Which Schools should i apply to ?

Question

Hi everyone,

I am planning to apply to b-schools for the Fall 2023 intake and would love your thoughts on which schools I can apply to. A little about my profile -

Background : Indian, Female
 Undergraduate Degree : BE in Computer Engineering
 GPA  - 3.3
 GMAT : 740- Q50, V41, IR5
 Work experience till date : 2 jobs over ~4 Years
 Job 1 : 3 years 4 months as a Business Analyst + Senior Business Analyst.
I was closely involved with identifying data trends, anomalies and potential areas of improvement for BAU.
 Job 2 : 10 months as Product Analyst at a Unicorn company.
Involves monitoring product performance and working on how to continually upgrade the product for better customer experience.

Extra Curriculars :
Painter and Co-Owner of a local arts and craft business specializing in acrylic, glass and water color paintings.
Participated in and won a few Debate Competitions in college.
Member of College Annual Fest Organising Committee.
As Vice President of Environment Club in school, I played a pivotal role in planning, organising and executing Annual fests year after year.

Post MBA Goals :
I want to enter into the Product Domain. My post MBA goal is to become a Product Manager/Product Owner in the short term and Product Leader/CPO of a startup in the long term.

Current List of Schools I am planning to apply to for my MBA- 
1) London Business School
2) Rotman 
3) UNC Kenan Flagler
4) UCLA
5) Cornell

I would appreciate your opinions on my current list or suggestions for schools that i can add to my list. Looking forward to hearing what you think.

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

Hey, you have a good profile. You can try applying to stern, Hass, Kellogg, or Ross as well. These schools have a great reputation for MBA in product management.
But then selecting a school is just not about brand reputation. It's cost of attendance, location, post-MBA jobs opportunity in that state or country.. quite a few things play a role in selecting a school. Your list above showcases 3 different countries in it. Relocation is easier said than to be done. I will suggest you make up your mind about where you want to work and apply accordingly. Applications submission is a daunting task, won't advise you to fill out more than a handful of school applications. Good luck.

Posted from my mobile device

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

A few thoughts on your profile evaluation and some queries  VirajA :
 
  The academic arc isn't quite clear. Since you've not mentioned your college name, presume it's not tier 1? How was your GPA there? The GMAT score is in the right range for top schools of course but pedigree matters too.  
  The professional profile looks good given the nature of your work - both BA and Product Analyst roles are pretty close to business. Once again, without the name of your employers, it is tough to judge feeder brands which can matter for top schools. The post-MBA plan sounds about right broadly speaking. 
  The   ECs arc   is decent in college. Not sure if by school you meant high school or undergrad? If latter, that will be helpful. The venture is something you should take full benefit from in your application.  
  For reasons mentioned  here , we don't speculate on school selection or chances. That being said, for LBS,   international experience   matters. Anything here? Tough to say much without a deeper dive but overall, the list does seem to have some balanced mix.

Hope this helps some. Do reach directly out for any further discussions.

ExpertsGlobal · Answer

Hello  VirajA ,

Thanks for writing in.

Your professional experience is strong and your goals in sync with your strengths. The extra-curricular activities look decent as well. Assuming you will put forth a set of essays that do justice to your profile and showcase your overall case in a compelling manner, we see you have a strong chance of making it to most of your target schools. We would have like to see a slightly higher score for Cornell but we can definitely give it a shot.

We would suggest the inclusion of a Foster. It might be lower ranked than some of your target schools but is in very strong sync with your goals and has great placement opportunities thanks to its location in Seattle.

All the best!

Which Schools should i apply to ?

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards