Profile Evaluation - Please

[madhu01]

Hello -

I would greatly appreciate your help if you could evaluate my profile.

I am looking at applying for 2014 Winter for Booth & Kellogg Evening program.

-- GMAT: 650 (77 %ile), with Q38 (44 %ile) and V41 (93 %ile). Still waiting to get the AWA & IR scores. I guess AWA should be at least 5.

-- Education: I have a Master's in Computer science from a 2nd tier US public University with a GPA of 3.81 . I was awarded 'Outstanding graduate student' during my final semester. My undergrad is from a university in India with a Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science & Engineering with converted GPA of 3.8

-- Work Experience: I have 10 years of experience working in IT in different industries (advertising, financial & software product development) as a software/systems engineer & team lead. I am in a team lead role (not a manager) for the past 3 years

-- Extracurricular & volunteer activities:
1. Involved with the community outreach volunteer group at my previous employer and participated in different volunteer activities like rebuilding together, meals on wheels etc.
2. Part of an organization & represented the state chapter to meet with us senator & congressman's offices to talk about the concerned issues, asking for their support
3. State champion in Karate during middle school (this is so long back not sure if I can still state this)
4. Travel to other countries (nepal, italy)
5. Served on a board for a non-profit cultural organization for 3 years as director, secretary & treasurer. Played a leadership role in organizing an event attended by about 700-800 people all the 3 years.

-- Goals: Still working on refining them. At a high level, be in the technology sector and move to a more of business role similar to product manager to create high quality innovative products. Long term want to be in a senior leadership role at technology company or in a company which can leverage technology to its benefit

Question:
-- My GMAT score is below the posted average for both the schools for evening program. Is this going to hurt my application especially the Quant score. Can my GPA's help to alleviate the low GMAT score?

-- I can certainly score well on quant & increase GMAT score with a retake but then I will have to wait to apply until the next semester. Should I retake the GMAT.

-- How does my work experience look, I am afraid if it looks like I am stagnant in my field.

Thanks,
Madhu.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi and thanks for posting...

Your GMAT score as you described, is on the lower end for the schools you are interested in, and the quant score in particular could act as a red flag, particularly as b-school is quantitative in nature and the GMAT is meant to be a predictor of your success during the program. Depending on how you are able to discuss your experiences and traits, it could be challenging to gain admission to that caliber of program with the low quant score. You may want to consider a re-take if you feel you'd be capable of increasing that. Beyond the GMAT, the biggest challenge will be creating compelling essays that showcase what all you've gained and learned in your 10 years of experience (which is a lot higher than average, so you want to be clear in your goals and your rationale for why you need the MBA at this point in your career), and how your goals and career plan make sense related to this degree. I would say overall it's not impossible but an uphill battle. ;) Anything you can do to strengthen your application in terms of essays and GMAT will help.

Good luck to you on the process!