apply this year or wait a year or so?

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>hey guys, </p>

<p>I graduated from Upenn Engineering with a 3.60 GPA. I have been working in an inv. bank in Turkey since June 2009. I got 710 in gmat. I dont have much extracurricular activities currently and had participated in two student associations back in college. My company in Turkey is the most active investment bank in Turkey in terms of deals completed and its prestige here is at least as much as Jp morgan or merrill lynch etc.</p>

<p>Anyways, I am aiming top 10 schools like harvard, stanford, columbia, wharton, northwestern and maybe NYU and Yale and If I decide to apply in October 2010, I will have around 1.5 years of experience (2.5 at the beginning of school). I know the average work experience in those schools is 4-5 years. Do you suggest me to wait 1 year and apply then or should I try my chances now. </p>

<p>I will have my recommendation from the partners of my company.</p>

2

<p>lots of people do two years, check the class profiles at the top schools, harvard and stanford are both particularly young</p>

3

<p>You have a very good pedigree and work experience. You should apply now.</p>

4

<p>i am planning to apply to around 4-5 schools, which schools would you recommend ? i believe HBS, stanford, wharton, columbia are rather younger, am i right?</p>

<p>I will probably pursue a finance related job like private equity or i. banking after MBA so i guess wharton would my first choice?</p>

5

<p>for PE, especially blue chip type of PE like Blackstone/KKR/TPG, you pretty much have to go to H/S/W (they only recruit there).</p>

<p>The schools have strong ties to wall street are:
Stanford
Harvard
Wharton
NYU-Stern
Duke-Fuqua
Columbia
Chicago-Booth
Dartmouth-Tuck
MIT-Sloan</p>

<p>You can pick and choose from those. Make sure to pick a safety.</p>

6

<p>hey
thanks for the reply, its very useful for me.</p>

<p>so if i were to choose wharton, harvard, columbia and nyu, what would be a good safety to add to the list.</p>

<p>in any case, i am not aiming to go to a second tier so i will probably try some of the schools you have listed and pry to get in to one=)</p>

<p>I believe Columbia has an early application, would you recommend that? does that help chances of getting in?</p>

7

<p>CBS, Tuck, and Fuqua all have an early round.
I’d suggest applying to Fuqua, it has higher acceptance rate than the other schools.</p>