Assess my profile

If you are serious about finance, beyond VC, I would expand my search to schools outside the the San Francisco metro. Do you have more specific goals for an new business?

I have a few ideas that I'm going to keep to myself (I just had a presentation given to me by a Patent Attorney a few hours ago and it made me a bit paranoid about revealing ideas in a public forum) .

Most of my ideas are related to businesses within the Tech sector (it's where I've had the bulk of my experience).

As far as expanding my search, it's either a top 10 school or nothing. I'll just take my chances at succeeding without a formal business education if I can't get the best.

What schools would you suggest for someone with a strong bent towards entrepreneurship and finance?

I am glad that you did not reveal any details about your idea here- I certainly would not expect you to do so. The reason that I mentioned it was that it is an exceedingly common item on admissions essays so it would behoove you to (carefully) give some insight into your business venture on your essay to make it clear that it is a serious endeavor.

By expand your search, I mean to other ultra elite/ elite cluster schools. I would start with Penn, Chicago, and HBS and work from there.

It'd be a bit harder for me to justify an MBA outside the bay area considering that my fiance works here and we live together. I was the reason she moved here from Texas (where we went to grad school together) and she'd kill me if I suggested moving again.

I was under the impression that Stanford and Haas were very strong in entrepreneurship and general management.

I plan to apply to Haas's part-time program and to Stanford full-time. Looking at the average salary ranges of Graduates at Haas, I wouldn't get enough of a salary increase to justify two years without an income. As for Stanford, the opportunity cost will pay off a bit quicker than Haas.

Going back to my original question: What can I do over the next two years (volunteering, career-moves, picking up a hobby) that would maximize or increase my chances at the two schools above?

I would work on-

1) Volunteer/Community Involvement Projects

2) Tangible progress on your business enterprise

I've already started looking up volunteering opportunities. To keep the thread the same as my past experience, I'll be vollunteering in the healthcare field.

As for tangible progress on my business idea, this is a little harder since I plan to implement it once I get my MBA. With the way market forces operate in America, my idea could be impractical by then. I'm always dreaming up new ones, though. I'll use the one I think is most relevant at the time I'm applying.

One question I had was that considering my ethnic background and the sheer volume of applicants with similar backgrounds, will getting in be difficult for me? I believe I've had totally different life experiences than most of the people from my ethnic background (I'm trying to be politically correct here!). Have you seen plenty of applicants with profiles very similar to mine?