The Application Process

27 yr old white male - born in europe, Canadian/US Citizen.

GPA
-around 2.8, 2.9; i went to a top engineering program in Texas-studied Computer Science (among the best engineering programs in the state), plus had summer school; that is why it's on the low side; i am planning to explain this in my essay/resume.

GMAT
-first time - 540 (did really good on math, so-so on english)
-second time - 610 (this time did really good on english, so-so on math); aced the 2 essays (6 out of 6)

WORK EXPERIENCE
-have been with the same company since graduating (2005).
Was promoted from set-up designer to tech.support manager. It's an IT position, but a very complex one, which requires me to work closely with multiple departments in the company.

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I am intersted in pursuing an International Business MBA- full time.

These are the schools I had in mind (basically, on the US/Canada East Coast, and California):
-Warton
-McGill/Concordia
-U of Toronto/York
-Stanford, UCLA
-NYU, Columbia
-SMU (Dallas)

I know my GMAT is on the low side , but am not planning on re-taking it right now.
What are my chances at those schools? I plan on applying in the next 1-2 weeks, and see what happens.


Thank you!

I am a big time optimist so i would definitely encourage you to apply to the schools you mentioned. But to be a wise applicant you should maybe list out the schools you really wanna apply and then trim it to 5-6 schools. You can categorize your choice schools into the following category:

Dream schools
Competitive schools
Fall back schools

You could maybe include 2 schools per section but then its upto you to decide the final list. Some prefer to apply to only one dream school and apply to 3-4 competitive schools. So think wisely and take a decision.

On another note, since you mentioned about international MBA you should definitely consider Thunderbird school of management. Its as international as an MBA can get.

Honestly, schools like Stanford, UCLA, NYU, Columbia, Wharton, look for 700+ GMAT scores, together with outstanding track records. Unless you manage to get your scores way up, I think you would do better to look at other programs.