GMATBong and Others Please respond

[jlt]

GMATBong and others please take time to read this and let me know what you think about my chances in top 20….I am planning to apply for MBA programs this coming season. I request you guys to look at my profile below and provide me with your ideas.

 

Profile

Indian National. Permanent Resident of USA(Green Card)

Age : 30

Bachelors in Mech engineering . (University 3rd)

Masters in Mech engineering from Indian Institute of Science(IISc) Bangalore India with Outstanding performance grades in projects.

(Good academic profile right from high school)

 

8+ years of IT experience(Technical).

2+ years in India

6+ years in USA

GMAT Score : 700 (Q50, V34, AWA 5.5)

Nothing great in extra curricular and community activities unless I really make the small small things look big!!!.

 

Present:

I am a pure technical guy executing IT projects. Work for a small company where there is no growth professionally.

Reason for MBA:

I don’t want to be a tech person all my life. I see MBA as an option I have right now to give my self a good push to get into the management (not in present company).

Areas of Interest:

Technology Management/IT Strategy: For the obvious reason that my exp. fits this.

 

Health sector Mgmt: I love health care field. But still need to do more research to understand what this field is like exactly.

Questions:

• My GMAT Score is 700(50/34). Is this good enough? I know for Indians generally this score is considered NOT THE BEST. But I want to know how it will play if we plug in the permanent residency into the equation. Will this have any effect?
  
• What kind of impact my AGE(30) is going to have?
  
• Not much involvement in extra curricular / community programs. What will be the effect of this?

I am considering the Cornell’s 12 month program. Any ideas/thoughts about this program?

[GMATbong]

PR resident is consider for PR with another group of PR indians so your chances is higher there.

age 30 isn't that old really but your WE seems flat which is more troubling.

yea, you do need some extra curricular, do you have a hobby?

 

I am not sure if cornell's 12 month program will cut it. 2 years program will be a lot better in team of finding the right job for you. I see you might be a good fit for UCLA and USC. You might be able to get into higher rank school depends on what you have done over the last 8 years. Are you a technical lead in a blue chip companies such as Oracle or a no-name tech rent-a-geek consulting companies? This will determine your fate and your chances.

[jlt]

Thank you for the reply.

I do not work for a consulting firm. I work for a rural telecom company(2nd largest in its category!!! :-) ). Its a small org but I am the project/tech lead for the IT dept. In fact my company is shifting from old tech to new tech. I look after all that from technical side. But what bothers me is my designation. As The company is small we have very flat org structure. What kind of effect this will have on my applications? Right now I am thinking there will be definitely a place in the apps where I can explain this. (Correct me if I am wrong.... ) Also I would like to know if there is any negative effect on my APP with working for a rural - not for profit firm.

I do have some avg stuff to show in extra curricular during my college days. Mech Engg Association Pres. Student's committee member, Some public service. Health awareness drives in rural areas.

But I don't see much after I started living in USA. I worked for fund raising for cancer patients through my company. Volunteered for company events. Volunteered at a local hospital for few months(on and off). This is the most bothering part of my profile.

I would like to apply for schools on the east coast and mid-west because of some personal constraints.

I kind of narrowed it to Rochester, Sloan, Cornell, Tepper, Ross, Kelly, Perdue, Darden, Duke, UNC. (I still need to refine this) Pls let me know what you think about this list and my chances. Also let me know if u think I should add/drop any school to/from the list.

Thank you

[GMATbong]

Maybe you can tell me the size of the company? How big is the company? Rev? And how flat is the company?

 

By not for profit, is it a NGO or ...?

 

ok.. just to be clear, unless you are doing the extra curr since college day, don't put it in.

 

Yes. you should continue the volunteering part to show good faith.

 

I think you have a pretty good list and I would put Yale in since you used to work for non-profit org. And drop Rochester since not many ppl knows about the school.

[jlt]

Size of the company: 350 employees. Revenue: about 60 million annually. Flatness: In my dept 3 levels below me, my supervisor then CTO then CEO.

 

Not for profit : Cooperative Inc.

 

Extra curricular: As i mentioned earlier I am not that active in extra curricular/ community activities (not impressive to claim).

 

Yale: Thanks for the suggestion. From the statistics I found on the website it looked like they are not that much interested in eng graduates and also felt like they need higher verbal scores on GMAT. Will do research on this.

 

I greatly appreciate any more suggestions.

Thank you.

[GMATbong]

350 ppl is a medium-small size company so while it is not blue chip, it certainly isn't family run 30 ppl shop either. So if I were to perdict, you will probably ended up in the top-10 to 20 range. I would drop ross and try chicago since chicago is easier. Drop rocester as I have suggested. Either take Kelly or purdue, not both.

[jlt]

Thankyou GMATBong!