Ask Stacy Blackman

hi
I have completed my B.Tech in Computer Science in May 2008. After completion I worked in software industry for 3 months. With MBA in consideration I changed my working domain. Presently I am working as trainee in Business Department (BD) of a reputed organization. BD is the core strategy department of the organization. By August 2009 I would be having 14 months of time work-ex. Beside it I have 6 months of part time work ex in field of software support for a small organization (during last 6 months of my university stay). I want to pursue MBA course in fall ’09 but the problem is most of the Business Schools require 2 years of minimum work ex which I don’t have. Also as most of the deadlines for application for international student are in December/January and by that time I would be having work-ex of only 6-7 months and would be able to show only one career progress i.e. from trainee to executive. As for my academics is concern, I have got 67% marks. Grading is average in all subjects, but I have A+ (A+ is the highest grade in my university) in one year project work (in team of 4). Then as for leadership and management is concerned, I was co-founder of my university Linux Group and also implemented and managed a experimental project “Online Radio Service” in a team of three which aired for a month. I would be giving my GMAT exam in December and hope to score 700 or more (with better score in quantitative than in verbal).
Some of Business schools in which I am interested in are:
NYU (Stern)
• UCLA (Anderson)
• University of Chicago
• Yale University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University (Johnson)
• Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
• UC Berkeley (Haas)
• Dartmouth (Tuck)
• UNC - Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
• Thunderbird
• University of Michigan (Ross)
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• Georgetown University (McDonough)
• University of Virginia (Darden)

I will be very thankful if you can guide me what I should do and what are my chances of getting into a good business school for MBA finance
Thanks
Priyesh Khunteta

Many thanks for your suggestions. I got your point, but there is one question that I want to ask. What if I can provide very good LORs. One from Vice President of BD department of my organization and other from my Project instructor at university, as they are happy with my performance. Also if LOR are accompanied with good SOP and essays. Will there be some chances then or you would still recommend me for waiting for a year more. Please let me know I am depending on your reply a lot.
One more thing I would like to ask, if I apply in NYU Stern for taking chance and don’t get admission, would it affect my chances in any way while reapplying in fall’10?
Thanks again
Priyesh Khunteta

Thanks for the advice. I will surely consider it before applying, and maybe now i ll apply for fall'10. but since i have already taken my GMAT date in december so I ll be sending my score(and applying) to 5 schools, not more than that. I am thinking of applying to 10-15 schools for fall'10. By the way there is International MBA fair on 27th September in New Delhi, India. NYU, Cornell University, Thunderbird, Marshall School and many other are are participating in it. So I will be visiting them and maybe I could share my experience with you, if you like. Anyways thanks again, I am able to make my decision due to your advice.
Priyesh Khunteta.

I don't completely agree. Some schools are increasingly open to younger applicants; the trick is to find out which schools are, why they're open, and shape your application that way. More work experience, per se, is increasingly not necessary for applicants who feel that the best time to do an MBA is relatively early in their careers.

On my part, when I applied, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and Chicago were four top schools whom I know are very open to those without much work experience- my own amount of work experience was 0.

Jelt, Thanks a lot for the motivation. Of the schools you have mentioned all of them is giving high importance on academic background than on GMAT which, in my case is a downside. Just 67% in my engineering and it does not fall in top 20% in my university. I cant change that fact now. There is reason for my not so good performance and I have learned a good lesson from it and may be that's the best thing in me that I learn from my mistakes very well.
In GMAT I am confident of getting score around 750. I know I have the attitude the for MBA. I know what I have to do after completion of MBA.
There are some other schools too which haven't mentioned 2 years work requirement like NYU (Stern) , UCLA (Anderson) , Columbia University and University of Michigan (Ross). But again competition is tough for them as they prefer more work experience. I going to take GMAT in December, by that time I will have to finally decide in which schools I have better chances. Can you help me out on some names as I see you also have good knowledge regarding B Schools.

By the way it seems you are a Wharton graduate. My father has received invitation from Wharton India Economic Forum to speak at the 13th Wharton India Economic Forum in March. If that program gets the approval from his company, he would be coming there and I would be also accompanying him. Although by that time all the admission decision would be taken by most schools.

jelt wrote:I don't completely agree. Some schools are increasingly open to younger applicants; the trick is to find out which schools are, why they're open, and shape your application that way. More work experience, per se, is increasingly not necessary for applicants who feel that the best time to do an MBA is relatively early in their careers.

On my part, when I applied, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and Chicago were four top schools whom I know are very open to those without much work experience- my own amount of work experience was 0.