Hi,

As our venture is based out of India and a lot of our mentors are Indians, we feel we are in a good position to gauge your candidacy for the schools you have mentioned. Please find below a profile evaluation from one of our mentors. He had a 690 on his GMAT and is the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional of India (when he was 14) He has confirmed admissions offers at Cornell, LSE and Duke for various masters in management related courses. He is the founder of this venture and has been reviewing applications for various candidates (MBA/Masters) since 2 years now.

Do feel free to write in at [email protected] for any further queries, to avail of our admissions packages or to enrol for test preparation packages.

Regards,
AppReview Team


PROFILE EVALUATION

Hi,

Your overall profile seems good. Please note, seems good. I am sorry but it's better to present the real picture rather than give you hopes through equivocal words.


1. Low GMAT score. Please note, your GMAT score is also compared with candidates from your country/ethnicity (Eg: Yours will be compared with Indian students). You know how competitive and smart Indian students are. It is not that every Indian student scores above 700 or something. I myself scored a 690. However, the score you have should be inaccordance with what you plan on doing. In my case, a 690 was more than sufficient. However, for an MBA, being an Indian student, anything less than 700 would be treading on dangerous waters. This is absolutely true for INSEAD and ISB. You could try for NUS, HKSUT and Melbourne, but your chances wouldn't be overly positive.

2. GMAT Sectionals highly imabalanced. The sectional scores of course would not be very near to each other. But here, the symmetry is very skewed. Also, as an Indian student, you should aim for a 50 in Quant (above 90 percentile) and your verbal can still be a little weak (in the 80s percentiles) as Admission Committees are well aware of the Indian student and what areas they are particularly strong in. You GMAT score and its distribution is projecting you as incompetent, while your professional side speaks the opposite. The corelation is not there.

3.You are working in a great company such as IBM. However, you would be classified as a typical Indian candidate. Computer/Electronics Engineering Graduate, working in a core firms (Eg: Microsoft, IBM, Intel etc.). You could differentiate yourself by showing a jump in your career by means of achievements, recognitions and promotions. But overall, the profile is quite 'typical'.

4.Your achievements and accomplishments are mainly related to business/work. They do not reflect involvement outside of office, such as sports, games, music, dance, plays etc. Your profile (as posted here) comes across as someone very devoted to their work and with a lot of professional ambition. But the balance seems to be tilted in that direction only, while the adcom is looking for well balanced candidates.

Suggestions

1. Improve GMAT score. You should focus on improving your GMAT score. I don't know about your previous study plan, but suggest you devote a lot of time over the weekends (5-6 hours) and 2-3 hours on weekdays, given that you work. Follow the Official Guides and make notes of each and every problem you face and of all the mistakes. If you can access the PowerScore Bible, it is highly recommended.

2. Start getting involved in more activities ourside the workspace. Remember, it's never too later to start.

In order to get into ISB, I suggest a minimum score of 720, great essays and stellar recommendations to have a good shot. For INSEAD, a 700+ with a great applications package would be safe while for the others the 700+ would make your overall candidacy there, very competitive.

I hope you do not mind the language/words used here. We believe in getting across a clear message, even if it is negative, so that the candidate can get a real head start and assess their position realistically. If you need to avail of admissions/test preparation packages, please email at the address given above. We would be more than happy to assist you.

Hope this information helps. All the best.

Thanks a lot for that evaluation. It has given me a clearer picture where do I stand.