Hi MBACrystalBall,
Thanks for starting this great initiative. I am looking forward to pursuing an MBA (if at all!) from the US and need your advice on few pointers:
My Profile:
Xth marks: 91%
XIIth marks: 87%
Graduation/ Post Graduation:Dual Degree from IIT Delhi (2010 passout)
B.Tech. CGPA: 7.4/10
M.Tech. CGPA: 9.2/10
I have been working at a niche management consulting firm for the past 20 months (promoted once and got the best employee award)
Extra Currics: Institute vice-captain at IIT; hostel captain; help positions of responsibilities in few college events
Took tutorial sessions for 1st and 2nd year students during my last year at IIT
Got couple of awards and scholarships at IIT
Involved (not very deeply) with an NGO for the past two and a half years
NO international travel so far
I have not yet taken GMAT (though I have taken the date of 3rd May and am preparing hard for it)
I have always wanted to do an MBA but never earlier thought of doing it from the US. Was focusing on CAT. I gave CAT couple of times but got stuck at around 97 %ile. Now I think that relying on CAT is very risky (especially all the ridiculous criteria of IIM A and B) and I should look for alternate (and better) options. Having said that, I want to do an MBA from one of the top US or global b-schools (say upto rank 10 or 15)
I have the following queries w.r.t. my MBA aspirations:
1. I am really confused as to whether give US b-schools a shot this time or not. Currently I have 20 months of work ex. and by the time I will apply (this Sept-Oct), it will be about 2 years. I am looking at Fall 2013 batch. I have spoken to many consultants and everyone says that it depends on a person's profile and they can deliberate on mine. But I cannot invest 30k or 40k before really knowing if I have any chance in my preferred schools or not. Should I at all be applying with a 3 year (at the time of joining MBA) experience?
2. While I have had a very rich experience at my current firm, my firm really does not have any brand name in the US. Will it be a key deterrent to my application? Should I switch to another bigger brand, stay there for a couple of years and then apply?
3. A very important concern for me: while I want to experience the very best education, I am not very confident about the financing part; I know that in all good b-schools, full loans are usually available without a co-signer, but how convenient is it to pay back the loan? In one of the blogs, I found that a person has to pay ~$2,000 per month for 10 years to repay the loan. Is this true?
4. What are the job prospects like in the US? How easy or difficult is it for an Indian to get a job there? How difficult is it to get a work visa? Is there a possibility that I will be asked to back to India after my MBA and then probably pay back the loan on my Indian salary?
These are a few of the questions that I have. Hope to get a quick reply and then I will post some more
Regards.