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Undergrad education and score.Is an optional essay required?

Free advice from the world's top MBA consultants
Expert replies
by rohit.bizschool » Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:56 am
Hi,

I've done my undergrad from Mumbai (Bombay) University, India. Different universities in India have different grading even though most of them follow the Percentage system

For example, a First Class (60% to 75%) is considered a good score in Mumbai University (which has an extremely difficult grading system) but may be an average score in universities in other parts of India.

My score was 65% which might seem like a poor score to someone not familiar with the grading. Should I write an optional essay explaining this? Unfortunately, I can only guess what percentile my score would be (my guess 85%) but there are no official percentile-records that the university maintains.

I'm also aware that most business schools do not ask the applicants to convert their scores to GPA.

I also have a Masters degree from a renowned engineering school in the US with a very good GPA. Can I put all this in the optional essay and ask the schools to assess my academic ability based on my grades in the Masters program since they're standardized?

I read in some thread that one student (also from my university) was asked by Wharton to explain the reasons for his poor undergrad score. He had a similar score (65%) which is actually 'First Class' and a good score in Mumbai University. If a school like Wharton (which I'm sure receives many applications from all over the world) is not familiar with the grading of Mumbai University, chances are that other schools might not very very familiar too.

I'm applying to part-time programs and have 5+ years of experience working in a Fortune 500 company in the US.

Thanks!
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Source: — Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant |

by Jim@StratusPrep » Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:14 am
What is your GMAT score? If that is solid, you will probably want to pay less attention to your academics, maybe a line or two.
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by rohit.bizschool » Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:37 am
Hey Jim,

Thanks for your reply!

Here's my GMAT score:
Score: 700 (90 percentile)
Quant 48 (80 percentile)
Verbal 38 (83 percentile)
AWA 5.0/6.0

I'm part of the over-represented pool.
- Software professional in the Silicon Valley with 5 years of experience.
- Ethnically Indian (male/28)

My point is 65% undergrad is actually a good score in my undergrad university (Mumbai University) because of the grading. Should I dedicate an entire essay to explain that or just explain it in one of the other essays or hope that the Ad Com would have dealt with enough number of applicants to know that?

Thanks!
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by Jon@Admissionado » Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:21 am
Knowing the Indian system pretty well, I don;t think you need to dedicate an essay to it. the schools get a LOT of Indian candidates, so they know what to expect and how to evaluate it.
BUT you SHOULD qualify your grades where possible, for example in your resume. Soooo if you have a 65% but that is the "Top 5%" Then we DO want to get this second number to qualify the first. Just to make sure they understand that you are a much better student than seems. But hundreds of words in an optional essay might be better served for another purpose.
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by rohit.bizschool » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:58 pm
Thanks Jon!
My only concern is that even if I try to qualify the grades like you mentioned and say something like 65% is the "top 10%", I don't have any official record because my university does not provide such statistics.

Do you think I should still go ahead and mention that? If asked to prove, I might not be able to.

Cheers!
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