Hi Scott,

I am Vikas from India and below is the brief of my Profile

Age : 28

Nationality : Indian

Degree : B.Tech in Electronics and Telecommunication
Score : 67%

Work Ex : 4.2 years in Information Technology . Have been Team Lead for 3 years now . Handled multiple responsibilities that displayes leadership skills . Current Company is Accenture

GMAT : 710

I am a Six Sigma Green Belt Certified Professional .

My interests lies in Finance and i am a NSE(National Stock Exchange) Capital Market Professional ,which is a 4 month course . Apart from that i have multiple certifications from NSE as well

Community Service
Have been involved in teaching underpriviledged children

Please evaluate my profile for top 25-30 B-Schools . I know there is a lot of scope for improvement in Extracurricular activities and i am taking steps for improving on that front

Also , Request you to please suggest how can i make my profile more competitive for top 25-30 programs

My last concern , which i feel is the biggest , is that i have an experience in IT which would be close to 6 years by the time i join B School next year, but my post MBA Goal is Entrepreneurship in Finance , which my NSE Certifications suggests . Apart from that i regularly invest in various Asset Instruments .
But , owing to my experience in IT, while applying should i focus on IT Consultancy or on Finance as my Post MBA Goals in Application Essays .I know i am making a dicey point , but that is something that a Top School Graduate suggested me . I am unsure and need your valuable suggestions . Since , i feel that it is absolutely not worth getting a reject from Schools , by stating that my MBA Goals is Finance .I hope you get what i am trying to say

Awaiting your valuable comments

Thanks!
Vikas

Hi Vikas,

I think you already know this, but you will face a challenge in terms of standing out vs. other Indian / IT applicants. It sounds like your extracurriculars are pretty light... I advise you to spend more time on this in the coming year to give yourself much more to talk about in your application than projects and certifications. This will be your best chance to stand out vs. a very competitive field.

I'm not sure I understand your question re: career goals, but I actually think that saying you want to go into IT consulting WON'T help you. Saying that you want to do that begs the question of why exactly you want an MBA. Yes, it's consulting, but it's not a very big career switch, so it's easy for an admissions officer to think that you may not really need an MBA, or that you don't really understand why you would need one.

Looking at U.S. schools, I think you will have a hard time getting into top-ten programs simply because your profile is so common. Schools along the lines of Rochester (Simon), Texas (McCombs) and Maryland (Smith) may be your best bet.

Good luck!
Scott