Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Firstly, my profile in brief is as follows:

23, Electrical Engineer from a private college from India.
1.5 yrs (as on date) work experience with Areva as a Bid & Proposal Engineer. (Will have 3 yrs by July 2012)
10th - 90% - 3.6/4
12th - 94.7% - 3.78/4
Grad (B.Tech) - 72.98% = 2.92/4

Received some awards at the national/state levels for papers/prototypes developed. Was actively involved in renewable energy and energy conservation initiatives during graduation.

Received an award at work for designing a system for identifying and reducing in-process manufacturing defects.

I am looking to apply to NUS and ISB. I look to start my application process by the middle of 2011. I shall be taking my GMAT around the same time.

Kindly help on what my schedule for application/wiritng GMAT should look like as I am very new to the process.

If I plan to take GMAT in May-June, will I have enough time to apply to the above schools?

The admission calender for ISB (2011 intake) is as below for your reference.


ISB Application Deadline
Cycle 1 August 30, 2010
Cycle 2 November 30, 2010

The admission calender for NUS (2011 intake) is as below for your reference.

NUS
Round 1 - 8 October 2010 - 31 January 2011
Round 2 - 1 February 2011 - 31 March 2011

• 1. Kindly advice how I should be scheduling my GMAT prep and applications.
  
  2. Are these B-schools in my league? Should I aim lower?
  
  3. Kindly advice on other B-Schools which I might have a chance at.
  
  4. Any other good B-Schools which would cost me the same?
  
  5. What should my GMAT score be to cover up for my low gpa?
  
  6. Though my Grad GPA looks low on a scale of 4, my score was among the top 10 of the class. How do I explain to the admissions committee?

Kindly advice this MBA newbie.

Thanks in advance for your help.