Mr. Tech Evangelist

Sad to say, this just isn’t going to happen. You are too old. Your GPA and GMAT are too low. And it looks to me that you have been at just one company for a very long time in a narrow role. I agree with mbaMission that you need to just forget Duke, MIT and Stanford and look at schools ranked outside the top 25.

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. Sorry to offer more rain on your parade but as John said, this ain’t going to happen. You really will struggle to offer any stand out qualities. Your acads are on lower than average side and your work experience as a solution architect is nothing to write home about. You say you are a “Tech Evangelist who works day in day out on technologies making a difference to every human being: from AI to virtual currencies” but I don’t see any evidence of this in your profile. Is this your start up? And at what stage is that start up? And why would you consider a full time MBA when you are starting up in your mid 30″s. Its not making sense. Unless you can explain your story so that it is believable and then impressive, you should seriously reconsider a full time MBA plan. Hate to be the messenger of bad news, but am hoping you take this feedback objectively. Good luck.

Hi Mr. Tech Evangelist,

You’ve got some tough hurdles here – the first is that you’re in a very well represented group of Indian engineering types without much business experience so far, and the second is that, at 36, you’re on the older side for 2 year MBA programs. I’m also not sure what your stated goals are here – are you planning to launch a startup or do you already have something going? What are you using the business acumen for? What industry is it in?

Further, although your GMAT score of 690 appears “within range” for Fuqua, when you compare it to your likely competition, and consider the weaknesses in your profile, it’s probably not going to help you enough. Unfortunately, Duke looks like a stretch to me (and HBS/MIT even bigger stretches). I think you will likely have to look deeper in the rankings or get creative with your options (part time somehow? online?) to find success, so I’d expand your list for sure. Good luck!!

Mr. Tech Evangelist – Susan Cera, Director of MBA Admissions, here. Having spent 10 years with Fuqua admissions committee and over 5 specifically evaluating candidates from India, I am uniquely qualified to assess your odds. I really like the your background as a tech evangelist who is likely at the cutting edge of innovation. I’m curious as to what your start-up does and what might happen with it were you to go to a 2 year full-time program. Honestly, your GPA and GMAT will not stand out in the super competitive pool of Indian tech candidates. That said, with 10+ years of work experience, you could be a very interesting candidate for Fuqua’s GEMBA program. You also list Stanford and MIT. Were you considering Stanford MSx and MIT Sloan Fellows. These would likely be a better fit given your longer work experience. All the best!