A couple US bschools have special programs for college seniors: HBS 2+2 and Yale Silver Scholars. Unfortunately, both of those have deadlines which have already passed.
Many US bschools will accept applications from new graduates without formal work experience, however the chance of getting an acceptance in that case is quite low (there are always exceptions but those are very rare). Two years of experience is a practical minimum. Some schools prefer students to have five years of experience (Tuck, Haas, Columbia, NYU, Wharton, Kellogg all prefer more rather than less). If you're going to apply in the next year, make sure to do your research and identify a program that will be more open to your profile.
Think of it this way: You'll benefit from the grad school education the most if you have a solid foundation of real-world experience. Your colleagues in the classroom will have been in the "real world" for several years at a minimum. You'll want to be able to not only keep up with them, but actively contribute to the classroom discussion and hold your own in team projects. That's one major reason for the work exp requirement in the admissions process.
It's great that you've gotten the GMAT out of the way! And yes, a 740 score is awesome. Nicely done. As you probably know, scores are good for five years, so you've got one major component of the application out of the way, and you can spend the next year or so building up relevant experience in a function and industry that you're excited about. For best chances of success, we recommend applying to bschool in fall 2013 (yes, that seems like a long time from now but it will go by fast!).
Or, you could try now at a few schools which are more open to younger candidates -- HBS, Yale, maybe Chicago -- and see what happens. If you don't make it in, you would be able to start fresh in the 2013-'14 application cycle (you'd only be a reapplicant in 2012-'13; it's always harder as a reapplicant, but if you have two years between attempts then you'd have a clean slate at the school).
Hope all this makes sense. Here's a few posts from our blog that may be relevant:
Good luck with it!
EssaySnark
