Hi Alex
Can you please review my profile and advice me on my plans for MBA program? I am looking for admission in 2009 and in one of the top 20 colleges worldwide. I do not have any location preference and any good school will do. I am looking for a career in finance.
My details are

GPA:-
I did my graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering from one of the top colleges in India. My overall percentage was 77. My initial results in the college were not great but I worked on that and ultimately passed with distinction. Distinction in our college simply means overall percentage should be greater than or equal to 75 with no retake on any of the papers. We do not have a GPA system but I think it should be somewhere around 3.4 to 3.5. I was within top 15 in a class of 70 people.

GMAT:-
My GMAT result was a far cry from what I had expected. I was expecting somewhere around 720 but stopped at 680 (Q48 88 Percentile V36 80 Percentile AWA 6)). I am not sure whether I should go in for a retake as I have time before I start my application process (may be one more month of preparation and then give it a second shot).

Career:-
I have worked in two companies with a total experience of 6 years (it will be 7 years by the time I join a college in 2009 - if ever I be able to join :-D).
I have worked 3 years in CSC (a US based IT services MNC) – going on to become a module lead. I worked in a health insurance software package – development and maintenance. I was in charge of 4-5 people in that company.
I switched to Franklin Templeton Investments after that wherein I am still working. In fact, it was here where I started thinking about MBA seriously. Being an Investment Management company, Franklin devotes more time in improving the functional knowledge of the employees. And right now, I am fascinated by this whole investment management thing. I came across guys – from security analysts to portfolio managers and all of them said that the best possible way to switch career is to go for an MBA from some reputed college. Right now I am working in a portfolio management software package. I work in the position of a technical lead managing 4 people in my team. And I am one of the youngest team leads of the company.

Extracurricular Involvements:-
I have been involved with child education from my first company. I worked as an educational instructor for an NGO for orphan children. I have worked with children who have been abandoned by their parents or who have gone through serious traumatic experience in their life.
In addition to that, I love playing table tennis and have gone on to play finals and semifinals in many tournaments – though I have never won one.

Awards, patents, publications, etc...
My accomplishments in CSC include some “star of the month” awards and an “employee of the quarter” award. The “employee of the quarter” award was important since it is given to only 2-3 people in the whole organization of 2000 employees every quarter. I have completed a certification from American Healthcare Management Association (AHM) under which I am a certified Professional from AHM (the certification is called PAHM).
While in Franklin Templeton, I have cleared an exam on Derivatives from NSE (that is similar to SEC in USA). I have also undergone many trainings on various other fields in investment managements like Hedge Funds Managements, Capital Markets Analysis, Credit Default Swap etc.

Recommendations:-
I do not know what a strong recommendation is. However, I have talked to my manager and he agreed to help me on that. I have also talked to my group leader and he has also promised to help me. My group leader was economics professor in a USA college before he joined Franklin. I have also talked to my previous group leader and he is also ready to help me. However, he has left our team now and is leading the Risk Analysis team in Franklin. Do you think recommendation from these three guys will be sufficient (or so as to say – would be strong enough recommendations for the colleges)?

I believe that is all that I can remember of me as of now. The idea of writing about my own accomplishments beats me and I think that would be my first of the major problems while applying for a MBA to a graduate school. However, I would like to get a frank evaluation of my profile as to where I stand. I know there are a whole people out there who are much smarter than me. And my profile is so typical of regular IT guy in India that I will be hard pressed to prove myself unique. But I would like to aim for some good schools like Tuck, Fuqua, LBS, INSEAD, IMD or HAAS (I was even thinking of Wharton/HBS/MIT but my GMAT score brought me back to ground). Can you please tell me what are my chances to get into any of these schools mentioned?

I have read through many of the GMAT forums and found that people usually set targets based on the college of different degrees of repute. The highest (rather the toughest) gets the names like "dream" (or something like that) while the next level gets the name "reach" and the last level safe. I have prepared a table like that for myself about my target colleges. Can you tell me whether I am aiming too high with my current profile or is it fine?

Dream:- MIT, LBS, CHICAGO GSB, NEW YORK STERN, INSEAD
Reach:- DARTMOUTH, IMD, YALE, CMU, HAAS, FUQUA
Safe:- UCLA, EMORY, CORNELL, HEC PARIS, KELLEY

If you would want to add some other colleges to this list or delete some, please do that. I really have no idea at this point in time about the possible colleges that I will apply ultimately.

Thanks
Sandeep

It's hard for me to say anything, because you're taking the "empty vessel" approach of "fill me up with opinions, preferences, and personal priorities that I don't have myself".

You need to figure out for yourself what you want. Specific things - goals, where you prefer to live, where you prefer to work, what kinds of jobs you prefer to be in, and so forth. Without a sense of priorities, no one can help you -- you are just an empty vessel looking for someone else to tell them what to do -- and that's worker bee material.

You've listed a huge list of schools that you need to narrow down based on personal fit -- that is something I can't help you with. The "I'll go wherever the wind takes me" mentality may work for migrant workers, but not for future business professionals looking to lead organizations. You sound like you're desperate to get in anywhere that will take you, without regards to your own priorities or preferences -- that kind of mentality is hard to provide advice for, and it's that mentality you need to get rid of first -- if you don't have any personal preferences, biases, or opinions yourself about where you want to be and why, then get some (i.e. do more research) -- otherwise it's like talking to an empty vessel.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com