Hi Harry,

Military experience can be great for b-school applications because you have quite a lot of real world leadership experiences to talk about. Your GMAT is pretty good, but I'm not sure I have enough information to tell you which schools to apply to.

In choosing schools you'll need to think about your career goals and whether the school will fit with them (most of the top general managment programs will prepare you well for a career in most of the disciplines an MBA would work in - i.e. finance, consulting, marketing or operations). Other factors include location, teaching style, and size of the class. If your stats are in the range for the school according to the school website or businessweek.com you can consider yourself viable, although the process is holistic, so it is neither a guarantee nor a definite deal breaker to have stats in the range.

Good luck!

Amy

Hi Amy,
Thanks for replying back. My dream school is MIT sloan and i wish to join their 2008-10 MBA programme.
Can you kindly tell me that whether my GMAT score and profile is competitive enough for admission in MIT.
Also do prospective students who have served in the defence forces of foriegn 'asian' countries face any disadvantage in terms of preference for selection when applying for a bschool in USA .
Moreover as i feel that i have definately underperformed in my gmat and am confident that I can improve my score, should i consider giving the exam again or should i concentrate on my application/essays as a score of 710 is above the average gmat score of last mba batch at MIT.

thanks

Harry

Hi harry_x1,

There doesn't seem to be any reason not to apply to MIT if you're in the range. You definitely don't need to retake the GMAT, especially if the time could be better spent on volunteer activities or other leadership building.

The reason I think the military is great is not for preferrential treatment in admission, but because it is useful work experience and fodder to discuss teamwork and leadership. I believe those traits would exist across any country's military service.

Good luck!

Amy

Hi Amy,

One last question. Can you list out some of the most economical Bschools among top 20 schools in USA/canada/europe(i.e where the overall expenditure of doing MBA is the least).

Thanks a ton.


with regards
Harry

Hi Harry,

I would suggest taking a look at the businessweek.com profiles of Canadian and European schools. There is not extensive rankings for non-US MBA programs, but there is plenty of useful statistical information that will tell you the estimated cost of each program.

Good luck!

Amy