MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Jan 2010
Status:Admissions Expert
Affiliations: Founder, Amerasia Consulting Group
Posts: 1081
Given Kudos: 264
Re: Please evaluate my profile...
[#permalink]
06 Sep 2011, 00:21
Normally I would write a pretty elaborate response (see my forum posts for, well, pretty much as long as I've been on here), but we are slammed during Round 1 and I want to quickly and directly weigh in because you have asked some important questions.
1) MIT is a big tech program, obviously, but not an easy school to get admitted to. But overall, don't get too fixated on "good tech schools" - focus on "good schools." You are better off getting into a national and international powerhouse with limited tech presence than getting into a regional school with fancy programs. Plus, if you flood towards "tech schools," you will be one of many applying there with a similar background. Go against the grain and you will find schools eager to do the same.
2) Nobody ever aims too low in this competitive landscape! That said, if you find yourself dropping below Texas to regional schools, you are applying too low. But your sweet spot will be the 8-16 type schools. Your limited exposure outside of India and (seemingly) limited work experience will curb the waves you can make at the top 7 type programs and while you should not avoid applying to a few truly elite, make sure to put most of your shares in the next tier. Still great, still national programs, but your profile will be stronger in that context. Also - and we've written about this extensively, so just search online - but you will want to avoid the huge cities whenever possible and veer towards smaller towns to keep yourself from being one of literally thousands of students applying from overseas for the same schools. International students pound Columbia, NYU, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, Stanford, Haas, HBS, and MIT. To stand out, go for schools like Tuck, Ross, Duke, Cornell, and Yale - programs in smaller metro areas that don't get the same massive international pool of applicants.
3) I'm not sure what you mean by this.
4) If you go to a national school on the East Coast, you can get a job in California. If you go to a regional school (North Carolina, Tepper, etc.), you will have a hard time going West without your own network.
Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti