Hi there,

My aims are high and I believe I have talent to reach them, my short term goal is to reach to a senior management role (GM / Vice President) with a multi-national group in Construction / Technology sector in next 10 years.

I am strongly thinking about MBA from top Business School and I need an expert guidance in making a final decision. Here's my credentials please have a look and guide me, thanks :)

I am an Indian Citizen with 10 years of Project Planning and Controls experience in Infrastructure construction and Technology sector. My experience includes Planning large scale construction projects (up to USD 250 Million) with Project Controls perspective and scheduling large portfolios of Technology Programmes (USD $ 50 Million/ year) from Schedule control and Resource Management perspective.

I earned Bachelors in Civil Engineering from India with (3-3.5) cumulative GPA and started my professional career with a small real estate group as Junior Planning Engineer. After working for 2 years I joined Post Graduate Diploma in construction Management from India and earned (3.5- 4) cumulative GPA.

I worked with one of the top 10 Middle East Construction contractor for 6.5 years and reached to Senior Planning Engineer position. I then moved to Australia with Permanent residency and worked for 6 months with a local builder as an Estimator/ scheduler before I was offered a Senior Project Management Specialist role by a Fortune 100 US company. I am presently working with this company for a year now and I am based in Auckland, New Zealand My present salary is $100K+.

I scored 650 in GMAT in my first attempt and I am confident to increase my score to 700+. I am not in hurry in applying for MBA and I can wait for 3 years . My reasons - 1) I will have Australian Citizenship by then 2) I am hopeful that I will be working as Project Controls / Programme Manager by then.

I want to study full time from one of the top 10 grad school in USA and I am flexible to stay in USA or go back to Australia, Middle East or India.

Please advice, with my career profile and 700+ GMAT score what are my chances in getting to Top 10 US MBA and scholarships. Thanks

[Edited by raj_01 on Feb 27, 2016]

It sounds like you don't have specific questions at this stage. I can recommend this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/MBA-Admissions-Handbook-Balbir-Guru/dp/1844556123/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1

Thanks Duncan, I really appreciate your quick response and suggestion. But I believe I need help now; I am very serious about MBA and my question is to understand that how beneficial or strong my experience is to secure admission in top MBA university, like Harvard, Wharton or Stanford. And also, I want to know that Should I really wait for 3 years to become Australian Citizen if that will help or a 700+ score is good enough now. Cheers!!!

You will be a less attractive candidate in three years but H/S/W are still unlikely to admit you without a gmat well above their average, unless your work experience is with one of their major recruiters. A less competitive top ten school, like Yale or Chicago, is more realistic but still a stretch. Either way apply as early as possible and try to line up an alumnus as a recommender.

Read my LinkedIn post (Linked on my profile page). Which of the top 20 schools have the most alumni in the firm you work for? Those might be the better targets.

I'm not sure that becoming an Australian citizen would do anything for your application chances.

Perhaps above all, the schools that you're targeting are going to be looking for candidates who will be attractive to the companies that recruit from the school. Take a look at each school's top recruiters and then compare your profile to that of other MBAs working in those firms. You can also get a sense if those firms align with your goals. Perhaps other schools would be more appropriate, depending on where you see yourself after graduation.

Thanks Duncan for valuable suggestions, I used LinkedIn for alumni search and the results are really great. There are a very few Harvard Grads in our company, it's really very useful tool. Really appreciate your comments

Thanks Badux for suggesting a new angle, I think I was targeting top school based on FT and other rankings thinking that an MBA from top school will greatly help in pushing my career to the next level but in doing so I stopped focusing on recruiters. I will use your advise from now on.

@Raj_01

Becoming an Australian citizen might help your admission case in some schools outside of US top 15/20. Schools are seek to increase diversity based on nationality in their incoming class.

However, as Duncan/badux pointed out it won't be a great deal to the likes of Harvard.
If you are not a US, Singapore or Chile National then you would have to go through the H1B lottery process - like everyone else.
(Note: Singapore/Chile also have to go through the process - but they have some quota in the process increasing their chances significantly - no data to prove)

Thanks for replying Ayon, I was also thinking that diversity should help and it was one of the reasons behind my intention for waiting for Australian Citizenship. As per my research the number of Australian applicants are way lesser than Indians and since the top colleges also give importance to the diversity in the selection process, citizenship should help. More-ever Australians can work on E3 visa (based on Australia’s AUSFTA agreement with America) in US which is again a positive point.