I am a Indian engineer at 28 who works as a manager at Microsoft and have been involved in a group that consistently tries to bring research ideas into business. I have some accomplishments in this area. I am also co owner of a company that is doing some cutting edge stuff and starting to do quite well with some high profile clients.

Other than that, I have some patents to my credit, business trips and about 4 yrs of work exp with faster than usual job growth. I also hold a Masters in CS from US. I am yet to give my GMAT but should be able to get above 710.

I have decided to stick to 4 top schools. I will be shaping my applications around entrepreneurial accomplishments which really are the highlight of my career. What would be my reach or stretch schools in this regard ? How would you rate my chances.

Rohan

What do you want to do post-MBA? Where do you want to live post-MBA (at least in the first few years)?

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

Alex,

Thanks for your reply. Right after my MBA I want to join an emerging technology arm of a company and lead a small team. If not I definitely want to be involved in strategy, vision and those kind of environment

Somewhere down the line, I have the aspiration to be part of a big venture either my own or part of something I beleive in. Based on this, what would you recommendation be ?

Rohan

Honestly, I don't know. Your response wasn't particularly helpful as it wasn't really specific -- you're basically saying you want to get a good job managing people.

Specific locations? Specific firms? Specific roles?

Anyhow, you have to figure out which schools you'd love to go to, do your research, and then come back and ask specific questions about the schools themselves, rather than ask someone to do that for you.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com

Sorry, I did not read the location question. To be more specific near term I want to be in the silicon valley area post MBA. Specific companies would be in the internet and advertising fields.

Seems from the posts on this forum stanford is a bit of a stretch what with the focus on younger demographics. I want to get a list of 5 or 6 schools where I would be fairly competitive. I wanted to know what universities are likely to see my profile (average joe with some entrepreneurial) in better light.

Thanks,
Rohan

If you want to stay in the Bay Area, then Berkeley is an obvious choice -- with a strong application and a bit of luck (there's always luck involved), you should be competitive.

If you're already working/living in the Bay Area, you may also want to look into some local programs like Santa Clara or USF, or Berkeley's part-time program -- the value of being in that region will outweigh just about any school not in the area other than perhaps HBS or Wharton (neither of which I think you have a realistic shot at). Outside of Google and certain positions at Yahoo, most of tech companies aren't really as brand conscious about your MBA as say consulting or banking -- they care mostly about your experience (and they will value your engineering experience) and ability to contribute from day one more than anything else (of course going to a top school helps, but not as much as you'd think - they'd rather hire a Santa Clara MBA over a Kellogg guy for example if the Santa Clara guy is the better fit for the job given his pre-MBA industry experience/knowledge).

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com