680 in gmat...which colleges to apply...

aaku20, congrats on the good score! A 680 GMAT is within range of all the top MBA programs. Depending on the rest of your profile (GPA, work experience, etc.) then you might be in a position to apply most anywhere you wish!

The choice of bschool is a complex, and highly personal, process -- you'll want to do a lot of research to identify the school that fits your needs in career development, and which you would be happy with in terms of attributes such as geographic location, class size, etc. Rankings matter a lot but they're not the most important factor, frankly, by which to choose a school.

In terms of which schools would be open to getting an application from you, as we said, the GMAT score is good, and it qualifies you for trying to most any program -- but it will depend on how you position yourself in terms of your career goals, leadership experiences, accomplishments and stories of teamwork, contribution, and impact. The schools look for different things in candidates based on their different cultures, but across the board they want to see candidates of achievement and strong potential.

Here's a couple posts that may help:

https://essaysnark.blocked/2010/06/ ... chool.html
https://essaysnark.blocked/2011/04/school-fit.html

If you want to tell us more about what you've done and where your interests lie, we can possibly suggest specific programs. There's many factors that play into it and the fun part is in finding out which program is the best complement to your own needs and goals.

Best of luck!
EssaySnark

Hey,

Thanks alot....I am from an engineering background and presently have a 3 years work-ex in an Indian IT firm.I want to do an MBA in Human Resource. As far as extra-curricular activities are concerned, I am involved in an NGO(since last 2 years) which works for less-privileged children .I am the Vice President-Public Relations in our Toastmaster International's club.Also I have won many games as the captain of my basketball team and presently am a member of my Company's basketball team also.i have achieved appreciation award for the project of which I was a part of in my Company....

Kindly suggest....:)
Thanks in advance....

Hi,

You can apply to good schools with your score. Since we do not know much about your profile we can't tell which schools. However make sure you work on other aspects than the GMAT so they are highlighted well- academics, beyond academics and your work experience.
If all aspects are well leveraged you can get even into top schools. All the best

aaku20 wrote:I am from an engineering background and presently have a 3 years work-ex in an Indian IT firm.I want to do an MBA in Human Resource. As far as extra-curricular activities are concerned, I am involved in an NGO(since last 2 years) which works for less-privileged children .I am the Vice President-Public Relations in our Toastmaster International's club.Also I have won many games as the captain of my basketball team and presently am a member of my Company's basketball team also.i have achieved appreciation award for the project of which I was a part of in my Company....

Kindly suggest....:)
Thanks in advance....

Hi aaku20--

There actually aren't that many top MBA programs with formal specializations in HR (at least, not as far as we've seen - maybe someone else will chime in on that). There's plenty of "organizational behavior" and that sort of thing in bschool which can be pretty interesting and is obviously related to the "people" side of management/processes. Pretty much every bschool has an org behavior/management of orgs class in their core curriculum, and you can also take electives in this area. The MBA is becoming more common for HR professionals, however you probably should define more clearly what exactly you're looking to do within HR - it's sort of a broad category, and we don't know of that many companies that recruit into HR functions from bschool. So you'll need to make sure that the program you're targeting will help you line up the right type of job opportunities for where you want to take your career.

On your profile: It's good to see some solid ECs, though the Toastmasters thing is fairly common, especially among Indian candidates. You'll want to present stories of achievement and contribution from those activities, as well as from your career. You also should talk about why you want to make the shift from IT/engineering to HR.

The good news is that this is a less common career transition than what many Indians in IT are targeting (the most common are shifting to finance, or to consulting). So you will stand out from the crowd, at least a little, just based on the goals. So that's good. One question that an American MBA program may have is, why do you need to come to the States for further education? If you're able to show them why the MBA is critical based on what you want to do next, you'll go far.

Wish we could offer a list of schools for you but you'll probably need to do more self-inquiry to determine what you're looking for in a business education and where you want to go from there.

Best of luck!
EssaySnark