Profile evaluation request, target GMAT score and target Schools.

Hi,

I would greatly appreciate an evaluation of my profile. Additionally, it would be really helpful if you could answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

Thanks!


Work Experience:

Current: R&D Design Engineer - Top 5 Semiconductor Company
Duration of work-ex: ~2 months
Key points: I recently graduated from college and started work.

Previous: R&D Design Engineering Intern - Top 5 Semiconductor Company
Duration of work-ex: ~3 months
Key points: Summer internship in the area of my specialization during my Masters.

Misc:
1) Graduate research assistant at Georgia Tech
2) Summer research internship at Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

Education:

M.S., Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (Gatech)
GPA: 3.9/4.0 (Minor in Management)

Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Top 10 Private Engineering College, India
GPA: 9.42/10 (Rank Certificate for Academic Excellence (4th))

Research Publications/Presentations/Awards

1. International: Research publication and poster presentation at a reputed IEEE conference in US (Among Top 5 conferences globally)
2. International: Research Publication at a reputed IEEE conference in China (Among Top 5 conference for Asia-Pacific region)
3. Publication in a fairly reputed journal.
3. Ranked 4th in the department and awarded academic excellence certificate during Under-graduation.
4. Awarded Intel outstanding student circuit designer award at Gatech.
5. Poster presentation on my research at an annual industry review conference at Gatech.
6. Misc: Cleared the PhD prelims at Gatech (Not important, but thought it might highlight my research credentials)

Extracurricular:

1. Played soccer for my high school team, participated in various soccer competitions and have won few trophies as well.
2. Invited to give a guest talk to EE sophomores at my undergraduate college.
3. Have won various prizes at Inter-college competitions (Read: Physics, Math and EE).

Age/Nationality

Age:23
Nationality: Indian
Gender: Male
GMAT: Yet to take.

Reasons for MBA:
- I took a course on product development during grad school (Minor:Management) and found it very interesting. Given my background in research and engineering, i feel doing an MBA would help me develop managerial skills for Product development/Management to complement my engineering skills and leverage them in the Technology industry.
- My long term goal is to become a leader of a technological company and to influence its strategy, planning etc leveraging my analytical abilities.
- I also have a strong aptitude for problem solving and thus feel consulting might also be a career choice later on.

Misc:
- I plan on applying for business schools next year [Read 2019]
- My top priority if i do an MBA is to get atleast partial funding from the school if not full or funding through some other means. I don't want to take on a lot of debt at the end of my MBA.
- Based on the above point, i am looking at the MIT LGO program which seems to provide partial funding and various other fellowships etc to the program admits; granted its low class strength, i am not sure whether i would make the cut.
- Based on my limited research, i also understand that most students at the top MBA programs receive some or other sort of funding and therefore i would still like to give Top 5 MBA programs in US a try.


Questions:

- Based on my motivation for MBA, what would you advise/suggest (provide feedback) should be my focus during my MBA? Currently, i am thinking about specializing in Technology Management/Operations Management or General Management or Strategy.

- Granted i have not started preparing for GMAT, let alone taken it; do you think i stand a shot at the MIT LGO program and the top 5 MBA programs based on my profile and if so, what would you say my target GMAT score should be and if not, which programs should i be aiming for?

- Can you also provide me some information as to which MBA programs provide the best funding and whether it is realistic to think about the possibility of getting this funding for my profile? What other ways can i fund myself through business school?

- Will my strong research and engineering background work for me or against me during applications? And also given my work experience is very engineering oriented, how would this impact my chances and lastly what would you recommend the duration of my WE be?

Thank you so much for your patience. I am looking forward to your reply.