Advice for Young Applicant, specifically international applicant

From my experience meeting with admitted students at A-days and through casual dinners around LA, I'm painstakingly aware of my age as compared to other admitted students. OKAY I'll admit I'm not THAT young.. I'm 24 going to 25 this year.. Whenever the other students start talking about "OH u went to UCLA too? Which year..? "I kinda want to not say anything.. :)

But anway back to the advice.. so I guess my advice will really mostly apply to international applicants ( sorry locals.. ) I think the international applicants at an advantage if they're applying with less than ave working experience.. why? because of course they have the diversity going on, and they have more to offer to the class in terms of global network and cultural differences. Also if you happen to be a young FEMALE applicant, you're in better luck than the fellow males because from my conversation w other ppl ( DISCLAIMER: I say from conversationsss ) seems like B school understand that :

OURBIOLOGICALCLOCKISTICKINGASIWRITETHIS

and that we want to start a family soon yada yada yada and thus Adcom give us a break for applying early.

Now while getting into B school w less than working experience, there are things to consider :

what can u give to other students from ur limited w/e.. maybe ur diversity, maybe ur internationa w/e, maybe your non-profit experience, maybe u worked for only 2 yrs but u have done an amazing job at it.. Whatever it is, make sure u know what u can offer to the school..

Of course then there's that conversation about how we are at a disadvantage because we never manage anyone before.. If you have strong extracurricular activities where you have managed people before.. GREAT.. I've spoken to current students about this.. Most of them react : HELL YOU GET IN.. who cares..
One though says YES DEF u're at a disadvantage.. I asked WHY? He says you'll learn a topic well when you tell ur self : HEY That's what I SHOULD HAVE DONE before.. But i guess that's debatable..

Now from my reassesment of whether I want to do MBA last month.. u guys should pick an important lesson! PLEASE do research about why you want to do mba BEFORE you apply to schools.. HAHAHA but then again I guess I might be discouraged from applying had I known other applicants have much stronger profile than I do.. Okay lemme admit how I pick schools :

I know I def want to do MBA. WHY: prestige, educational value, international network

HOW I PICK SCHOOLS : okay which schools are in big cities ( NY or LA).. okay next, which school are top 20... Okay then :
UCLA, BERKELEY, USC, NYU, COLUMBIA

Hah okay u get the point, I'm nuts..

But I must say, I'm a general representative of the international applicant ( OKAY.. maybe that's too general.. how bout Indonesian.. No? Ok I ll stop generalizing)

but yeah that's what I've been doing for my undergrad: didn't research what major I need to do, didn't know what classes there are, didn't know why I want to go to a specific school.. Location Location Location..

OK anyway I know it's hard for international applicant not in US to really get to know the schools other than through websites or catalogue. Access to alumns are probably limited. I've only done my research after I got in schools: I've never talked to current students/alumns before. The idea ofo researching about a school before was too abstract.. I always wonder about what I should talk to with these students.. maybe because my goal at the first place is not clear about why i want to do MBA.. Once you know what you want to get out of it, then you start researching more.

Anyway, I believe this applying to B school process is AS IMPORTANT as getting in.. Hell, networking, researching, talking and emailing current students.. These all are NEW to me..

Anyway back to advices : Don't be too stressed out if your w/e is not too much.. it's quality not quantity. it's also about what you want to achieve with your MBA. what's your goal after MBA. if it makes sense then by all means apply early. I believe that my career progression and MBA is in line in achieving my LT goal. Thus I apply..

Also don't think about failing.. You should always think about doing your best. Do the best for your application : GMAT, essays etc.. Then when all that fails, think again why you fail.. talk to other ppl why they succeed.. Failure is just a postponed success.. My gmat is lower than other students, my w/e is nothing as well.. but I think essays really help .. so work hard :)

Any other advices... Herm.. not at the moment.. but good luck !

I think adcoms who read my advices here will want to kill me.. what's with them telling ppl not to apply to early.. and here I am telling ppl to shut that off and just concentrate on what you want to get out of MBA..