Hi everybody! Gearing up to submit my round 2 applications before the holidays. It would be interesting to hear other peoples' opinions of me and the schools that I should apply.

Stats:
Work experience: 5.5 years total, 2.5 years analytics role in a consulting firm + 2 years general front office in a different consulting firm + 1 year as a server/bartender
GMAT: 740
GPA: 3.33

Goal is to study at a school on the East Coast and continue in consulting at an MBB firm.

Schools I would like to apply to:
MIT - Sloan
Booth
NYU
Columbia
Wharton

Would appreciate any comments on my chances at these schools and any suggestions for other schools I can look at.

Thank you!

Of course, all of those schools are great. Booth places strongly into McKinsey and Bain; Columbia places into all the MBB firms at relatively high rates. Not so sure about Wharton and NYU though, placements there tend to be more finance-oriented.

In terms of whether you are competitive at these schools, your stats are definitely in the ballpark, and the schools will certainly look kindly on your consulting experience. But there are many other applicants who have similar stats, so the other factors they'll look at include the following:

- your career arc - have you had a steady climb in terms of responsibility?
- your extracurriculars and any leadership experience you have outside of work/school
- your application essays/interviews
- the strength of your letters of recommendation

The fact that you're applying in round 2 might hurt you a little, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Wow, thank you so much for the detailed response! I think that my career arc and extracurriculars are fairly good, or at least I hope the admissions will consider them this way!

If you had to pick three schools that best match my career goals and profile, which would those be? It sounds like Booth and Columbia... and maybe MIT?

This is a good place to start:

http://find-mba.com/lists/top-business-school-by-speciality/top-business-schools-for-consulting

Looks like this list is strongly MBB placement-focused. Harvard, Columbia, Booth, Fuqua, Sloan and Goizueta are the US schools listed there. Any of these would be strong choices for a move towards MBB. But check out LinkedIn too to see what kind of footprint the schools have in each individual firm.

Just submitted my applications to Columbia and Booth... Fingers crossed!