Why and which MBA program

After GMAT now came to process of completing the essays and continuing my in depth analysis of B-schools. Before I get down to say which B-schools I am targetting, I need to answer Why MBA and which MBA ? The reason why I am doing MBA....
1. I want to discipline myself, my thoughts and my career. I am looking for a course that is rigourous and gives me no-time to indulge into petty talks and thoughts. In essence, a course that helps me develop focus towards my interests and hobbies.
2. I am doing MBA to take a shot at entreprenuership.
3. The focus of the MBA program should be on decision analysis, strategy making and technology. I want a program that not only teaches my leadership and other mangement skills but also about technology and decision analysis.

Colleges short-listed:
a. Sloan-MIT:
Reason: Damn strong on technology, gives no time to students especially during first year. The first semester or in MIT lingo "core" is by far the toughest first semester in all MBA programs...( I am still wondering what the hell do they teach !!! ) Anyway, I also like the concept of C-party that happens every thursday's at Sloan. Must be fun...

b. UC Berkeley- Haas:
Reason : Similar to MIT, in terms of focus on technology, not very strong on decision analysis and strategy making, but vicinity to Silicon valley, and the MOT program alongside MBA is the main reason for me to target this college.

c. Michigan Ross:
Reason: Another Tech major, has a good focus on strategy and leadership. A very good general MBA program with a focus on technology and easy to tailor the course.

d. Chicago GSB:
Reason: Completely non-technical college, with absolutely no courses in technology !!! . But, I have met many alumni of this college and I have developed an appreciation for its strong alumni and faculty. A beautiful program focusses on overall personality development, but my focus would be to learn strategy and decision analysis subjects. More of a general MBA with focus on strategy.

e. Cornell - Johnson :
reason: Located in the quite small town of Ithaca, NY. A very good curriculum of general mBA with a focus on strategy management. This is more like a back-up but nevertheless I am not at taking it easy ..

How MBA ?

I decided to pursue MBA program while I was in my final year of engineering. But, it was not until three years of work-experience that I decided to take the first shot at MBA in Indian B-Schools. I wrote CAT, XAT and FMS and did not get through any of these colleges. Anyway, life moved on and I changed jobs and industries and moved into business consulting from software, and this certainly helped me change my outlook. Now, I started looking for an MBA in schools outside India, particularly US, like most Indians do. The reason I did not give MBA in Indian B-schools a second try was based on a principle that I had written for myself long back during school days, "never give an exam twice", until mandated. Second, I felt there is no use sweating the small stuffs like Algebra and all those calculations, when I had bigger goals in mind. To me the selection process of foreign B-schools appeared better for me and I realized that I had more chances to get through these schools than Indian. Also I feel I can better express myself in words than percentiles.

Now the second big question comes, which US b-schools ? Most people i interacted with said GMAT score was the main factor while selecting schools, but once I had seen the application form of one of top US B-schools, I refused to believe in this line of thought. I knew GMAT score could be "a" factor but certainly not "the" factor selection. So I focused myself on writing essays and preparing application rather than devoting my entire time on GMAT preparation. Believe you me, I spend more time writing essays than GMAT preparation in the last one month to GMAT.

Initially my GMAT preparation was intermittent and lacked dedication, primarily because of my work-schedule. A week before GMAT, I took leave for the entire week and all I did was SC/RC/CR/PS/ DI etc... Trust me this was an effective way of preparing for GMAT, one week preparation to a score of 690/ 5.0 .. not a slam dunk score, but certainly enough for me to target the schools that I was preparing for ....