School Selection / Profile Evaluation

[darcknyht]

Hi Stacy/Lisa,

Thanks for taking the time to read over this. I'll try to keep it as concise as possible.

23, male, born and partially raised in India, moved to the US young
GPA: 3.6 from Carnegie Mellon (Double major in Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering), Honor's Research Student, Study abroad in Australia
GMAT: 730 (47Q, 43V)

Experience:

Currently a manufacturing supervisor at big pharma; I manage union workers (a def. challenge at times!!) and manage the daily operation of our production area. I also work 12 hour shifts, which limits my outside activities. I've been working here for ~18 mo.

Previously was at the Nat'l Inst. of Health through a fellowship I was awarded. I did research focused on a rare lysosomal disorder. (Don't know how this applies to b-school, if at all)

I also was one of the founders, was the president of, and was the captain of the rugby team at CMU. That basically took all of my extra/non-study time, minus some IM sports. I also made the college team in australia when I studied there for a semester (which was a big reason I went).

Schools:

My first/reach choice is Stanford, then HBS, and then in no def order: Darden, Kellogg, UCLA, Fuqua. I think I need at least one more, though this list is not set in stone by any means.

Plans:

I would like to study general mgmt and entrepaneurship.

**Are there any other schools you believe I should consider? I am having a hard time finalizing my list and choosing a "safety" school.

**What are my chances? I realize my young age is a negative..


Again, thank you so much for your time and advice.

-A

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear A,

I think you have some interesting things in your background that you could leverage to your advantage. Your numbers are strong and you have some professional experience that will add to the classroom discussions. You are young, but you appear to have done well in the short tenure of your career.

I agree that you need to find at least one or two "safety" options in the top 15-40 range. You should research schools with a noted entrepreneurship curriculum as any school with a solid core curriculum will provide the general management knowledge. Perhaps research Babson or Rice as options?

Best of luck,
Lisa

[darcknyht]

Hi Lisa,

Do you think the schools I have chosen are appropriate?

Thanks for the recommendations of Babson and Rice; I will def check them out.

Thanks again for reading,
A

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear A,

The schools you mention are great programs. A few made more sense to me as they have stronger entrepreneurship electives than others, but overall, you can't make a wrong choice out of the group. I do think people make the common mistake of only focusing on rankings as a way to select programs instead of doing a little research and identifying programs that are the best match for their career goals and personalities. While the rankings are helpful and provide a nice table to view some details easily, no ranking is a true reflection of any program. Methodologies are flawed and cannot incorporate the personal aspect of school selection since it is based on the individual. Likewise, there are successful MBA graduates from hundreds of MBA programs, not just the top 10. Your success depends on you, no matter where you go.

Now that I'm off my soapbox , I'll close by saying you have great schools listed. I just think it would be good for you to research other possibilities as you might find others you like as much or more.

Good luck,
Lisa

[darcknyht]

Lisa,

You are awesome. I have been trying to research schools best in general mgmt AND entrepreneurship (because that is my long term goal), but I am having a hard time getting that kind of information.

Is there any books or websites available that would give me better details into how well a school stacks up on specific fronts? Businessweek is good, but like you said, they are mostly just rankings and that's not enough information for me.

Thank you again! Stay on the soapbox!

Aashish

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear Aaron,

Thanks for your kind words. I like mba.com as a way to identify schools to do further research on as it allows you to search on various criteria. I also think the Financial Times rankings are a great place to start as they give their top schools by categories. Lastly, Entrepreneur magazine has done rankings for a while on MBA programs, so these schools could be worth some time to research.

Good luck and happy researching!
Lisa