Request - Profile Evaluation

[mallya_suresh]

Hello and thank you Daniel !!
I'm from India.
I took my GMAT last October and scored 640. I'm planning to write it again and pull the score to around 700+.

I have a decent undergrad Score - 68%. I have a pretty good extra-curricular record like during my undergrad i was part of 8 member team who designed, fabricated and took part in SAE(Society of Automotive Engineers - USA) - South Africa Mini Baja competition wherein 75+ Universities from across the world participated and our team was one among the four from India. I have also led a team of 5, to provide polio vaccination to poor people in rural areas for 2 consecutive years.

Previously i worked in a project management role where I maintained strong relations with my clients & vendors. Presently I'm working as a Sales & Marketing Executive, where my role is to market the new products and create a niche market as well as generating sales. Currently I have 2yr 9 months of WE.

My goal - I want to pursue an MBA in general management or in marketing where in I can take my acquired skill set to the higher levels.

Does change in job affect my profile ?
Can i apply to top 10 US B-Schools if I score 700+ ? If not where should i put more effort into, to get accepted into the top 10.
Coming from an Indian pool of students I'd like to get a feel for where I stand with my application.

Thanks in Advance.

Regards
Suresh

[mbamission]

Hi Suresh,

Thanks for writing in and providing your details.

To answer your questions,

1) A change in job can be a positive (or negative!) thing for your profile. To make it a positive one, you can use your essays to clearly explain why you made the change in job. How did it flow from your previous job, and how does it feed into your post-MBA goal?

2) As you know, the Indian engineer cohort is heavily represented and is usually characterized with a high GMAT score, so to have a better chance at top-10 I would push for the 720+ range.

3) It's difficult for me to assess you against your peers without knowing more about your goals and which schools you're targeting, but I do see the potential for a strong differentiating factor in your extracurricular activities, so I encourage you to dedicate part of your application to discussing those experiences.

Good luck!
Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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