Employment after MBA

I have no idea on scholarships yet. Unfortunately that's where you've got to decide whether adding debt will pay off with better job prospects. This is really why I said you should push for a better GMAT to hopefully get in better schools while also improving your scholarship chances. Especially if you're planning on applying next fall so that you get in earlier rounds when there's more scholarship money available.

Sorry, I just meant you need to have a clearly defined goal and I probably shouldn't have given my example since it's almost too specific. I plan to do strategy consulting in the southeast. I said I could name the companies because admissions knows that means (usually) the top 8-10 consulting firms in a select few cities. For you I mean you need to be able to say more than just "finance," since that's such a broad field. Be able to say maybe a general location area and maybe what size/type firms you want. Be able to say if you want to work in banking on wall street or if you're targeting an industry job with a F500.

Once you get outside of the top 15 schools or so, school location means a lot for the job search. So if you want to eventually work for Nike* for example, you need to attend a top school or look at schools they recruit from outside the top 15-20 schools. Usually they'll be recruiting from schools nearby to save costs. They aren't going to fly across the country to pick up an MBA from the southeast at a non-target school.

*I don't actually know who/what Nike targets - just the first company that popped in my head

JDMBAhopeful,

Companies doing regional hiring is quite common outside top 10-15 programs. If you eye a particular organization, then you may consider programs where that organization regularly recruits in sizable numbers. Case in point: Amazon at Ross. And if you take a step back, you'll find certain industries recruiting in large numbers at certain campuses, which gives you even more flexibility.

most of the programs ranked where you are looking will be regional programs and these programs actually do a decent job of placing in regional companies so I would identify employers that match up in regions you are looking at. If you are looking for scholarship money then you may want to pull up your GMAT a bit more especially since you have only taken it once