I don't think you need to hold off for more experience - most consultants at top schools have around 3-5 years experience anyhow so you're in the sweet spot.

Also, I think you can afford to be a bit more ambitious with your schools.

H/S/W: choose 1-2 as stretches. These schools (particularly H/S) are sticklers for GPAs, but I think you have enough of an outside chance that it's worth at least giving them a shot. Mgmt consultants are the bread and butter of these schools (especially those who went to top undergrads like yourself).

Booth, Columbia, Sloan, Tuck, Haas: these are sweet spots for you. Choose 3-4 from this list. I excluded Kellogg because I assume you aren't keen on going back to NW (or at least you want a different experience - which may be why you also excluded it from your list). Anyhow, you have a reasonable shot at these schools.

NYU, Cornell, Yale, etc.: these are true safeties, but you have a pretty good shot of getting in. Choose 0-1 from this list.

As for LBS or UK/Euro schools, I would only apply if you're pretty sure you want to live in Europe right after b-school, because it's much harder to recruit for US-based jobs from Euro schools because of the distance and the fact that US-based recruiters have plenty of MBAs to choose from already within the US (and for the recruiters with established MBA hiring programs - they will run separate processes for US and Europe).

Hi Alex, thanks so much for your feedback!

To clarify, while I did Management/Operations Consulting in my first job, I now work in house at a High Frequency Trading firm doing project management, business development, and strategic operations. While the firm is one of the top players in the world, due to the opaque nature of the industry, it does not have the brand name recognition of many companies in other industries.

In light of this, do you still believe it is worth applying to H/S/W?

You are right on about Kellogg- loved undergrad, but not particularly eager to spend another 2 years in Evanston.

Are there any of these schools that are known for being particularly forgiving for low GPA's? Anything else I can/should do to mitigate it beyond the optional essay?

And lastly, beyond immediate job prospects, would you say there is a discrepancy between the long term value of foreign MBA programs (particularly those in the UK) and those in the US?

Thanks for your advice- I really appreciate it.

No schools are particularly forgiving of low GPAs; it's just that certain schools (H/S) are the least forgiving. In any case, you don't have a time machine to go back in time - your GPA sucked, you should've done a better job, but you can't do anything about it now.

Focus on what you can do, which is putting together an application that highlights your strengths. Focus on scoring, not on defense, if that makes any sense.

As for H/S/W, I would throw my hat in the ring for 1-2 schools. Go for it, why not.

As for long-term value of MBA programs -- don't think about that. 10-20 years after you've graduated, no one will care where you went. Think about it. If you're a 40-something business professional (or executive), is anyone really going to care where you went to school in your 20s? Will they fixate on what school you went to decades earlier, or focus more on your body of work as a professional in the last 5-10 years? Too many folks get this warped perspective (but it's human nature - we all think that the *present* is going to be the most important moment in our lives) that they are living in the peak of their lives -- when the whole b-school thing is merely the *beginning*.

As for Europe vs. US MBAs - it's less about value or prestige, and more about geography. Grads tend to cluster around the schools they attended. So every school in a way is regional, no matter how diverse the student body is: for example, the overwhelming majority of Stanford/UCLA/Haas alums stay in California both short- and long-term. A good majority of folks at the east coast schools tend to remain on the east coast. Kellogg and Booth alums tend to cluster in the midwest (and to some extent on the east coast). And similarly, those who attended Euro schools tend to stay in Europe.