Evaluation of My Profile & Strategy - Pls advise some one

[apurvjohari]

Education
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I am a mechanical engineer from Top Indian College. 79%, tried for a local conversion to GPA which comes to 3.9 or 4 out of 4.

High school (grade XII) and Grade X - both the scores are extremely high 85%.

Professional Life:
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Unlike the rest of the lot of prospective MBAs from India I am NOT from the IT Industry. My total work- ex by Fall 2008, when I intend to enter the MBA will be 3 years.
I work for top Engineering and Construction firm in India,L&T Ltd.(only a handful such firms exist worldwide).

My career path has been one of the most fast paced and vivid. I joined as a Graduate Engineer Trainee, after six-months of excellent performance and a very competitive process I was made a Management Trainee, the best of the best in my workplace. During the trainee period of 1 year I handled various job roles, such as, estimation, execution and coordination of IT services of dept.

After the trainee period, Once again I was elevated as a part of Management Leadership Program which recognised the top talent in the company. Now I worked as a Deputy Project Manager for a comparatively smaller project in India.

Next was independent charge for estimation and Marketing of larger projects including a project in Greece. Also, worked on projects of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman and Singapore alongwith Indian Projects.

Now I am Project Manager for large project of an Oil Company..Fastest career track for anyone in my division.

Other Educations worth mentioning:
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Realising that I will be required to prove my business skills because of my technical degree I got the following:
1. Certificate on Intellectual Property Rights from WIPO, Geneva
2. Certification in Financial markets from the Largest stock exchange in India
3. Certified Practioner in Trade & Project Finance from Indian Institute of banking and finance

Moreover, I have atleat 25 different certificates potraying my abilities thru college, school and professional life.

GMAT:
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This is the weakest link. I scored just 640 (Q 48, V 29) and AWA of 5.5. in July 2007.
Yet to take TOEFL.

Community:
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-worked with national innovation foundation & IIM-A in college.
-started and ran successfully the daymeal and care program for children in college time.
-in recent job year involved with NGO..CRY
-taught in the school and helped in adoption of the school by my firm's CSR cell.
-Volunteer and Life Member for the Indian Redcross- Bombay cell. Organised Blood donation camps and awareness camps.

Professional Memberships:
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Member of the following and also in some steering committees:

- Institution of Engineers (India)
- Bombay Management Association
- Indian Institution of Plant Engineers
- Institute of Mathematical Statistics

In college days, an active student member of a number associations.

-Awarded many prizes for papers published at leading Institutions.
-In college Cricket team
-Dept Football team captain in office
-Filed for patent of my design



MY EVALUATION & STRATEGY:
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Cant get into top 10-15 because of low gmat and just 3 yrs of work ex. I think of applying to Michigan state, Ohio State, Penn state, purdue and others of similar ranking in the first round.

Question:
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what are my chances of getting in the above colleges such as michigan state?

Then retake the GMAT in November and as profile making would have already been done will apply to 3-4 out of top 10 in second round.

[GMATbong]

I think you should retake GMAT again. Your College is arlight but with so so GMAT and non IIT University, you will have problem if you go to elite schools.

The schools you listed are not elite and you stand a good chance to get in. However, going to those school will not provide the career path you wanted later so i will think twice before applying there.

if I were you, I will retake GMAT, change my job and work a year or two more before applying for a top 10 schools.

[apurvjohari]

Thanks GMATbong for your reply.

I had prepared hard and was even getting 700+ scores in GMAT prep.But somehow ended up with 640. Now I am not in a mood to take up GMAT immediately so I thought of applying to schools such as Ohio state and then retake GMAT and apply in some top schools in 2nd deadline. I want to apply to these non- elite schools to confirm a seat in case other things go wrong.

You have advised me to change the job. why? I have progressed by leaps and bounds here.
Also you have asked me to take some more experiece, is 3 yrs of work-ex too less.

Thanks

Apurv

[GMATbong]

By changing jobs, i mean try to change it to other non tech non engineering type job... such as management consulting, banking, PE etc etc....

3 years is not that much exp. frankly and at 640 GMAT, you should try to fix one thing before jumping into others.