Hello All,

About me: I am Engg Grad from India with 10+ years of experience in IT. All ten years with one company. Current doing program management and business relationship management. Recently completed a general management certification course (1 yr) from one of the IIM. Have four years of Project management work ex in USA. Good thing from this course was it has now fueled the desire in me to go for a full time MBA.

What I want to do: Full time MBA (1 year or max 18 months) specialization in Finance or Strategy. Location - Considering UK, India (only IIM-A) or Europe (not 100% sure due to the economy)

Dilemma - With 10+ yrs experience, quitting a job with handsome pay and having to go thru a financial crunch is proving to be tough. Looking for B Schools that would offer me a good scholarships, job prospects and also critical factor to consider would be the ease of re-locating with family (if outside India). I plan to even pursue Ph.d and switch to academics if I get sufficient funding (Hard lesson most learn after spending 10 years in IT)

GMAT - Been a while since I last took. 2007 score - 640. Will be trying for 700+ this time

Help Needed: To shortlist the schools & also about VISA norms

You need to focus on your career goals. If you want to do a PhD, then many schools pay you. However, you would need to take a major lurch now into reading and writing about a very narrow area so that you were up to speed with the main research on the topic.

Otherwise, there's a big choice between strategy and finance. If you wanted to do that outside the US then you'd really need an 18 month course because you'd need a serious internship and two terms/semesters of electives to be taken seriously.

Your background doesn't sounds unique, so top-tier schools won't offer you full scholarships. It will be second- and third tier universities that will od that - and they may not be the best for your career path.

Thank you Duncan. What schools would you suggest for Finance & Strategy?

Best Regards,
SP

It's really finance *or* strategy. Take a look at
http://www.find-mba.com/specializations

Yes. Thank you so much.