westsider: My MBA degree should have no influence on my PhD application. Most PhD programs go as far as saying it's not taken into consideration, although I've heard people close with adcoms say sometimes a straight 4.0 is slightly helpful if undergrad grades were bad (as in my case).
anonymousegmat: I'm applying to the Management/OB track in all of the universities. I'm beginning to look at my own application package a lot more critically in light of the recent rejections. I think I have a few failings (I'm comparing myself to the Columbia Fall 2007 entrants, since that's where I really want to go, and I actually got the opportunity to talk to one of the Fall 2006 entrants):
a: Low GMAT. Yes, 700 is good, but not great. Columbia's average for Fall 2007 admissions was in the 740s (!!!). Fall 2006 was 720, sigh... in a few years it just might climb to 800.
b: Low (read: horrible) undergrad GPA. What can I say... I went to NYU, but pissed away four years of potentially high quality education.
c: MBA. 4.0... which means very little compared to somebody else who graduated (Summa) Cum Laude from college. Not to mention it's from a foreign university, whittling it down even more. And it's an MBA, we all know all you need to do is do well on "group work" to get a 4.0 in an MBA
d: Rather esoteric research interests stated in my LOI. My plan is to focus on cross cultural organization studies. Looking at most universities, I'll be extremely lucky to find ONE professor in the entire business school who does research in that area (compared to, say, finance), which is what I did: find one professor in the department, and apply to said department. The problem is most people I've seen who apply or are admitted in this field tend to be very, VERY good... I'm talking (Summa) Cum Laude, GMAT 800 good.
My advice: do VERY WELL on your GMATs... I know we all say it's not the be all and end all of our applications, but when UPenn/NYU/Columbia/Cornell are posting GMAT averages that seem to increase every year...
LOI: It's nice to be specific, just make sure you already have a professor in mind when you write it, lol. Just remember, too specific, and maybe only one professor will really be interested in taking you in, and even then you'll be competing with a very specific set of people who just might be better (or to look at it another way, you'll be competing with people who maybe the professor has already met and liked well enough to admit instead of you).