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Question

Hi guys,

I was wondering if you could tell me what US MBA's I should apply to based on my profile. If you need more information just please let me know. Many thanks!

Male Portuguese living in Lisbon, Portugal

I plan to apply in the first round of 2014 and by then I will have ~20 months of work experience and at matriculation I would have 2.5 years of work experience.

Finished college in January 2013, master in engineering (4.5 years+dissertation), very good university in Portugal, top 5% of the class - 17/20 (ranking officially reported by the university)

Currently I have 1 year full time work experience at a high growth, venture capital backed e-commerce. Working in the operations department, trying to improve processes and service levels and implement new projects. Was promoted after 9 months.
during my time in college spend a summer in Poland doing an internship - conveyor belt producer

GMAT 710 - quant 49, verbal 38, AWA 5 and IR - 6

extracurricular - lots of volunteering during college, currently volunteer in a lgbt association

After my MBA I would like to continue in the same industry contributing for the growth of promising tech companies.

I know my work experience is limited but I'm sure I would be able to explain why an MBA and why now and I really think I will be ready in Sep2014.

Thank you again for your time.

Admissionado · Answer

Hey dude, thanks for dropping a line,

So my advice to you would be to forget about Sept 2014, and concentrate now on Sept 2015. For two reasons. 1. You are too late for R2 and round 3 is not really a good idea 2. Anyhow you don't really have enough work experience.

So really, don't rush things. The good thing is that if you calmly start preparing from NOW, you will really be in a fantastic position to write lovely, perfect essays over the entire summer, and get in all the schools you wish in R1 of 2014.

Everything looks pretty darn good - you come from a country from which they see very few applicants, you have an excellent GMAT, very good grades, and are in a very good industry (although I'm curious of course about what you ACTUALLY did at your work). so you are in good shape, but for next year… And I think you can ultimately apply for Top 20-30 schools with excellent applications,

Hope this helps,

zxc321 · Answer

Hi,

Thank you very much for your replay. And sorry for not being clear in my post. I meant to say that I plan to apply in the first round of 2014, in Sep/Oct2014 so that I can start my MBA in 2015.

I graduated from Instituto Superior Tecnico which is considered one of the best engineering schools in Portugal.

I work for a start-up e-commerce, the company has been growing a lot the past couple of years and I'm working on the implementation of new projects and finding ways to make the company work more smoothly. The company is to make around 10 million usd in 2013, great sales growth, great vc-backed, from US and UK based investors. And I'm sure I'll get great recommendations.

Lately I've been thinking about Chicago booth, nyu stern, and mit sloan. By Sep2015 I will have over 2.5 years of work experience.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

Admissionado · Answer

Ah! There you go. So you had the right idea anyhow

You can for sure apply to Sloan, Booth and NYU, but I'd suggest you add another 3-4 schools to that list, and that at least one (better two) come in the 10-30 range. This will give you the most possible options, plus it's good to have one safer school on your list. If you want to continue in e-commerce, then it makes more sense to hit up the Tech savvy schools (well any top 10 school is good, but Anderson, Haas, Johnson, Tepper are particularly good, McCombs too as a safe school for you). Best,

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