Early MBA plan

Hey guys,

I'll be graduating from a non-target public in the Northeast, couldn't land any front office offers in NYC, so I decided to take an Investment Consulting gig in the Northwest.
Pretty small firm, 200 people tops, I'll be doing IM research, IM PM&A, and some asset allocation.

I'll be working mostly and hearing pitches from AMs, IMs, HFs, and PEs, measuring their performances and weaving the good ones into the investment portfolios of our clients (Institutional mostly). Not much, but way more interesting then Ops or Finance IMHO.

I was thinking of using the next few years to really network with all the professionals that come to us and really make a lot of connections in the buyside, and then moving into the buyside after I get my CFA and/or MBA.

I've been reading around and I know that the general consensus is to go to HBS or Wharton for HF/PE in general, and I can see why. However, considering Im gonna be in the west, how good of choice would Stanford GSB be? Wouldn't there be less competition for HF/PE there?

I know my background coming into bschool wouldn't be as pretty as all the BB, MBB, google analysts out there, but I'm pretty set on getting an MBA from a real good school. Coming from a non-target public, let alone OCR, even networking opportunities are way too limited.

Is there anything I can start preparing for now? I'm still in my senior year btw.