Ask mbaMission

Hello Team,

I am really interested in applying to only 2 universities:

INSEAD and Indian School of Business (ISB).

Here is my profile in short:
- Undergrad in Electronics and Telecom Engg, India (First class)
- Masters in Telecomm Engg from Univ of Colorado, Boulder (GPA 3.6)
- Work Ex - 5 years (with career progression from sysadmin to product consultant to project manager)
- GMAT - 540 (Q47, V29)
- Reco - My exisiting manager and my mentor in my current company. They absolutely love me.
- Extra Curricular:
a. Founder Secretary - Electronics and Telecomm Engg Students Association, India
b. Technology chair - ITP Univ of Colorado, Boulder
c. Secretary - Indian Students Association
d. Volunteer - CRY (Child Relief and You, Atlanta Chapter)
e. Volunteer - Charity Water, Boston.

What are my chances of an admit at these universities? Also, do you think i should take the GMAT again before applying? I really dont do well at these standardized tests and wont be expecting a whole lot of score jump (in my opinion), but that's the only way to do it, I will retake it.

Hi -

As it relates to your GMAT score, if you have only taken it once, then I would strongly recommend a retake as (1) if your score does improve, schools will look at your highest score and (2) even by taking it again with no improvement in score, you will be showing to the AdCom that you are indeed committed to this process.

With your current score and given that you are coming from an "over-represented" pool of applicants from India with IT backgrounds, I would think you face a bit of a hurdle at INSEAD; I am not as familiar with ISB so I don't want to opine.

Best,
Erin