Evaluation of profile/guidance in college selection

[renascence]

Hi Stacy/Amy,

I am planning for fall 09 with the following background aiming at top 20 B-schools in the US. I am also considering colleges in Europe.

Profile
GPA - 9.27/10 (4.0 according to the computation method of GMAC). Acads are good throughout
GMAT - 730 (38V, 50Q, 5.5AWA)
exp - 4yrs (IT) in 2 leading product development companies of US
category - Indian IT Male

Reason for MBA
* Understand the business Model
* Get a feel of different domains/industries and choose the best suited for me
* Get tutored on consulting, decision making, risk analysis, etc that make a successful businessman
* Aspire a position responsible for steering the future of the organisation - strategy planning and risk analysis.
I think colleges good at strategy consulting would be a good choice for me but I am not sure of the industry that i want to stick to. I am currently working int IT but I want to check if I am more suited to any other industry like FMCG, petro-chemicals, construction, manufacturing, or anything else as such industries seem more attractive to me because of their more end-to-end involvement from raw materials supply to customer delivery.
In case of a misfit, I will land up in tech consulting wherein also my MBA should help me in leveraging my soft skills and tech background with the business understanding that should culminate in strategy planning for IT firm.

I have just moved to the US and by the time I join a bschool I shall be having a full 1 yr of US experience (but 0 while applying). Will stalling my application by another yr increase my chances into the top 20 because of increased intl experience? Current intl exp is just by interactions with our teams in Spain, China, Germany, Ireland and US and of course with people of many more nationality and origin.

My target colleges are
* Univ of Columbia
* Yale
* Dadren(Virginia)
* Johnson (Cornell)
* Tepper (CMU)
* European Univs (Oxford, Insead)

How do you think about my college list with respect to my profile and aspirations? Should I be adding safer colleges to the list?

Thanks,
Renascence

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear Renascence,

Working another year in the same role will not necessarily strengthen your application. Working another year in a higher position or with increased responsibility would strengthen your application. You have the foundation for a competitive application, but how you package all of your data points is what will gain you admission.

I think your school list is fine. If you do add some "safety" schools, then I would suggest staying within the top 40 and identifying schools that can help you achieve your career goals.

Good luck,
Lisa

[renascence]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the quick response. I have some follow up questions & need some clarifications. I hope you wont mind.

* My new role will give me direct interaction with partners of my company. My company is one of the top sw producers worldwide and I would be making business decisions on, of course, a part of its widely used product. In a way (for my given sphere), i will be the face of the company. So its not necessarily a higher position but I see it as a new role with more exposure and i will have 2 ppl reporting to me also. How do u see this role adding to my profile?

* I thought such a role will polish my profile and increase my chances next yr. So this time i dont want to compromise on a lower school. Also currently my job is well paying for me. I dont see MBA as a salary jump strategy rather more of an opportunity to explore various fields. In this attempt I dont want to compromise a lot on my career. Going to lower schools might be such a compromise. This is my naive thought which might be wrong. Could you suggest me on this ?

* Which colleges would you like to suggest to me that should align with my long term goal of strategy planning and risk analysis. Also, do you think schools gud in strategy consulting should be my choice ?

Thanks again Lisa for the response. Hope I m not bothering you with this bombardment of more questions. I feel confused whenever i try fine tuning my profile and career goals.. and this forum helps me in aligning me to my goals.

Thanks

[Lisa Anderson]

Your new role will strengthen your application as supervising others and interacting with clients are key tasks in a consulting role (and many managerial roles). If your current company is sponsoring your MBA, then you should pick schools they will fund and which are a good match for your desired skill set. I do not think you have to broaden your school list, but simply made the suggestion as the schools you listed are highly competitive for international applicants.

Best of luck,
Lisa

[renascence]

Thanks Lisa for the response.

I know I am shooting high with my choice of very competitive colleges. But I dont want to do an MBA and land up in a lower paying job. I know my dreams are aligned with an MBA program but I dont want to compromise a lot with my pay package post MBA (because i would have lost 2 yrs and would also have incurred a huge debt). Will writing "I am passionate about an MBA for which I am forgoing a high paying job" in my application add to my passion for an MBA?

My company is not sponsoring my MBA. So I have no constraints on the selection of my school. In fact, I want more to explore other industries since I am aware of the IT industry.

I just want a college that would help me
* to gain exposure to various industries to choose the best suit for me
* hone my skills to become a top-notch strategy planner in future.

I agree that I should look for colleges in 20-40 ranks also. I am also considering thoughts on more European colleges as I heard they have higher international candidates intake. Any thoughts on this ?

Thanks
Naresh

[Lisa Anderson]

Naresh,

All MBA students in full-time programs forgo paying jobs, so that is not evidence of your passion to get your MBA. Most top 40 MBA programs will have resources available to you through their career centers to explore other industries and functional areas as a way to determine your post-MBA career. They will also have the coursework to prepare you to think strategically. There are many good options in the EU, some of which might be shorter in duration than US programs. However, admission to these programs can be as competitive as top US programs. I encourage you to do some research on all of the options and prioritize what you want from your MBA program to narrow down your list.

Good luck,
Lisa

[renascence]

Thanks Lisa for consistently responding to each of my concern. Your response has definitely opened new roads of thought and I would like to explore them further before i bombard you with more questions.

Thanks again for everything.