicycle riding against global warming, given intro talks about the foundation and participated in advance courses. I am also looking to become a teacher for the organization in the next year so that I can further take courses to teach people about meditation/ yoga/ community service

My objective for an MBA is to enhance my management skills, interact and network with peers and professionals from the finance sector to understand funding sources for my projects, convert running business into a self-sustainable model and provide affordable housing through large-scale projects in the next five years starting from Gurgaon/ Delhi.

It would be great if someone could suggest which schools I should be targeting given my profile and interests.

[mbamission]

Hi Amit,

Thanks for writing in. I see a really nice mix of academic and professional achievements in your background, with some solid community involvement as well. I think your post-MBA goals need a bit more definition and linkage to your current experience -- how are you going to take what you've learned already and apply it to your future career plans?

If you can do that well I think you would be competitive at a mix of top-15 schools, perhaps select 1 or 2 from the top-10 to stretch yourself.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[amit.sharma]

Hi Daniel,

I really appreciate you taking the time out to reply to my post. You correctly mentioned that my goals need more definition and I need to work on them. It would be great if you can point me in the right direction..

Currently the development that I am doing is of high end residences. The Residence that I develop are valued around USD 3 mill or more, depending on location etc. These sort of projects are unique and require that I deal with vendors, architects, designers, contractors but only 1 buyer. The accounting is minimized also and so are the marketing expenses. However, When I will enter the large scale apartment projects (more than 300 apartments) then there is a lot more to the finance, marketing, management, planning. This is the skill set that I am looking to enhance/ acquire through my MBA/ interaction with peers/ professionals.

Also, I have read that columbia, stern and wharton have a real estate focus. Kindly suggest how I can target these schools.

Thanks a lot.

[mbamission]

Hi Amit,

Check out our blog post on learning more about your target programs. This should point you in the right direction:

http://www.mbamission.com/blog/2011/05/ ... imately-2/

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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

Visit the mbaMission Blog

Follow mbaMission on Twitter