Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi,

I am working in IT sector and will complete 2.5 years of work experience by fall 2012.
A appeared in GMAT and scored 600. This is below my expectations. I did good in quantitative(48) but poor in verbal(25). I do not think i will be able to improve my score significantly in same year. Thus, i want to apply this year only.

Could you please suggest how much promising my profile is and i would appreciate if you could tell me few good schools which suits my profile and score.

Thanks,
Amit

Hi amit305 --

Sorry to hear about the disappointing GMAT - that test is no fun at all! As you have suspected, the low verbal score may prove to be a challenge in helping you gain access to the best schools. The other potential issue is that you just don't have much work experience yet. Most good business schools in the US and Europe typically want to see a stronger foundation in career than you have so far. The average age at many schools is 28, with 5 years of work experience being typical. We've seen people rejected from many schools even when their profiles are very very strong (high GPA, GMAT at 730 or above) simply because they did not yet have enough work experience. When the profile is weaker, then often the adcom feels the younger candidate should simply take more time in building things up (including improving the GMAT) before applying.

We always see people improve their GMAT when they devote time to studying for it. We *strongly* recommend that you make that your goal for the time being. It might be possible for you to get into a Top 50 school with this score, but because you're so young, you would probably gain a lot more from the experience if you took the next year to develop your career further anyway. So it seems like there could be a lot of benefits to you in waiting. You would also be able to go for more leadership opportunities on the job and the community, which will give you a more well-rounded profile, with more high-impact stories to present to the adcom in the essays.

So, unfortunately, we cannot be too optimistic for your chances at a good school, based solely on the few details we have now. We would guess that it would be pretty much impossible for you to get an offer of acceptance from a Top 30 school this year with this GMAT score. Maybe, if you have an impressive early career with lots of great stories of achievement already, you could be able to get into a school further down the rankings -- but this is a tough profile for them to accept right now.

The other option for you to consider might be other Master's programs that are specifically geared for early-career candidates. You'll need to have your career goals well defined - you'll need that in order to select an appropriate MBA program too but there are so many choices with other types of Master's options that it's just as important. Some to consider might be the Master's in Management at LBS (in the UK) and one at IE (Spain) - these may have MAXIMUM years of work experience requirements, you'd need to check (by contrast, Duke has a Master's of Management Studies but it's only open to people who have one year or less of work experience, so you already have too much for that one!).

Sorry to be such a downer - hope this helps in understanding your options.

Best of luck!
EssaySnark

600 is low but not that low. Even the best business schools(here I am referring to Post top 25 ) would usually consider an application with a 600, but the rest of your application would have to be really exceptional for a chance at getting in.

Given that I am not interested in retaking gmat, still I want to fight, I would take my chances at Purdue University (Krannert), University of Rochester (Simon), Vanderbilt University (Owen),Indiana University (Kelley), Michigan State University (Broad),baruch college , Pennstate smeal

There are a lot of good European B schools ready to listen to your story at 600. Warwick.

Schulich : Canadian college

No score is a guarantee. No score is a reject. If you have a lot of heart and you can have essays which represent your personality, aptitude, ec, experiences, background etc to connect at an emotional level, you are through.

amit305 wrote:Hi,

I am working in IT sector and will complete 2.5 years of work experience by fall 2012.
A appeared in GMAT and scored 600. This is below my expectations. I did good in quantitative(48) but poor in verbal(25). I do not think i will be able to improve my score significantly in same year. Thus, i want to apply this year only.

Could you please suggest how much promising my profile is and i would appreciate if you could tell me few good schools which suits my profile and score.

Thanks,
Amit

Amit,

What is the hurry to apply to B-school this year itself, when you can wait, improve your score and go to a better school. B-school tag stays with you forever and your career is made with it.

With 600 and IT experience, you won't get anywhere near top 25. Wait for a year, retake GMAT by preparing well and then put your best foot forward.

What I believe is that everybody can show their fight at some stage. Do fight for a under Top-50 MBA seat.

You have a modest score, but you can portray yourself well. Concentrate on essays, explore more.

Amit,

I would push you to retake the GMAT exam as you can pretty much take the exam as much as you want and the schools only count the highest score.

Good luck,

This isn't quite true. Yes, the schools evaluate your app based on the highest score, but they see the entire history. If someone tests too much then it can start to have a negative impact on the candidacy. Many admissions directors have said as much.

EssaySnark

What you wrote is incorrect as the schools receive a GMAT transcript that only shows the last three scores. Applicants can retake the exam and have only their highest score count and in some cases applicants can take the highest quantitative and verbal scores from separate exams (e.g. Tuck).

Now, hypothetically, if someone takes the exams more than three times and forwards each score after each test to the same school, the school could theoretically have more than the last three tests. But I know of no school that collects each individual score to determine if an applicant has applied more than three times and then factors this into weighing the overall score.

Not only does a school like Tuck just accept the highest score, Tuck allows students to self-report up to two GMATs with different high verbal and quantitative scores for Tuck to consider. From Tuck Admissions FAQS (https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/admission ... sions-faq/):

I have taken the GMAT and/or GRE several times. Which score does the admissions committee consider?
The admissions committee takes into consideration your highest test score. The Tuck application allows students to report up to two GMAT and/or GRE test scores. If you have scored better on one test in the verbal section and better on the other in the quantitative section, we will consider your highest quantitative and highest verbal scores. Please refer to Instructions for applicants for more information.

Unfortunately this is a myth that keeps getting propogated throughout the GMAT community.

When scores are reported to schools, *all* the scores are included. Schools get the entire history.

Tuck is an exception where they let applicants mix-and-match scores from different test sittings. Tuck is the only school that allows this. It's even more confusing to candidates for a consultant to introduce Tuck into this conversation when we weren't even talking about Tuck; Tuck is a complete outlier from how any school handles the GMAT.

EssaySnark

I expect this would help you in deciding.

The Mid 80 percent range of GMAT.

Hi

I believe the picture is very different for Indian applicants. the other day I had a chat with the Tippie adcomm. They said that their Gmat score for Indian applicants was 706 for the incmoing Fall 2011 batch.
I mean should I safely consider the middle 80 % for Indian applicants to be +40 of the average gmat cited?

Its definitely more for Indian candidates.

I really believe that a strong application work wonders. Its definitely an art which most people dont work on. It is very well supported by methods,processes and stats. As a statistics lover, I really appreciate these stats.

Look at the captivating stories of Jobs and Gates(some commencement day address). I have seen people prepare such persuasive and interesting stories out of techie resumes. As an expert, I help people differentiate and rise above the identity and statistics bag. At the same time I want to give them heart to take on the Goliaths, because even if you fail it was one more time you were fighting the odds.

Thanks a lot everybody for your responses.
I appreciate your suggestions.
I will take them in consideration.

Thanks,
Amit

We would like to work on your profile. We believe there is something for you in R2.