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Hi all,

Need your suggestions on the schools I should target for based on my profile. I want to shortlist 4 schools - 1 stretch, 1 target and 2 safe schools.

GMAT score: 690 (Q-48, V-36)
Experience: Over 8 years in marketing, pre-sales and product management for financial services software with global technology firms - HCL, IBM and Oracle.
Academics: 3 years Bachelor's degree (74.5%), and 2 years Post-graduate Diploma in Marketing with 69% (equivalent to MBA in India
Awards & Recognitions: 1 award in my current organization, several in under-grad college
Community service: Have been doing weekend-teaching and other activities with an NGO for HIV+ children for 4 yrs; Acting General Secretary of owners' association.

Here are the schools I shortlisted. Your suggestions would be valuable to me.

1. Cornell.
2. Rotman
3. Queen's
4. Kelley
5. McCombs
6. Rotterdam
7. Merage
8. Ohio
9. Smeal.

Dear Parvej,

Consider the following points about your profile and some questions:

1. Since you are going for a second MBA, it will be important to first filter out any schools that may not take it. Read here for a starting list. The quality of your pedigree is not clear as you have not mentioned the name of institutes/programs - this is an important factor in evaluating a profile.
2. Since you are already in a post-MBA role, it will be imperative to clearly articulate a well-reasoned post-MBA goal. This is even more important in your case compared to someone say without an MBA. So think long and deep on this one if not done already.
3. For reasons mentioned here, I will refrain from providing gut-based school suggestions. And frankly, a lot of it depends on questions I have posed in above points and more. At a very high level, the list is big enough to pick the mix you have in mind - but the actual picking should be done more scientifically.

Hope this sparks some more thoughts.

Cheers,

Hi Parvej,

You have decent profile and solid work experience, so focus on your strengths and one thing you need to check with your targeted b-schools is whether they consider 3 years undergrad education or not, since you have done post graduate diploma in Marketing I think it will suffice the eligibility requirement.You should shortlist schools based on your post MBA career goals which sector you want to get into? For better clarity try this tool https://goo.gl/Dwz4nE

Regards
Manish

Dear Manish,

Thank you so much for going through my brief profile and giving feedback. I have provided some more information as you suggested.

[*] Since you are going for a second MBA, it will be important to first filter out any schools that may not take it. Read here for a starting list. The quality of your pedigree is not clear as you have not mentioned the name of institutes/programs - this is an important factor in evaluating a profile.

All the schools I this list accept application for second MBA either with specific justification or non-US MBAs (aka PGDM from India). I have already referred to the MBA Crystall Ball list. Thank you.
Regarding the pedigree of my grad program, I did BSc from Bangalore University (not sure where it stands in comparison to other Indian universities) and PGDM in Marketing from Balaji Institute of Modern Management, Pune (although average, it's A+ rated B-school and among the top 20 Indian b-schools as per various rankings)

[*] Since you are already in a post-MBA role, it will be imperative to clearly articulate a well-reasoned post-MBA goal. This is even more important in your case compared to someone say without an MBA. So think long and deep on this one if not done already.

Yes, I have some thoughts around this and am working on it. Thanks for pointing this out. It would be great if you could share some high-level do's and do not's for a typical scenario.

[*] For reasons mentioned here, I will refrain from providing gut-based school suggestions. And frankly, a lot of it depends on questions I have posed in above points and more. At a very high level, the list is big enough to pick the mix you have in mind - but the actual picking should be done more scientifically.
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I understand what you said. The critical point here is that I HAVE to apply and try to get a confirmed seat in a decent b-school before Nov 2015 as my score is valid till that time only (1st preference to Canadian - Rotman and Queen's, followed by US and European b-schools in that order). So, I am planning to target mostly 'safe' schools.

Regards,
Parvej

parvejsingh wrote:Dear Manish,

Thank you so much for going through my brief profile and giving feedback. I have provided some more information as you suggested.

<<snip>>

Rotman and Queen's, followed by US and European b-schools in that order). So, I am planning to target mostly 'safe' schools.

Regards,
Parvej

Parvej,

On the post-MBA goal bit, make sure the goal fits on both the ambition and practicality scales.

For the school selection, I would strongly recommend not diluting the brand - make sure you are getting a good RoI. In addition to our article, also check independently with the schools too.

Cheers,

Parvej,

You might be able to get into Rotman or Queens, depending on the strength and quality of your success stories at work. You might even be able to get into something better.

The Nov 15 GMAT score expiry is something that concerns me - chances are - at least one school will want you to take it again. Call us (link below) - we can have a more detailed discussion.

Regards,
Karthik