Suggestion on whether to go for round 3 or for round 1?

Question

Hello Friends

Here is my brief profile

Nationality: Indian
Age: 28
Educational Qualification: B.E.in Electronics & Telecommunications
B.tech Score : CGPA 8.43/10
GMAT Score: 690 (IR : 6, AWA : 5, Quantitative: 49, Verbal : 34)
Work Experience: 5 years, 3 months with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an Indian IT company
International experience : 15 months of onsite experience in Japan
Role: Module leader, where in I am leading a group of 5-6 persons
Domain : Engineering and Industrial services (EIS), where my client is a car one of the biggest car company.
Extra Curricular: Trekking. I have not involved in much of extra-curricular activities in the past, but plan on doing so in the immediate future
Social service : Taking part in blood donation drive, helping poor with collection of materials for them etc.

I want to pursue MBA and want you suggestion on
1) Should I apply in Round 3 application process or should I wait for Round 1 later this year?
2) What kind of MBA courses/programs will be good for me, keeping my IT background in mind?
3) I want your suggestion on names of some good B-schools, which might provide me scholarship to me, with this profile? I know there are other factors as well. BUt I think, you can help me in making those factors strong.

jumsumtak · Answer

What are your target schools? R1 next year for anything in the US top 25 or top 5 EU programs.

vimal096 · Answer

My target schools are TOP-30 global schools where I can get good scholarship. I have bit of financial issues and might not be able to pay for the huge tuition and living costs of US or EU schools, without financial help. Please suggest some schools 
a) Whose placement record is good, I mean I will have a good chance of getting placed.
b) Whose average package at placement is not very less than the TOP 20 B schools.
c) Where I have good chance of getting good scholarship.

Admissionado · Answer

Round one. No doubt about that, dude.

CriticalSquare · Answer

Agreed - R1 all the way mate!

MBADecoder · Answer

1. You should definitely apply in Round 1 in Fall 2014, rather than in R3 - Its too late for an international applicant now. Moreover, most b-schools have their scholarship consideration deadline upto Round 2.
2. There is no cookie cutter kind of an MBA course available for an IT professional. You have to think about what you want to do after the MBA. Many students look at the MBA as an opportunity to effect a career change into another industry or another function. The path is really quite open for you to select what you want.

Suggestion on whether to go for round 3 or for round 1?

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