Ask Veritas Prep Admissions Consulting

Hi,

I am Male, 29, Indian IT professional with 6 years of experience (programmer/team lead) :
4 Years in Computer Sciences and Corporation(CSC) for a fortune 500 US client (1 year from TN, US) and 2 years in top Indian IT company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for 2 big Indian clients.
Prior to this, I did B. Tech. in Computer Science engineering from a premier institute (NIT) scoring 7.2/10. My Community service and extra curricular are good.

I want to move into strategic consulting with specialisation in IT.

After preparing 3 months on my own, I wrote GMAT this Feb end, got just 640(Q49, V29) but applied nevertheless (R3 Fall 2013) to McGill & Schulich in Canada and (owing to my low GMAT,) some Tier II US schools. Two US schools I have got admit from are not really of my priority and are on the expensive side too. So, for US, I would have to wait another year for better schools/scholarship there.

Since financing my MBA is a concern for me, the only offer I can consider is from McGill with $8000 entrance award.

Now, any suggestions on my below queries would be highly appreciated:

1. [Most Important] My dream schools are some of the high end Tier II schools from US (Fuqua, Darden, Tepper, Owen) but they have an average GMAT approaching 700 or more. I want to go to either of these schools not just for the brand name, but because I really want to study with the best out there. I have studied in one of the top engineering colleges in India, and know what kind of incredible people you see in the top schools. But since I am 29 already and will turn 30 this sept.(already above avg. age at most schools), Would it be worth waiting another 1 year and applying next year with GMAT 680-700? (this seems achievable in 2nd attempt with better verbal score as I was getting 35 in Verbal Mocks.) I don't think there will be any other significant addition to my profile in the coming year other than around 50 points in GMAT and one more year of IT experience.

2. Please throw some light on how Canada can prove out to be equally good/better (if at all) MBA destination than US? (4-5 years down the line, I plan to either head back to India or move rest of my family with me.)

3. How about job prospects after graduating from McGill with twin specializations in either of below combinations:
a) Technology & Innovation Management, and Global Strategy & Leadership.
b) Finance and Marketing (I might consider a career switch after completion of 1st year of MBA).

4. McGill definitely is a great brand as a university but their b-school doesn't rank that well and I am not sure if one should go for a parent university brand or a prestigious MBA brand. Can you share your ideas on this?


Thank you very much for your time. I would really appreciate your advice and guidance.

Cheers,
Munish

Munish--lots of really good questions in there. i will try to address each individually.

1) I understand your dilemma--certainly you "get it" that b-school is more than the professors and curricula, it's the folks with whom you study and who will be your network when you graduate. You correctly identify that McGill, while not amongst the top schools, still has a great network, one that you would be able to tap forever (and not only MBA grads, the whole of McGill grads). I would recommend you talk to McGill about a deferral of your acceptance until next year while you try again at a better school once you are able to get your GMAT performance up. If you still did not get in next year, you'd at least have the deferral to fall back on. Recognizing you may not have much more to add other than a better GMAT score, I would encourage you to seek some leadership experience either at work or in your community to help enrich your profile over the next 12 months.

2. As far as how Canada looks as an MBA destination, it more depends on your post MBA plans. If you would like to be in India, you will need to ask around people currently in the workforce their what their opinion is of Canadian schools and also how deep the McGill network is there (likely not deep). If you would consider staying in Canada for your career, McGill would likely be a very good move. If you would like to return to the US, A US b-school would indeed be a better choice.

3. For job prospects, you will need to get in contact with the McGill career services center for that information. They should be able to tell you all about the top recruiters there and how your post MBA plans fit in with their placement services. Since you have a scholarship offer from McGill, they should be more than pleased to help you identify these answers.

4. SChool reputation goes a long way, so you can still leverage the good McGill name even if their business program lags other schools. If McGill were your only option, I would say it's still a great one for this reason alone. It's also likely that the school's MBA program would rise in reputation in the coming years from which you would benefit, even though you will not have attended the school during this "higher ranking" period. in short, you may not go to a school that is in the top 25, but you may one day hold a degree from one.

Hope this helps.

Hi Bryant,

Based on all the feedback I got from this forum and some of my personal contacts, I have decided to go ahead and take up the offer in hand. Thank you for all your time and support.

I really appreciate all your guidance.

Thanks,
Munish