Mr. MS From MSU

The big question here is whether your career accomplishments, most notably being part of the launch of the most successful mass-produced electric vehicle, can overcome the rest of your application. To wit, you’re 3.5 GPA is below the 3.7 class average; your 326 GRE is below the 330 average; Mumbai University is not a feeder to Stanford (Four of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), from Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras, each supplied one member of the MBA Class of 2020); your master’s degree from Michigan State is a plus in my book but Stanford’s 2020 class doesn’t have a single grad from MSU, and you are another Indian male engineer in the most over-represented position of the elite MBA applicant pool. All this leads me to think the odds are against you for an admit at Stanford where more than 93% of the candidates are routinely rejected. I also think you should apply to a wider range of target schools. You are putting way too many eggs in just three baskets. Why not schools like UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, and Darden?

Hello Mr. MS From MSU! Krista Nannery from mbaMission here.
I love packaging science! Sometimes when I open an Apple or Amazon product, I think to myself “WOW…this packaging is so cool!” I’m serious here. I love it, and I think AdComs will love it too. Especially if they know the brands you’ve done packaging for in the past. If the EV company is who I think it is, that is super exciting. I’ve seen candidates from this company do very well in this process. You don’t really give any clues on who you work for today but if it’s Fortune 500, that’s also quite impressive. Throw in a decent GPA and a decent GRE score, and this is all looking good.
However, there are a few things to be aware of…
Unfortunately, there are many Indian male engineers applying to b-school. Competition is tough!!! Your US work experience and very interesting resume will help you stand out, but the burden will be on you to make this experience easy for AdComs to understand.
Then, depending on how you slice it, it seems like maybe you have 2x the average number of years of work experience as candidates at most top programs. (4 years.) This also makes things tougher. Not impossible but tougher. Related to this, do some research into post-MBA salaries and consider those numbers vs. where you are today.
I know everyone’s dream is GSB but just imagine what that does to the odds. OF COURSE you must apply, but understand the numbers here. Booth might love your resume and the class size and acceptance rate paint a positive picture. Haas is such a small class size that sometimes the numbers just don’t work out so just be aware of that. You’re the type of candidate where I want you to have multiple options! Please add a few other programs…I agree with John on Darden, UCLA, Tepper, and Fuqua. Maybe Ross too? Great choices.
I hope that helps!
Krista