Request for Profile Evaluation

Hey there,
And great to hear from you.

You have an interesting profile and an interesting career development.
that plus your fantastic GMAT should make you eligible for some very good MBA programs.

Let me start with the beginning: Your expectation of getting at least a 75% scholarship may not be achievable. First of all, scholarships are harder to predict than admittance, and secondly, scholarships that cover that much are rare. But actually, I'm not sure this should be your first criteria. Your first criteria should be to get into the best school you can, because once you do, often enough there will be job offers that will allow you to quickly pay back whatever loans you need to take out to pay tuition.

As someone working in the non-profit field, you have also another interesting option: Some schools offer loan forgiveness for those working in non-profit who make under a certain amount per year (Yale for example, does this).

Next: your goals: Moving from IT to Non-profit to finance makes very little narrative sense. It will be hard to justify in your essays, and will not provide you with the best profile to employers upon graduation. It IS of course possible in reality, but I from a strategic perspective, I would not recommend presenting such goals as they have little basis in your experience. Better would be to work from your current skills and network and knowledge and create a set of short- and long-term goals that is plausible logical and achievable.

Finally for schools, putting aside the scholarship issue momentarily, I think you could apply in the 5-15 range with a good solid story. If you were aiming for scholarships, the strategy is simple - apply to lower-ranked more regional schools that fit your goals. Although if your goal is to be recruited by top finance firms/World Bank, you are far better off paying the full tuition and going to a Top 10 school.

I hope this helps.

If you have any follow-up questions, do not hesitate to write.

Best,
JF