Hi Stacy,
I’m looking for some guidance before I narrow down my list of schools and start filling out applications. I’m shooting for the Round 2 deadlines in early January. Thanks in advance for your time.

GMAT
730 (47v, 44q, 6w)

I graduated from the University of Maryland in 2007 with two bachelor’s degrees – journalism and government and politics. I had a 3.2 GPA. (It took me way too long and too many credits to figure out I was really, really bad at Japanese.) Most of my extracurriculars were journalism-related. I did lots of freelance writing for small newspapers and held down a radio show for a few years. I also have two black belts in Japanese martial arts – Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Those won't do me much good in B-school, but they've helped me stand out before.

At the time of the application, I’ll have 5.5 years of professional experience.
-Two years covering business, government and politics at various times and later doing a lot of editing for a chain of newspapers in Pennsylvania.
-Almost 2.5 years covering state government, politics and business/economic issues for a statewide paper in Maryland.
-About a year in the public sector working in a variety of economic development functions, including external communications (speechwriting, etc.) and some policy development.

I want to (eventually) end up doing VC or entrepreneurial work. After I got my GMAT score, I started looking at the top schools in Boston (Harvard, MIT), Chicago (Booth, Northwestern), and Northern Cali. (Stanford, Berkeley). Am I a fit there? If not, where else?

Thanks again for the time.

-Nick