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Dear admission expert,

Please kindly provide your professional evaluation and comments based on my profile and target schools (all full time MBA programs). Thank you so much ahead. 

Target schools: MIT Sloan, Kellogg (2Y), Booth, INSEAD(Jan Intake), LBS 
Post MBA career aspiration: Strategy consulting - preferrable serving Finance Services sector clients 
Work experience (at matriculation, all in Hong Kong): 2 years as human capital analyst (broadbased rewards and executive compensation), 2 years as in-house strategy consultant at a startup, 1 year as risk management consultant 
GMAT: 700 (Q50,V34) <= Finally took it today huh 
Education: Master in Finance from a top 5 UK business school (graduated with distinction); Bachelor major in Finance from a top 5 univeristy in Hong Kong (GPA: 3.6/4/0) 
Professional qualifications: CFA Charterholder; Certified FRM 
Extra-curricular: Captain of an amateur basketball team, member of company's Greater China Diversity and Inclusion council (also chairing a young professional network; one of two diversity clubs in the region); active participant of company's and external charity events (participant and trainer of a recent charity run); lead violinst of an amateur music band; Founding chairman of M&A society during master studies 
References: Office head (though not direct report but we work closely on managing relationships of a few key clients and also she is chairing the diversity council); a senior consultant who I work with very closely 

Questions 1: Is my profile competitive enough to be earn admission at my target schools?
Questions 2: Given my lagging GMAT verbal score (34 only), would it make sense to retake to boost the score? Or is(are) there any alternative way(s) to make up this deficiency? 
Questions 3: Any areas I could improve to enhance my chances? 

Thank you so much again and I look forward to hearing from you. 

Best regards, gdehsoph35

gdehsoph35 -

Thanks for contacting Clear Admit for some advice about your candidacy . . . here are my thoughts about the questions you asked:

#1: Yes, many aspects of your profile are likely going to be competitive. However, while you only gave brief descriptions of your work to-date, the three different roles in five years gives me some pause as I'm not clear about the reasons behind the transitions, whether they can be considered progression, etc. It'll be essential to you to weave a logical and cohesive narrative so that the AdCom understands why you need an MBA to achieve your goals and how your various pre-MBA roles have informed that decision and prepared you to be successful.

Your extracurriculars will give some interest to your profile and show that you're actively involved in a variety of things - good.

Your academics bring me to #2 . . .

#2: The 700 is likely going to cause some challenges with the caliber of schools you're considering, so yes, you should definitely try to retake to boost your overall score and especially your verbal subscore. No one is likely to doubt your quantitative skills given your strong subscore and educational background, but your overall score is below average (or just about average with LBS) for all of the schools you're considering and the verbal subscore has room for improvement. I'm stating the obvious here, but to best position yourself for admissions success, you should strive to be above average. Given that it sounds like you're planning to apply during this cycle, there isn't much of an alternative that you can pursue in such a short period of time.

#3: I'm a little concerned about your recommender choices, too. Recommendation instructions typically state that at least one of your recommenders should be a direct supervisor, and that doesn't seem to apply to either of the two people you've listed. While the senior consultant may not be a peer of yours, I'm assuming that this person isn't a supervisor, either. Of course, there may be compelling reasons for your currently choices, and I recommend that you address those reasons in your application. An additional option to consider may be to ask a former supervisor from one of your previous roles.

I hope these comments are useful, and please feel free to contact me directly if you'd like to discuss your candidacy more fully!

Regards,
Jon

Jon Fuller
Clear Admit, LLC
215.568.2590

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Hi Jon,

Really appreciate your feedback.

To provide you further information:

#1 I started as a risk consultant at a big 4 then did my master. Joined the startup as a strategy/corporate finance role (which i like the nature but not an in-house role) then switch to be a compensation consultant (shame, like working as an external consultant but not too much the human resources focus), so i wish to pursue a top MBA which i would like to use as a springboard to be a strategy consultant and hope these connect the dots.

#2 I just signed up to retake in mid december, on the same time will do the application (now half way done, have draft for all essays). Just one more points would like to ask, does the US school view subscore seperately (i.e. even i got a worse quant score in my next attepmt they still view me having a 50). I am quite sure INSEAD does so as I had asked them this and will try asking Booth and Sloan in the coming online admission event.

#3 Thank you so much for the advice. I am reaching out my previous supervisor, luckily we are quite close, as I am hesitate to approach my current supervisor as he is not too supportive on staff development (including further studies).

Thanks again and I further look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
gdehsoph35

gdehsoph35 -

Thanks for the additional information . . . glad to hear that you're able to retake the GMAT. You're going to have a busy next few weeks! It is a good idea to ask the schools directly about how they look at multiple test submissions, but Sloan and Booth state that they focus on self-reported scores for their initial reviews, so to an extent, they'll only be privy to the scores that you reveal to them in the online app.

It probably sounds obvious, but I'd imagine that you'd list your highest overall cumulative score on the online application forms. Sloan specifically has this to say on the subject -

"If you have taken the GMAT more than once, you should use the highest of the cumulative scores. We will consider the test score that you have indicated on your application to be your highest score. Do not worry about taking it multiple times, we only see the score you give us."

Let me put it this way: say you get a 720 the second time you take the GMAT, but you get a 48 on the quant section (meaning you would've gotten about a 40 or 41 on the verbal to get the 720 overall). If I could only self-report one score to Sloan, there's no way I would choose to self-report the 700 just because of the 50 on the quant. The 720 overall score (and the much better and balanced verbal score) would trump that in my book, especially with the quant background that you described previously.

Regards,
Jon