LBS ahoy

I have been working on my resume... can't make it fit a single page. There has just been too much, with my vaious jobs and responsibilities, even the fact that i have a postgrad degree in addition to the undergrad one! 

All this brought to focus the biggest weakness that i perceive in my application.... I am an "older candidate".... so i have to be even more careful about my school choices. Given that european schools are more friendly to older applicants, i had to iunclude atleast one from there. INSEAD.... somehow i have always felt that it was less substance than I wanted.... and because I am a career changer, i'd like a 2 year course better anyway. LBS was enticing, it seems like the right kind of place to me in a lot of ways, and the fact that a team from there climbed the Mt Everest just makes the place look cooool.....

I now had to think again about the other schools.

Darden, Tick and Fuqua have a relatively older-friendly reputation. Wharton.... its HSM is something i just really really want to do.. even though i know its been tending younger recently.... I was tempted to chuck out Ross, but decided to keep it, it is a good school and I'd love to study at a place where C K Prahlad is a faculty. 

SO there's a new school in the list.... lots of more work, and the essays have started to pour in.... wish me luck

Thanks

Thanks a lot folks! Within no time of me expressing doubts about my viability for Wharton, i got encouragement from three people whose blogs i follow and respect. Nitin, Tinydancer and ahembeea all wrote to encourage me to apply to wharton, and I think I will.... That means a lot of extra work, but ateast I'll know where i stand.

BTW, this post by Tinydancer further encouraged me to give it a shot. 

Changed List of Schools

I have decided to not run after Chicago and HBS. I'll concentrate on 4 US schools (Fuqua, Tuck, Ross, Darden), 3 Indian (IIM A & L, ISB), and HKUST, a wild card. This is my final list for now.

Reasoning.

My aim is to go into healthcare management, reaching Strategic position ASAP. While wharton may be my best bet for that, i'm not too excited about my leadership record. I mean, as a doctor, there's only so much you can do. My "leadership" things only include things like talking to the CEO to make laparoscopic surgery packages more attractive for our patients, things like this. I have also worked in 5 institutes in seven years, and while i was always moving towards something, its not something you boast about. So i feel the top 5 are beyond my reach. I therefore stay within the top 20 or so, and concentrate on the schools good at general management, where very few indian doctors would be applying.

I am 34, and this may well be my last chance..... If I have a chance at all

The choice of indian schools is obvious

The HKUST is the joker in the pack. It's not all that well known in India, is a good program with good recruitment, and although its focus is finance, and the brand name in India non-existing, its very well recognized in rest of Asia. It will be a last resort, I guess, but is a good last reasort, if one is needed.