[sssiva03]

Originally Posted by absolutearoma

Don't pay any attention to him. In the world of MBA forums you will find many such trolls.

Back to your original post. Stanford is the toughest nut to crack out of all of them. The company brand name counts for a LOT. So will your GMAT. I agree with everything Harsh has said...and i am afraid at this point your profile is a little weak for Stanford. Do not switch companies too much, take initiative for projects and show results. You really need good EC to seperate you from your tough pool. Find out 1-2 activities that you love/care about and dedicate enough time in them to show progression. Good luck

Thank you very much for your suggestions, absolutearoma.

What kind of ECs are considered great by the adcoms ? Just curious to know some examples.

[absolutearoma]

See HBS and Stanford are in a different league. And they both rely heavily on blue chip experience. Once you have that covered with Google/Amazon, Stanford will also take a good look at GMAT/GPA. If you are strong in these two, your story starts building up. You need to connect them with some common threads and ECs form a part of these stories. You have to differentiate yourself so blood camps, giving tuitions, being a plain volunteer in x y NGO do not normally provide much strength. That is why you must find something you enjoy/care about, and give it enough time to show worthwhile results.

You have got the base to build up. Good luck.

[Apurv]

Originally Posted by desiinindia

This is a weak profile. You will not get admitted to stanford.
Sorry to pull the rails under your ride.

Here's a piece of advice. First get into a top-5 yourself before you make a post of this sort again. I believe in the Army too they don't approve of wimps throwing their weight around. Hence, first prove yourself and the preach. We don't like rude nitwits around here much, just like in the Army.

Cheers,

[gabriel666]

Originally Posted by desiinindia

Clearly you have nothing great under your belt. Forget about great. Nothing even that clears the min threshold.

Your best bet is Emory, Kelley, Purdue et al.

I guess you get an idea of the difference in the schools I am suggesting and what you are aiming for.

No high GMAT will save you for a ride to HSWKMIT

And you feel qualified to say this because of what??? .. your stint in the adcom committee of a big 5 or because you have been admitted to a big 5 .. News flash .. having a mouth bigger than most peoples head does not qualify you to comment on things that you clearly have no clue about... Also please try and impress someone else (may be a bunch of 10 year olds) with your Army background.


@siva.. buddy, you are young, the avg age of an MBA in H/S/W should be around 28-29. So you have ample time to prove yourself. Get some quality workex under your belt and also some EC. BOL

[baccardisprite]

Originally Posted by sssiva03

Education : B.E ( CGPA : 8.91 ), XII ( 92 % ), X ( 94 % )
Work Ex. :- I graduated in 2006. Worked for an MNC for 16 months.
Then switched to Amazon.com. Working here for the past 4 months. I started a team here @ Amazon. Handled all project management stuffs.
Got a call from Google. Will be joining after few months. By the time I join MBA, I will have almost 3 years of Work exp and will be working in Google.

Extras : I am a part time entrepreneur. I was running a website for some days, after which I dropped it to get more expertise on business terms.
I used to do a lot of freelancing. Will do a lot of informational blogging.
Served as the 'Secretary' of a Student club during UG. Expected GMAT score : > 750 --------------

Negatives : Low work exp. ( ~ 3 yrs ). Not from a reputed College for UG.
No NGO stuffs. No much international work exp. (have went once for a 3 week period for training). --------------- Can any one please help me find whether I can get an admit in Stanford GSB. It is my dream school. What are the things I need to improve to make my profile look good.

Some general advice first:

- You're still young, and seem a bit unsure of what you want in life / career. Google is an outstanding place - use the next 2-3 years to progress in your career there, and build intellectual and professional equity (not difficult, given it presumably takes very high IQ to just swing an interview at Google). It ain't just business school that will give you a career push, it's your experience coupled with the education that would give you the real push.... get the experience, no substitute for it.

- While you're on the above, find the time to enhance your profile and make yourself attractive, both as an applicant to school and (more importantly) as potential hire for an employer in whatever industry you want to go into. For example - spend a year/2 learning spanish or chinese. The professional environment in Google should more than allow you to expand such personal horizons. Extra-curriculars aimed at building a profile for school (instead of signifying genuine passion for what you do) is NOT enough, and the lack of passion will come through in your essays however hard you try !!! So do things you will enjoy and which will really enhance your future career and life. Languages are only one good (career-enhancing) way

Experience will give you the ability to say more in an essay and convey the same in a deeper and more meaningful way (particularly important on Stanford's first essay). Right now, that's a pretty tough ask for you.

I graduated from a different school, but if I could say something about Stanford that's relevant for you:

- You probably work for the right company in one of the industry that are represented in Stanford, and recruit heavily from there. You needn't worry about being an IT male Engineer, OR where you did your UG from. Your UG and GMAT (hopefully good) will be enough.

- What you should worry about is what you want to do, and gain a very good idea over the next 12-24 months about what your first 5-10 years out of school are likely to be. You will need this for an essay.

- Start recording privately your memories, significant events that shaped your personal / professional outlook and other things that have or will affect you and matter to you. Introspect objectively and seriously. With a little more specific guidance on how to incorporate these into a "what matters to you most & why?" essay, you might be pleasantly surprised over the next 24 months to see your Stanford essay 1 taking shape!

- Stanford does "tend" to recruit a younger class on average (~26), and you'll be just about 25 when you apply....

Good luck.

[sssiva03]

Originally Posted by absolutearoma

See HBS and Stanford are in a different league. And they both rely heavily on blue chip experience. Once you have that covered with Google/Amazon, Stanford will also take a good look at GMAT/GPA. If you are strong in these two, your story starts building up. You need to connect them with some common threads and ECs form a part of these stories. You have to differentiate yourself so blood camps, giving tuitions, being a plain volunteer in x y NGO do not normally provide much strength. That is why you must find something you enjoy/care about, and give it enough time to show worthwhile results.

You have got the base to build up. Good luck.

Thanks again, absolutearoma.

Got a clear idea about what I need to do.

[sssiva03]

@ Apurv, Gabriel666

Thanks for kicking him out.

@ Bicardisprite, Apurv, Gabriel666

I just wanted to climb the ladder as soon as possible. In fact, I have to. Every one has a reason to do that. Thats why I made the first switch. But about the second switch to Google, I have not yet confirmed my acceptance. Should think before giving that. @ Amazon, I have done a good job. Before apping to Stanford, I can bring out some exceptional results out of my job. I have started a team @ Amazon, leading it and showing pretty good results.

Reg ECs, as every one say, I need to do something that interests me and builds my career as well as my personality. But most of my interests are geeky. I like to hang around with my laptop.

Learning new languages interests me. What else can be a good EC.

I have listed some of my interests.

- I do design good websites. Will it help to enhance my career, if my website gets me some good traffic. ( May not be as hit as pagalguy. )

- Finally, My research in the IT field has lead me to create some good product ideas. Will those thing help.

My primary reason for doing MBA is to start my own venture. I can link everything that I did in my life to that. My essays will reflect my struggles to start a venture and why I need a MBA.

I have been looking into this forums for about a year now. Since last year was too early for me, I thought I will apply this year. I can understand even this is early. But I hope there are people at Stanford in my age group too, even though the percentage is less. I like to be part of them. I don't think I lack talent or resource or background. I lack proper guidance. If you people can guide me properly, I can surely make it this year itself.

Can any one please give some suggestions.

- Shiva.

[eng_harsh]

I think baccardisprite gave a very good analysis and suggestions. You seem to be a bit unsure right now. Experience gives you some kind of maturity. Nobody climbs the ladder by switching continuosly, they just move to a more vertical ladder. I may be wrong, but I haven't seen anyone with just a few months work having a direct impact on a company's strategy/growth(at junior levels). It takes some time.
Moreover, B-school is just a ladder, not an end. So, my suggestion is if you have got through Google then work for 2-3 years over there, or may be if you are doing such a great work at amazon, strengthen your work-ex.

Originally Posted by sssiva03

@ Apurv, Gabriel666

Thanks for kicking him out.

@ Bicardisprite, Apurv, Gabriel666

I just wanted to climb the ladder as soon as possible. In fact, I have to. Every one has a reason to do that. Thats why I made the first switch. But about the second switch to Google, I have not yet confirmed my acceptance. Should think before giving that. @ Amazon, I have done a good job. Before apping to Stanford, I can bring out some exceptional results out of my job. I have started a team @ Amazon, leading it and showing pretty good results.

Can any one please give some suggestions.

- Shiva.

[mask]

message deleted.

[mayank_rasu]

Sorry to sound rude but why do I get this feeling that this thread is increasingly changing into a crybaby club.
Siva, don't mind but the only thing that seems to be standing in your way is your low self confidence. I am sure that no one here can assess your chances but you. Moreover, I saw a similar post by you a long time back in a Stanford thread. There also you mentioned your expected GMAT score to be > 750. Why don't you just take the damned test and clear the first hurdle? Or do you need a consensus for that too? Come on buddy...come out of your hibernation and get down full throttle.
For the record...i will be your fellow applicant (In case you decide to apply).

I am not sharing my profile as of now since I do not want unsolicited appraisals of my chances. Hope more prospective applicants join in and we have a constructive discussion.

BTW, Siva the 2009 essays have been released and I must say, we need some serious introspection to tackle them. Wishing you all the luck.