Hello,
I would like a profile evaluation on my profile. I am confused with the facts that I see on the internet, on the college website, etc.

I am a - 27yr old Indian male.
- I work for a leading Analog/Mixed signal Semi-conductor company as Failure Analyst. Presently I have 2 and a 1/2 years work experience. I will have 3and a 1/2 years experience when I go to school. I have been promoted once during the past 2+ years. My job responsibilities involve primarily managing projects and sometimes managing a team of 4 to 5 for the implementation of corrective action if an when issued.
- I have a Masters in Electrical Engineering from University of Houston (GPA 3.6). My undergraduate (Bachelors) degree was from Anna University, Chennai, India. My bachelors degree was in Electronics and Communication (GPA 7/10).
- My GMAT score is 700 (90 percentile). Verbal 35 (75 percentile). Quants (88 percentile). I am a little worried about my verbal score being low.
- I have always been involved in extracurricular activities. I represented my college (Bachelors) in volleyball and Cricket. During my masters was a part of the executive committe of the student organisation. I have also been involved in Public Service from my very young age. In India, I was a part of a non-profit organisation, through which I was helping the organisation conduct medical camps for the poor, setting up a free school for the poor etc. Next week I will be part of a team that rises money for breast cancer.
- My letters of recommendations will be from My Director, a Director in Design at the company I work for. A couple of recommendations from Alumini (from Wharton and Berkeley). And one recommendation from CEO of a chain of resorts (this is a leading chain of resorts in India).

The above is my profile and below is some information that I collected through the internet

University(Marketing & Finance) GMAT Chance Admited Applicants range Average Median

Kellog School of Business - 700-750 50%
Warton - University of Penn (1) 660-760 80%
Duke (2) 640-750 80%
Standord 730
Columbia (1) 660-760 80%
U Michigan 650-750 80% 706
U Cal 670-760 80% 714
U Texas (2) 681
U Chicago 710
NYU 660-760 80% 708
Darthmouth Univ 713
UCLA 660-760 80% 711
Yale 670-760 80% 718
Cornell 690
Univ.Virginia (2) 650-740 80% 693 700


Now here are my questions...
1) Is my verbal score too low? Does it warrent me to take the GMAT again?
2) I want to get into marketing. So I am changing fields here. Does that affect my chances getting into a top school?
3) From the universities above, which do you think is 'safe' , 'competitive' and 'stretch'? Facts are mis-leading. I know on the basis of my GMAT score, I will be competitive in every school above, except Stanford. But since profile plays an important role, I am little confused about choosing the schools. Also add any schools that you think I could be shooting for. Ideally I would like to get into Wharton/Columbia/Hass/Chicago. What are my chances?


Thanks in advance for your comments.

Could someone please address my concerns? The tabular column with the GMAT scores average, etc got messed up with the formatting. Sorry about that.

Thanks.

It's hard to give you much of a response because you've provided a rather verbose and unfocused post.

There are boatloads of Indian male engineers applying - and you're one of them. As such, you can knock out Stanford, Wharton or Harvard. I don't think you have a chance at any of the three.

Stretch schools are in the Chicago/Columbia/Kellogg/Sloan/Tuck range. These are schools where you'll need a lot of luck.

Sweet spot schools are in the Duke/Darden/Michigan/Haas/UCLA/NYU/Cornell/Yale range. Put in a strong application, and you should be competitive.

Safeties are schools like Texas, CMU, Georgetown, UNC, USC, etc.

As for which schools you should apply to, this is where you need to do your own research rather than having someone dictate it for you. Go through their websites. Attend MBA admissions events in your area. Talk to fellow applicants at these events. Get in touch with current students or alums.

As for your GMAT, it's fine. Do not obsess over academics - as an Indian engineer, it's the last thing you need to be fretting about (because with a 700 if you retake it and your score isn't 40+ points higher, it can hurt in some respects with adcoms who may have strong preconceptions of Indian engineers as highly academically focused at the expense of "life" and "real world" skills - don't give them that opportunity to judge you in that way).

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

Alex's analyses are pretty straightforward and blunt. That's not a bad quality. I actually like that. However, he seems to think that no one is good enough to get into HBS, Wharton, and certainly Stanford. I've never read a reply where he says an applicant has a decent (or any) chance at Stanford. But then again, it's not surprising that Alex is so pessimistic. Afterall, he does make a living by getting extremely nervous MBA applicants to sign up for his services.

The reason why you won't hear me saying that folks have a decent shot at HBS, Stanford or Wharton on these boards is because the kinds of people who are competitive for these schools don't typically post on these forums. Take a look at the demographic of folks on these boards - there are a lot of Indian engineers and these folks simply don't have a good track record of getting into these schools, particularly at HBS and Stanford - they're not what these schools are looking for.

I've written a more extensive explanation of the kinds of people who get into HBS, Stanford and Wharton, but here's the shorthand version -- the prototype are those who:

- graduated from exclusive universities (Ivy, Stanford/MIT, Oxbridge, etc.)
- worked in industries and firms that are hard to get into straight out of college (or where you had to go to a top school to be even recruited) - namely investment banking (and disproportionately top tier banks or what's left of them including the exclusive boutiques), consulting (McKinsey/Bain/BCG, not Big-4), private equity/hedge funds, GE, Google.
- are young; mostly in their mid-20s, or those who have 2-5 years experience

In other words, kids who have blue chip resumes. Along with a healthy contingent of military officers, they make up a disproportionate part of the class. And even within these groups, quite a number don't get into these three either. So if it's hard for these people, it's only that much harder for everyone else - the engineers and other middle-of-the-road corporate folks out there (Big-4, industry, etc.). And when you include the "non blue-chip" folks at these schools, a good number have had some notable to exceptional non-academic achievements. Are there "average joes" with nothing particularly notable or remarkable about them at these schools? Absolutely. But they are *the fortunate*. Way more folks like them got rejected than got in - and the few who got in had a combination of exceptionally executed applications, and luck (the subjectivity of the adcom's opinions that weighed in their favor).

If there were more McKinsey BAs or Goldman analysts posting on these forums, then it wouldn't seem like "no one" has a chance at these schools. The fact is, the forums aren't a good indicator of the full diversity of the applicant pool - if that were the case, you'd think that the majority of applicants are Indian -- and that there are no Chinese, no Morgan Stanley bankers, few McKinsey/Bain/BCG consultants, next to no military officers and so forth.

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