Profile Evaluation

[sang]

3.0-3.5 GPA, Engineering - state school, ABET, Female, 23-25 years old.
2 years of Work experience at a Fortune 50 company. Promoted once, from a Project Manager role (responsibilities are managing cross functional teams to roll out a major project to the company) to a elevated role to manage 2 projects within a cross functional groups. I facilitate group discussions, negotiate team issues, and am the primary contact for several teams. 1st project rolls out in 3 weeks, project cost is approximately $50 million.

Work Experience: I worked 3 jobs at one time in retail, restaurant, and recruitment to support myself in college. I also had one 9 month co-op programming in a manufacturing plant. Also worked 3 month internship at a Fortune 500 defense company.

Building a consulting firm with 4 colleagues to bring engineering principles to small business. Consulting firm has been in existence for 8 months, currently have one contract that will be finished next month.

Not sure what extracurricular activities I should add -- because of the college workload and working to support myself, I don't have meaningful extracurricular activities.

I used to be a classical violinist for 12 years (through the first year of college) and have martial arts experience through high school.

My goal is a 670 GMAT. Will this profile be competitive with these schools? What do I need to work on before round 1 admissions for 2011 year?

1) Carnegie Mellon
2) University of Texas - Austin
3) Duke University

[mbamission]

Hi and thanks for your inquiry. With your profile I think all three are reasonable choices, although Tepper and Duke are slightly more of a stretch. You have a lot of strengths to your profile - promotion despite not working very long, leadership and management of diverse teams, solid teamwork experience (particularly appealing at Duke), and entrepreneurial drive with some results pending. You also have proven via your major and work experience that you have a good ability to handle quantitative material.

In terms of extracurriculars, remember that the consulting company you co-founded can be considered something you're committed to outside of work. But I do think that the lack of other extracurriculars could pose a bit of a challenge - think about whether there are any personal accomplishments that you could write about that might also showcase a non-work side of yourself (e.g. running a marathon, supporting a family member, etc.)

I do think you're a good candidate, but the lack of other extracurriculars will mean you'll have to find other ways in your essays to demonstrate that you're multi-faceted. But don't pick up a community activity simply to put it on your resume - find something that you really can be passionate about. Could you resurrect your love for violin by donating your teaching services to needy kids, for example. For all 3 schools, the 670 GMAT you're targeting is slightly below their mean, so if you can get that even slightly higher that element disappears as a weakness.


Really my bottom line is that you'll be a good candidate at all of them, but really make sure your essays are stellar and varied.

Best,

Jessica Shklar
MBAmission