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Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice before I start throwing out applications at random Bschools as it's a little tough to know where I fall into the equation. I have read a ton of stuff online as well as talked to a few Universities and actually applied and was accepted into the distance MBA program at Indiana University's Kelley school of business with a scholarship. I decided not to go at that time, last spring, and am now back in the hunt.

My story is fairly complex, but I'll try to get the highlights and the not-so-great/bad (hint: read subject) out of the way first.

Highlights (IMO):

• 1. 7 years with the company I'm currently at which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway - It's a $50B company. I went to school while I was working full time in a management position so I only have two years of "post graduate" work experience. The feedback I've gotten on this is that it isn't a huge deal.
  
  2. I started in the company as a union employee at the bottom, worked my way into lower management, and now am in a middle management role. I have 10 direct reports (9 union and one secretary) and oversee a plant that has about $50M in inventory and a contractor work group of about 85. My first full year I got an exceeds performance evaluation, various awards for quality/efficiency improvements, etc. I should get some pretty good LOR's (boss has MBA from Duke). I also do the financial forecasting/variance explanations for the whole inventory account of about $120M.
  
  3. I got a 700 on the GMAT. 76% Quant and 89% Verb - 90% overall. 6.0 on the writing portion.
  
  4. I did get a 3.21 GPA. That isn't that good, but at least it's above the necessary 3.0? Working/traveling while doing the school?
  
  5. Have traveled to several countries, speak near-native Spanish (self taught 10 years after high school Spanish with the help of my wife, but I may omit that part and stick with "self taught") and intermediate German (self-taught legitimately). I have moved with both promotions from North Dakota to Denver, CO and then to IL. My jobs are very independent working environments, and basically self-motivate everything I do.
  
  6. I did take microeconomics, statistics, research and development, accounting, etc as I have an undergrad in business, however... this leads to the lowlight.

The not-so-great/bad:

• 1. Biggest red flag with me is my undergrad institution. I did do 25 credits at a State School in ND, and I took college Algebra, chemistry, and microeconomics and did ok (B's) in those classes. U of P accepted those transfer credits (I know, right! I was so surprised...) Anyway, this is my biggest concern - how bad is this? Is it a deal killer for the top 10-15, top 25?
  
  2. I only have two years of professional experience post-graduation. However, I feel like this can be explained and shouldn't be a huge deal. I was managing over $7M in inventory and a plant full of 20-30 contractors before I even started my degree. Hopefully that suffices.

Outside leadership stuff: I have been a key leader in starting a church here in my current town. It's been around for a year and a half. That is several hours a week of commitment. I'm also a small group leader and was a leader/translator on a mission trip to Mexico last year with my wife. We did VBS programs in small villages in Mexico.

My issue is this: My profile, outside of my optimistically-put "bad" undergraduate situation is on par with some of the top schools. Everything from GMAT scores, work experience (at least quantity), salary foregone, even GPA isn't outside of the middle 50% in most cases; at least at those outside of the super elite. I'm curious as to how far down my undergrad quality drops me on the list. Some things I read say I don't even have a shot at top 50, and I just read the profile with a U of P undergrad, 640 (I think, maybe 620) GMAT score and a 3.4 or something GPA getting into Booth.

Additionally, if I can't get into a really solid full-time program, at what point am I better off letting my employer pay for the MBA from Indiana University instead of wasting my own money on some 34th ranked MBA program?

One caveat too: I'm really interested in international business, and an IMBA would be awesome but I have no professional business experience to speak of. I'd love to do consulting, especially that where specific knowledge of business practices, policy, and language would be important. Emerging markets is also something that peaks my interest... maybe the former Soviet Union area? Russian is on my language list.

My DREAMS are as follows:

(I'm going to omit HBS, Stanford, Wharton - as that's just a waste of time to even think/talk about I'm guessing.)

I started to type out my list and realized that I would go to any program that would take me in the top 10, obviously. It's nice to say "which school is the best fit/etc" but realistically I'm not going to turn down a top 10 acceptances, and I'm not thinking I have the luxury of "shopping around."

After that, I "feel" like I could get into Kelley's full-time program. I like it too, the whole school has a nice vibe to it. I like the academy's/etc.

Outside of that, I talked a little with IESE and they seemed to be excited for me to apply. I was also wondering if it would be better to go out of the US to a top school, as maybe there isn't as much of a gag factor with my undergrad outside of the US, just simply due to distance?

Any direction would be great! I'll probably end up applying to a few, but I don't think I want to drop the 4k on applying to all of the top 10 with a 2% chance of getting in, assuming the U of P BSBM isn't the cats meow for these locations.

If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read this!

Jeff