Whenever I was discouraged while preparing for grad school, I visited this forum and then gained hope. I wanted to share whatever information I had with you guys so anyone who wants these types of information can get some insight.
I first want to clarify (though I also mentioned on the subject) that I got into MSc not MBA. I actually applied to these schools as I liked their Grande Ecole program but for I don't want to confuse those who will apply to HEC MBA, etc. Also, the program I applied was for international students so one can apply to maximum 5 grande ecoles. That is how I got accepted to both at once.
First of all, my profile.
I am an Asian female, I graduated from one of the top 5 universities in my country and I studied business administration. I lived abroad for approximately 6 years but I was very young at that time so I will not say that my writing skill is great.
I was Summa Cum Laude in my class and I also entered as the top of my class. I will say that I do think that the interviewers loved this as they kept asking about my GPA. However, I do think that MSc tend to focus more on grades than MBA.
When I applied, my GMAT was 680 and that was my third try. To be honest, until recently I had no idea that multiple tries might be considered negative; I was pretty naive so I just took the test until I was satisfied with the score.
I will also add that I applied twice to HEC and before my GMAT score was 640. I got to the interview but I wasn't admitted at that time. However, the school did send me an email asking me to try again for another program but I was focusing on the grande ecole program at that time.
Well, to get back to the story, I had about 15 months of work experience when I was being interviewed. I worked as an assistant manager of a big department store with big responsibilities with CRAZY experiences. I was kind of an unique case as most students with high GPA from my school became a banker or went to become a consultant. However, I thought that I should experience this when I am young and fresh out of college as I am pretty greedy and I knew that once I set my foot to become an IB or consultant, I will never become an assistant manger and get low pay checks.
I heard this rumor that HEC prefers high GMAT and when I checked out their website the average GMAT was 720 or 730. I know that many great schools have an average like this. However, (maybe the reason why I am writing this) as important GMAT is, it is at the same time not the killer of your application.
I know this because I actually asked the person in charge of the program whether they didn't pick me as I had low gmat for their standards (when I had 640), that person said it is not because of that. I know that one can't believe these words 100% but I do think if you package yourself really well one can overcome gmat.
To explain more about the interview, (the essays are pretty short and straight forward) there were 3 interviewers and 2 of them actually came from France for this interview! They were very nice but at the same time it was one of the hardest interviews in my life. I am pretty outgoing and I am pretty confident during interviews but this one was TOUGH. The questions they asked were "Why MSc? You have job experience why not MBA?" and "How would you define entrepreneurship?" and many more of those it seems easy but it is hard to answer questions.
If anyone who is not French or who has lived in France wants to apply for HEC grande ecole program and wrote somewhere in the application that one can speak French, be prepared to actually speak in French! Also for other languages as well. My French is pretty rusty but I think what they wanted to check was whether I was lying or not rather than how fluent I am.
In the end, when I was so ready to go to the school the earthquake in Japan occurred and had a huge effect to my family so I ended up not going. I am now preparing to go for MBA instead. Therefore, I am visiting this community on daily basis, preparing my applications, etc.
My GMAT score still isn't like fantastic and I do think I took it many times so some schools might frown upon it but I will try to strengthen my other parts of the application.
Thank you for reading my story about MSc. HEC and EM Lyon is certainly great schools and I am so sad for losing the opportunity but probably I was suppose to go to MBA instead.
Hope everyone has a great day and thanks for reading again
