Looking to apply in 1.5-2 years. What can I do now to improve my app? Goal is T16/M7

Hi everyone,

I'm a 2015 graduate of UC Berkeley with a 3.8 GPA with a major in Political Science (International Relations concentration) working on the East Coast. I've been working as a high-tech B2B enterprise software sales rep at Oracle for about 1 year, 7 months. I recently got promoted from being a "Business Development Consultant" to an "Enterprise Account Executive."

I was one of the first people in my batch to be promoted, and have been in the top 20% of sales reps in my hub. I've also had an informal mentoring role (beyond the job description of my role) to new hires. I've also gotten several performance awards, such as "top BDC" (out of 100 people) and "Oracle Excellence Award."

My manager of 1.5 years is more than happy to write a future rec, as is our Sales Director with whom I have a solid relationship.

I plan to work for around 1.5 years, before applying for R2 in 2019. By then, I'll have around 3 years of experience at application, and approx 3.5 years of experience at matriculation.

I'm the VP of my hub's Toastmasters, and I want to be president in the next elections. I do some environmental volunteering on the side, but don't have much else in the way of extracurricular activities.

I haven't taken the GMAT or GRE yet, but I will start soon. I'm still deciding which test would be a better fit (the GRE seems easier for me BC of my liberal arts background). If I pursue the GMAT, I'll work hard to get a 730+. For the GRE, nothing less than a 166 on both Q and V. I took both tests cold and crushed the verbal sections (more so on the GRE), but got destroyed on quant. So a refresher would be good.

Also, unfortunately I didn't take college-level quant courses. Apparently that rules me out of applying to my alma matter institution, since Berkeley Haas requires applicants to have completed calc and stats to demonstrate "quantitative proficiency." This doesn't seem to be the case anywhere else (except maybe MIT Sloan??), where if you score really high on quant section of the GRE or GMAT, you're good to go and don't need to take additional quant classes prior to matriculation.

I don't know if it's worth it to take calc and stats at a community college or extension institution only to have the opportunity to apply to Haas, and it's not guaranteed I'd get in. What do you think?

The other thing is I'm a Chinese-American male, 25 in age. Having said that, I am disabled, and suffer from lupus, which I've had to overcome at school and work to succeed.

My career goals are to shift to a general management position in marketing analytics for a f500 firm, preferably in an urban West Coast area. My realistic dream MBA program is Northwestern-Kellogg, but UChicago-Booth is very close second. I will also apply to Dartmouth-Tuck, UMich-Ross, Duke-Fuqua, and UCLA-Anderson. I'd apply to Harvard as a super stretch (HBS is my "real dream" school but hey, let's be realistic lol).

I'm also considering either Columbia or Yale: both have decent general management placement, although the former has a finance focus and the latter has a social impact one. Darden is a good school too I'm considering, although it might not have the best West Coast placement, which is what I prefer.

Do you have any specific advice for me in the next 1.5 years as I embark on GRE/GMAT studying, building up my profile, doing essays, continuing to progress at work, etc., that will help ensure I get into a T16 MBA program?

If I got into UCLA or Fuqua, honestly I'd be pretty content, and maybe it might make sense to going to a lower T16 with a huge scholly over an M7 at sticker bc the general management placement is solid across the T16 (M7 seems to be only a "must" for IB and MBB consulting gunners). But I could be wrong. But the point is I'd be perfectly happy going to a T16, and while ambitious, I'm not extremely so to the point of M7 or bust.

What do you all think? What would you recommend I do? Feel free to be harsh and brutally honest -- I love constructive criticism.

Thanks!!