profile evaluation

[devils_zone]

it will be good if you ll do a short profile valuation here

i am a mechanical engineer presently working in IT industry in testing service at a indian giant.
my current work ex here is about 17 months
during this tenure i have got some 3 months in which i handled a project offshore.

my acads have been above average throughout
have been in organizing events during my college days(organised automobile workshops,PRO E workshops etc)
active in sports throughtout my career

i am aiming for a gmat score of and above 700 and working for the same.

planning to apply for fall 2010 in US univ
will my less wrk exp work against me?
which ranking univ can i aim at?am basically looking for a career switch in finance.


also let me know if at all there is any chance of getting a fee waiver with this profile?

pls suggest

[Paxton Helms - Kaplan]

Hello and thanks for your questions.

To answer the question of whether your work experience would hurt you, my guess is that it probably would. It feels a little bit thin to me but --as I have pointed out elsewhere-- people get into business school right out of undergraduate and many years after their undergraduate degrees. So...this is really a question that needs a lot more context.

Your question of which programs you can aim for is both premature and perhaps not even the right question to begin with.

The right questions to start with are...

- Why do I want an MBA?
- What kind of experience do I want?
- What does my ROI for an MBA look like?

To answert those questions I suggest that you come up with a set of filters that might look like:

- At what schools do I have a chance? The middle 80% of the GMAT and GPA range should give you an approximate cut at this... A good admissions consultant can also help you think this through.

What schools do I want to go to?

- Culture: competitive, collaborative, or somewhere in between?
- Size: Huge like HBS, medium like UCLA, or small like Stanford?
- Teaching style: case, lecture, or both?
- Location Type: Urban, rural, city, suburb?
- Geography: Remember that a great part of your network is going to be near your school's location. This is VERY important and VASTLY underrated.
- School specialization: real estate? finance? entrepeneurship? strategy? operations? general management?
- Is there a chance of getting merit scholarships if that is important to me?

The point here is that you need to think very carefully about what you want out of business school before you start asking yourself, "which can I aim for?" The real question is, where can I get in that i want to go? Or, put in the proper order, where do I want to go that I can get in that makes economic and professional sense at this point in my life?

I know this is a lot but it's really the only way to find a way that works for you.

Good Luck--

Paxton