Need advice about MBA admission:

[v***@gmail.com]

Hello everybody:

need some honest opinions and/or advices:

I know many you have probably heard these kind of questions a lot, but
I just want to get a feel...

I am thinking about applying to the top 10-20 MBA programs in the fall
and need some brutal opinions about my chances,
especially from guys who have applied to these schools before:

First here is the list of schools I am thinking about applying to:

1 Harvard
2 Stanford
3 MIT
4 Univ. of Penn
5 Northwestern
6. Univ. of Chicago
7. Columbia
9. UC Berkeley
10. Emory
11. London Business School

My undergrad GPA: 3.67 in Computer Science/Math minor; however I went
to a small state university in the south(about 8000 students) - I was
poor then and couldn't afford anything else.

GMAT: 740

Work experience: 3.5 years in software engineering, worked for two
different companies, both are quite large and fairly known.

Speak fluently 3 different languages, during my undergrad years spent
one summer in Western Europe doing demographical research and one
summer in Russia working with medical teams.

I am afraid that my education not being from a very known school, plus
my work experience not involving direct management of people could
really hurt my case...

Could you please advice? Can I write my essays certain way that would
help my application.
Would be very thankful for any advice...

[d***@cs.com]

I have not done an MBA, but considered doing it, and was (maybe still
am) in the same situation. I think the name of your undergrad school
will not hurt you at all (unless of course, YOU sucked in your school).
Make your experiences stand out in essays, show you are special (they
need people like that to contribute in the class), come up with real
examples where you had to lead, prove you have the integrity and other
good qualities these schools want to see. One more thing: forget about
the names of companies, your school, how much money you had, and in
general lose this attitude that only top schools,companies,money weight
in this world - this will hurt you. Show them YOU're valuable and ready
for this. Maybe you'll make it.
Denis