Strategies for Gaining Admission with a Less-than-Ideal GMAT or GPA
If you're concerned about your less-than-ideal GMAT score or GPA, there's still hope for you yet! Dr. Shel Watts, founder and CEO ofMBAAdmit.com, is back with some more great advice for all you MBA hopefuls out there. Dr. Watts is a Harvard College (A.B.) and Oxford University (Masters/Ph.D) graduate with a background in banking and consulting. She was also a faculty member at Harvard for 4 years.
Read the first portion of the chat we had earlier this week with Dr. Watts (below) and then read the rest of the chat as well as real examples of successful candidatesby going to theArchived Chatarea!
There are 4 elements to help candidates achieve success
Lets focus on four broad elements for success For those of you who think you might have a less-than-ideal GMAT score or GPA for admission to the business school of your choice, consider these four elements that can help you potentially override those weaknesses in your profile: you should assess, address, redirect, and mitigate Let me explain these four elements.
Assess
You need to assess accurately to what degree your GMAT score or GPA are less than ideal. You would find it surprising how many candidates fail to assess correctly where they stand with regard to their GMAT score or GPA. Getting a solid understanding about where you stand can be important because it will affect to what degree you will want to address explicitly in your application a lower-than-ideal GMAT score or GPA. It will also help you know how strong your other credentials will need to be in order to override a lower-than-ideal GMAT score or GPA. Lets start with the GMAT score.
You should assess your GMAT score are you in range for your desired MBA program or not?
In performing this assessment, your broad profile can matter. By broad profile, I mean are you an overrepresented profile or an underrepresented profile? If you are of an underrepresented profile, you may have more latitude to have a lower-than-ideal GMAT score, and if you are of an overrepresented profile, to have a great shot at admissions you may need to have a GMAT score that is higher than the average for matriculating students to your desired MBA program.
Where do candidates go wrong with this assessment?
Sometimes overrepresented U.S. minorities (such as Americans of East Asian or Indian descent) or overrepresented foreign national candidates (such as Indian foreign nationals or East Asian foreign nationals) assume that if a school indicates it accepts a GMAT score range of 660-760, that they can apply to that top business school with a 680 GMAT score and be fine. That is often not the case. As part of an overrepresented profile, competition will likely be stiffer and so you will sometimes need to score higher than a schools GMAT average for matriculating students in order to have success. If you have not scored higher, then you should realize that this might be seen as a weakness in your application, hence your GMAT score is less-than-ideal.
In contrast, some candidates who are female candidates (of any background), part of underrepresented U.S. minority profiles (for example, Hispanic or African American candidates), or represent underrepresented foreign national profiles (for example, someone from Lithuania or Rwanda both men and women) fail to recognize that they might have some leeway with their GMAT score. Hence, they might not be reaching for higher-ranked MBA programs because they believe their GMAT score is too low.
What about GPA?
You should also assess your GPA are you in range for your desired MBA program or not? When assessing the strength of your GPA, similar broad guidelines apply. Certainly, statistics about each business schools average GPA for matriculating students can help you gain a sense of your chances for admission. But beyond this, specifics matter a great deal. As with your GMAT score, your profile can affect whether the admissions committee will view your GPA as sufficient or not. Underrepresented profiles including women can often have GPAs lower than the average GPA for matriculating students to a particular school. Many men and overrepresented profiles often must have a GPA at or above the average GPA for matriculating students to a particular school.
There is a second layer of assessment to do with the GPA, however, which can help you understand how the admissions committee will view your GPA. There are some broad factors that the admissions committee will take into account as reasons that can justify a lower-than-ideal GPA (and hence the admissions committee might not be looking at your lower-than-ideal GPA as a problem at all).
What are those factors?
Well, there are factors that fall under my headings of extreme extenuating circumstances and reasonably acceptable excuses. Those can include these sorts of things:
Major event that explains the lower-than-ideal GPA: Did you suffer a physical accident in college and have to take time off after your grades plummeted? Did you lose a very close relative and your grades suffered for a while? Major events like these can help explain a lower-than-ideal GPA to the satisfaction of the admissions committee.
Medical, physical or learning challenge. If you had to overcome some major medical, physical or learning challenge (dyslexia, ADHD, etc.), the admissions committee will also sometimes give you leeway on the GPA.
Where did you attend college? If your school was a top-ranked college in its country, your GPA likely can be lower than the GPA of a candidate who attended a much lower-ranked college.
What was your undergraduate major? Some majors are known to be very difficult, and so what might look like a low GPA in a much softer major may be perceived by the admissions committee as a relatively high GPA for your major.
Did you participate in a varsity-level sport in college? If so, most admissions committees will realize that you were diverting a lot of time to the sport, and they might cut you a little slack on your GPA. Representing a school in a varsity-level sport is generally seen as very admirable and an indication of multifaceted talent.
Did you have to work your way through school financially? That can matter, because the committee will realize you were juggling work with your academics and may be more understanding if your GPA is slightly lower.
Did you have a rough introductory year but your grades got better? That can matter also and the admissions committee might be understanding.
If any of these apply, then your GPA while lower than the matriculating average may still be considered in range, even if it is less-than-ideal.
Beyond varsity level sports, does the admissions committee generally accept that strong involvement in extracurricular activities can justify a lower-than-ideal GPA?
Many MBA candidates are hopeful that this same reasoning applies beyond varsity sports to other types of extracurricular activities, yet on the whole it does not. For most other types of extracurricular activities, the committee will feel you had more control over how much time you devoted and wont see your choice to spend time on extracurricular activities rather than on your studies as a good enough reason for a lower GPA.
Address
If you know that your GPA or GMAT score is going to be seen as a true weakness in your application, a key step in helping you to override that lower-than-ideal GMAT score or GPA is to address the matter two ways: directly, through your essays (usually through the optional essay), and often times indirectly through the recommendations.
Addressing Directly:
Lets talk about addressing a lower-than-ideal GPA or GMAT score directly through your essays In addressing a lower-than-ideal GPA directly through your essays, think about whether you have a notable reason why your GPA was lower. If any of the above factors above such as a major event, your attendance at a highly competitive college, your participation in a varsity sport, your need to work long hours during college, etc. apply to you, you should write about this explicitly in the essays. This can encourage the admissions committee to give you some leeway on the GPA.
For a less-than-ideal GMAT score, you should make sure in your essays to point out the many other factors or metrics that indicate you can excel and contribute excellently to the business school of your choice. This involves the process of redirecting attention, which I talk about soon.
Addressing Indirectly:
Lets talk about addressing indirectly a lower-than-ideal GPA or GMAT score You can use your recommendations to address indirectly your lower-than-ideal GMAT score and GPA. The recommendations should attest to your strong analytical skills and ability to do rigorous work. This can help ease the concern of the committee both about your ability to do rigorous work in their program and about your future potential for success.
Click here to read the two other elements Dr. Watts' outlines as well assuccessfulcandidate stories.Read the whole chat here.