School Selection for General Management/Tech Consulting

[midas1]

Hi,

I am having a hard time to select a top school which will me gear me well to enter the General/Strategy Management space. At the same time, I would prefer the school to have a strong presence in IT/Tech consulting space - as a fall back option. Am targeting round 2 for this year's admission process. Since not much time is left, I am comfortable with applying to minimum of 2 and a max of 4 schools. The schools I have been looking at: Stanford, Haas, Booth, Darden, MIT Sloan, Wharton, Ross, Duke, Cornell.

Brief about my profile:
I am an engineering graduate, worked over 6+ years now in IT/Software industry in India. I have worked with both service-based & product-based companies. Also started my own company and closed operations nearly after 2 years of operation during the recent global recession. I have mostly worked with start-ups and have seen them grow and even go bust.

Outside work, I have enough instances to write about in my essays which will help me give me a well-rounded approach to my application.

Also, I had taken GMAT in Feb 2007, my score was 700. I believe I can better my score and thinking of taking it again next month. Please advise if you think that I should drop the idea of a re-take.

Thanks,
midas1

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear midas1,

You have identified some great options for your target schools; however, these are all highly selective, top 15 programs. I encourage you to consider adding at least 1 school that is not as highly selective as MBA admissions is very competitive with no guarantees. While you have the foundation for a competitive application based on your post, your profile is over-represented in the global MBA applicant pool meaning you will need to use your essays, recommendations and interview to distinguish yourself from the competition. As for whether or not to retake your GMAT, that is a tough one as your 700 is competitive, but slightly below the average for the schools you note. If you feel you can score better, then it might be worth the retake to achieve an above average score for these schools, putting you in a stronger position.

Good luck,
Lisa

[midas1]

Dear midas1,

You have identified some great options for your target schools; however, these are all highly selective, top 15 programs. I encourage you to consider adding at least 1 school that is not as highly selective as MBA admissions is very competitive with no guarantees. While you have the foundation for a competitive application based on your post, your profile is over-represented in the global MBA applicant pool meaning you will need to use your essays, recommendations and interview to distinguish yourself from the competition. As for whether or not to retake your GMAT, that is a tough one as your 700 is competitive, but slightly below the average for the schools you note. If you feel you can score better, then it might be worth the retake to achieve an above average score for these schools, putting you in a stronger position.

Good luck,
Lisa

Thanks for the reply Lisa.

I share the same view on the GMAT re-take, so it is now confirmed that I will soon take it again and target a higher score.

I understand the highly competitive admission process and the importance of being the right fit for a school. I did some more research on the schools i mentioned, and MIT Sloan is a clear choice for me.

I need to add one more top school and a safety school to my target list. For the top schools, I am researching more on Ross, Wharton and Darden. Which of these 3 you think is better positioned for the Consulting/Technology industry?

Also, would appreciate if can you suggest some safety schools that I can target?

Thanks,
midas1

[Lisa Anderson]

Please visit our sticky on school selection for some tips on identifying the right school for you. While you already have a solid list, I do think these tips will help you to narrow it down as the sticky offers several items for you to consider as you evaluate schools. Depending on what matters most to you in a program, you should be able to devise your own personal ranking of the schools you are still considering. As for a safety program, these are generally going to be schools where your profile is well above average for the school and where the school has the curriculum and resources that are a good match for you. So, a good place to start might be schools where the GMAT average is more in the 650-680 range. Then you can research which of these have the best curriculum and consulting/technology industry ties.

Regards,
Lisa