I was

- rejected without an interview by 5 schools (LBS,INSEAD,IESE,Tepper,NTU)
- called to an interview which went brilliantly (the interviewer said I was one of the best candidates he'd interviewed), but was then rejected by Kellogg,
- and accepted into HEC Paris with a scholarship.

Coincidentally HEC was the only school where I applied for the Round 1 Jan intake rather than the Round 3 Sep '13 intake. Here is my problem - I am not convinced about the HEC MBA (which I should probably not have applied to in the first place if I wasn't convinced) and am considering Round 1 applications, but have to send my initial deposit of 6K Euros to HEC within the week. So a decision has to be made ASAP and I would really appreciate your honest opinion.

My research of HEC with blogs, alumni etc:
- Need of a 2nd language, present economy means consulting jobs are hard to come by without a valid work permit. According to one 2012 alum, "all Indians with 3-4 years of experience in India have NOT got jobs in Europe and are back in India."
- I have 3 years of IT Consultancy experience and then a year of entrepreneurship, which makes it difficult for me to leverage preMBA expertise for industry jobs and do a 3-prong shift - industry, function AND geography
- Not Tier 1 - I feel I'm not 'stretching myself' enough with the HEC

MY PROFILE:
GMAT - 740
X:95%, XII 95.6%,
Undergrad 6.78/10 :bored to death, but tried to offset with 2 international internships: in Germany and UAE

Work Ex:
36 months - IT Consultancy (1 year in London, blue-chip clients, managed internal support and client teams, won 400K pounds project)
12 months - Quit and returned to India to setup event management company, moderate success at best due to lack of business skills in building a brand etc and network (hence MBA)
I have now joined my ex-General Manager to handle Marketing for her exotic furniture business (one-member team) and look to learn building a brand etc on the job

My own evaluation of profile:
- GPA is very low and a deal-breaker, not sure if GMAT 740 offsets this
- I feel my rejects from LBS and INSEAD this year had to do with applying in Round 3. But I may be wrong.
- I fancy my chances in Round 1 to a few select US schools that give me a realistic chance of pursuing entrepreneurship and consulting. But am not sure how I match up to high-flying grads in the Energy/Consulting Sector. Again, your opinion on the effectiveness of my profile and story (IT consulting ->startup->marketing) to re-apply to the Kellogg program (dream school) would be very useful.

The only question is, do I mail that 6K Euros draft I have in hand right now?

Thanks a ton!

I think you have several doubts about HEC. It's a great school but with more than one or two worries you should take the extra time and apply for entry next year to other school.

Work on your GPA by taking CLEP exams or actual courses.

Get into the best school for your goals that you can.