Admissions Success Stories

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

First, I would like to say THANK YOU to all of the experts and members of the "Beat the GMAT" community. I feel like some of the success stories on here definitely motivated me to put my best foot forward during the application process.

I know people on here are very curious and stat crazy so here is my profile:

Applied to: UBC, Rotman and Schulich
Male
Mid 20's
Canadian
2 years work experience (1 in wealth management, 1 in education)
610 GMAT, even breakdown, 6 AWA
undergrad GPA - 3.44

I want to give hope to those people who don't have a high GMAT score. I completed the GMAT test 3 times and 610 was my highest score. We didn't have standardized tests when I was a high school student so I believe I'm just a terrible test taker. I don't even want to talk about my first score. However, I remembered what one of my past managers had taught me and that was "control what you can control". I did not want to go through another GMAT sitting, so I decided to control what I could control, and that was the rest of my application, more specifically my ESSAY's. I believe I gained admission through telling my story creatively.

I had a very diverse background, including many extra-curricular's and volunteer activities. I made sure to highlight my various leadership roles throughout my life. My advice would be: DO NOT be the typical applicant and write generic essays, especially if the rest of your application is weak, like mine was. I consider a 3.44 GPA pretty average at best and I only had the minimum amount of work experience. But, quality IS better than quantity.

Again, I reiterate the fact that my essay's were "different". I spent a lot of time on them. I applied to 3 schools, I have not heard back from UBC but will not be attending there anyways. I had taken someone's advice on here, and made sure to complete 1 school's essays at a time, and to NOT submit my application for any school until I had completed all 3 school's essays. This piece of advice proved to be incredibly crucial. After completing my essays for UBC, I thought that they couldn't get any better, but after letting them marinade, and writing my Schulich and Rotman essays, I kept on coming up with more creative ideas to tell my story.

I guess the moral of the story is, the GMAT is NOT the be all and end all. The admission's committee's are not kidding when they say they take a holistic approach to reviewing your application. Great scores and grades aren't everything, if you're a well rounded person and able to think creatively, I'm sure you'll gain acceptance into your school of choice!

Here are some websites, other than beatthegmat, that I referred to during my application process:

www.accepted.com
https://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmiss ... essay.html

Best of luck!

Can you expand on what you consider to be a "generic" essay and how yours were "different"?

Hey mate :

How much time did u dedicate for the essays ?
a month ? more than that ?

First of all, congratulations on your acceptances! That's wonderful. Thank you also for recommending Accepted.com.

I don't know if you read the advice not to submit your applications as soon as each is completed from Accepted, but we do advise that practice for the very reasons you cite. Furthermore, everything your wrote about your essays -- focusing on your leadership experiences, staying away from generic writing, telling your story -- are best practices in application essay writing.

Clearly your application represents a job well done. Kudos.

Regards,
Linda Abraham

can u send me a copy of your essays at [email protected]

Can you please send your essays at [email protected]

Where did you end up going?

If you dont mind, can i please review your essays. This could help me get into Schulich . Email .. [email protected]