Hi ,

I recently took GMAT and i scored 660.
Q:49 and V :31, AWA : 5
I am from India.
Work ex : Deloitte Consulting , 2 yrs as of now (june 2012)
Grads : 67%

I am planning to apply to
1) SUNY Buffalo
2) Katz , Pittsburg
3) Purdue
4) University of Georgia
5) Penn state, Smeal

I have many factors in mind
a) location, so that my internship opportunities are good. And also I land up in a job after my MBA.
b) cost, (around 80k$ or less including tuition nd living costs for the entire duration is preferrable)
c) Scholarship chances, since my gmat score is on the average of many b-schools , i think i dont have a chance for scholarships in good schools.

It would be great if anyone could help me around in letting me know on which university would be the best fit for me.

From best to worst I would list them:
1 Pennsylvania State University--University Park (Smeal)
2 Purdue University--West Lafayette (Krannert) (IN)
3 University of Georgia (Terry) (GA)
4= University at Buffalo--SUNY (NY)
4= University of Pittsburgh (Katz) (PA)

The lower the school, the higher the acceptance rate.

Buffallo is the only one of these where you are an easy admit: the others have an average age of 27 or 28. I suggest you look at other schools with lower average work experience:
Iowa State University (IA)
Rochester Institute of Technology (Saunders) (NY)
University of Arizona (Eller) (AZ)
University of South Carolina (Moore) (SC)
University of Cincinnati (OH)
University of Utah (Eccles) (UT)
Bentley University (McCallum) (MA)
University of Oklahoma (Price) (OK)
Louisiana State University--Baton Rouge (Ourso) (LA)

Hi ,
If you are looking for 1year MBA in fall'12 intake and also seeking for some scholarships, i would recommend you for Chapman Business School at Florida International University. http://business.fiu.edu/chapman/imba/index.cfm
I hope this could be of your interest.
Mamit

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for the elaborate post. But I forgot to mention that I was looking for universities in the top- 100 list.

I am very much interested in Katz because of the feedback i got from seniors. The program value seems to be on the upward trend , latest being its inclusion in the Financial times rankings top 100.

So first, I wanted to get an insight based on your experience on how my profile has chances of acceptance in the second tier colleges , taking into count my experience (which are in top 100).
Second, How will it go if I can get my GMAT to 700. The point is , I am not too keen in the list of colleges you suggested which as per my knowledge is not worth the money spent to study in the US.

Thanks in advance

P.S : The last sentence is entirely my opinion, please feel free to correct me on it. :)

Both work experience and GMAT are hurdles for you. If you can get up to 700 then I would recommend you look at:
University of Wisconsin--Madison (WI)
Rice University (Jones) (TX)
Brigham Young University (Marriott) (UT)
University of Iowa (Tippie) (IA)
University of Maryland--College Park (Smith) (MD)
Baylor University (Hankamer) (TX)
University of Tennessee--Knoxville (TN)
Iowa State University (IA)

These are, when you average out the rankings, all in the top 60 US business schools and have cohorts with less work experience than the others and average GMATs under 700. A 700 GMAT would stand out there, especially at the bottom three, and at Iowa and Maryland. I suggest you start with those two. I would rate them both above Katz. If it's Katz's one year MBA that attracts you, Iowa runs a one-year programme in Italy called CIMBA.

Thanks a lot Duncan. I am more interested in Katz 2 year program since that will give me the flexibility and options for my career.

I will give a try again to bump the score to 700 or above. Will let you know when I apply & how the process goes.

Cheers