Hello,

I would like to apply to MBAs in Bay Area for 2016 intake. Here is my profile. Please share your thoughts and recommendations. Thx :)

29 years old male from Turkey with

GMAT 690 / TOEFL 100
BS in Industrial Engineering (2.4/4) from Turkey
MSc in Economics and Finance (3/4) from Germany

5 years work experience in project finance/contract management in manufacturing industry in Turkey.
Some extra-curricular activities: literary magazine publication etc

I want to cover all of the expenses through loans and through scholarships if I can find any. I wonder whether this is possible.

Do you think that tier 1 schools (namely Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and Marshall) mentioned in this post www.find-mba.com/board/27082 are out of reach for me? Because I think that they are. But, I want to give a shot for them anyway.

Then comes Irvine, Davis, Rady and San Diego which I think that I can aim for. What would you recommend?

all the best,

At this stage in the game it could go either way. Sometimes, in these later rounds, b-schools are looking for people with specific qualities to fill out their cohorts. So Haas or Anderson might be specifically looking for somebody from Turkey who has manufacturing experience.

I do however think that a stronger GMAT score is almost certainly a necessity at the top schools you mentioned. I think that you do have time to re-take, as many of the application deadlines are in March/April.

Of the other schools you mentioned, your choice would depend on your goals. The San Diego schools, given their locations, are strong for tech. Davis tends to have more rounded placements, with grads going into tech, consulting, and even finance.

Just FYI only a few of these schools are actually in the Bay Area: Haas and Stanford. Maybe you can consider Davis in the Bay Area as well, although I would not. The San Diego schools and UCLA are quite far from the Bay.

I have read a lot in this forum, that was very helpful for me. What I understand from those readings relating with GMAT score is that always the higher is better but 690 is ok. I did think to re-take the GMAT but what I need to improve is verbal part. I do not believe I can improve so much in the short time. So, I will not re-take GMAT. Rather, I will focus on the other aspects of my application to strengthen it. I know that my GMAT score is handicap for the TOP MBAs but I will try anyway.

I do not want to work in finance sector. I am very into behavioral finance though. But, I do not think it is the behavioral thing that they do usually :)

Consulting can be an option but what I interested most is innovation and tech. I should focus on San Diego schools then? Should I include Irvine as well?

Thanks for the geographical correction by the way. When I said Bay Area, I wanted to mean California :)