I wanted to clarify what applicant bucket I would fall under :
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Ethnicity: Indian origin
Citizenship : Canada - my family moved to Canada when I was in my teens and I attended University here.

Major : Electrical Engineering (University of Toronto)

Currently working as a Design Engineer for Microsoft (Seattle) with engineering design and project/process management responsibilities.

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More specifically, would I come under the famed Indian IT applicant pool? Your answer will help me decide how much voodoo dancing I need to do to differentiate myself.

Thanks

Hello,

At the highest level, yes, I do think that admissions officers would view you you as an "Indian / IT" applicant." However, they don't view applicants in strict buckets such that they immediately would throw you into a stack of applications marked "Indian / IT."

Your most direct competition will come the people who are most similar to you. In your case, that means anyone who is of Indian origin and works in IT. But don't trick yourself into thinking that your chances will be significantly harder just because of that. Focus on all of the things that we tell our applicants to do (including differentiating yourself from your most direct competition), and you will maximize your chances of success.

Scott

I disagree with you (person who posted the thread). Though I certainly agree on the fact that most of Indian who applies all over world are from IT back ground. So in the process of admission the no of application would be more then in any other category.
But now I disagree on the fact that some one from IT will be ignored just b'use he is from IT. I guess he might have to face more competition then others but do posses the a good chance.
I would like instructors to do more lights on this as this probably a concern area for me too. I have more then 7 yeas of work experience and yes in IT. Where I worked for fortune 100 companies. If I am targeting top 20 colleges in the world what should be my GMAT score assuming I fall in to Indian IT group. I have done Engineering in Electronics & telecomm. I also had one year experience in related field before I moved in to IT. I scored 74 % in my engineering exam.

I would look forward for your response.

hmboy17, I encourage you not to think of the question as, "What should my GMAT score be?" but rather, "How can I differentiate myself from other applicants with similar backgrounds?" This is true for anyone applying to a competitive business school, not just applicants with Indian/IT backgrounds.

You can differentiate yourself using all parts of your application. In your MBA admissions essays, do you have great leadership experiences to describe? In your interview, will you be able to passionately explain why a certain business school makes sense for you given your career goals? What are you passions outside of work? Where do you want to be in 20 years? These are all questions that admissions officers will ask when they review your application.

By the way, I completely agree with you that someone won't be ignored simply because he comes from a certain professional or ethnic background. But it's inevitable that every applicant's direct competition comes from those who are most similar to him, and the more people there are of a certain background, the tougher the odds are for each person in that applicant pool!

Scott