Advise - B schools

[dxgamez]

Hi Lisa,

Hi Lisa,

I would like to ask for your advise. I am studying now to take the GMAT, sometime in June or July. I am targeting to apply for the MBA program starting September to December this year, assuming I get a good GMAT score. I am targeting a 700 (hopefully!) at least as my aim is to get into Berkeley, hopefully. I was thinking of UCLA and Washington as well.

By the way, I am from Singapore. I'd like to ask how difficult is it for an international applicant like myself to get into a top B-school in the United States? How would I know what schools are the best for me? My prime interest lies in consulting, and I read in a few posts that we need to know or research the strengths of the B schools, so that we'd know which school to apply to.

Do you have any advise which schools I should look into?

By the way, I spent a year plus in San Diego, while I was working for an MNC. I also read that we need to let the admissions ppl learn something unique/special about ourselves. Would it be a good pro for me, since I spent abt a year in the United States?

Thanks Lisa. Hope you could give me some advise.

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear dxgamez,

The reality is that it is always more competitive for international students to gain admission to business schools in the US. The reason being that most US business schools keep the percentage of international students in each class at a specific level (generally 20-40%). There are a few programs with international populations >50%. The applicant pools for most US business schools tend to have a high composition of international applicants, some as much as 65-75%. I don't post this to scare you, but to give you a realistic idea of what to expect. It is possible for you to gain admission to a US business school, including a highly ranked one like Berkeley or UCLA, with a strong application package. You just need to know how to present your background and qualifications effectively to make a compelling case for admission.

In terms of identifying schools that are the right fit for you, I encourage you to visit our sticky on school selection at the top of the Stacy Blackman section. There are some tips there on how to find programs that are a good fit for you. You will want to spend some time over the coming weeks researching schools that have established connections to the consulting industry to determine your target list.

Best of luck,
Lisa

[dxgamez]

Lisa,

Thanks for your valuable advise. I will look into the sticky notes