I just Beat The GMAT!

Thanks for your response Brian! I have a follow up question - I do understand that colleges are looking for the best GMAT score, but I thought when they do that, they will consider all the scores in one single attempt. Is this not correct, i.e., will they consider my score of 720 with IR 7 ? I realize Vincent already pointed out that only Adcomms know for sure, but would be great if you already know for certain.

Cheers!

Unfortunately there is no rule. It really depends on the school:

Examples:
Stanford: Only report the score you want them to consider. Not a mix of tests.
Tuck: The admissions committee takes into consideration your highest test score. The Tuck application allows students to report up to two GMAT and/or GRE test scores. If you have scored better on one test in the verbal section and better on the other in the quantitative section, we will consider your highest quantitative and highest verbal scores. See: https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/admissions/admissions-faq

I think GMAT should not be a major source of concern for you.
But why not reach out to the schools you're interested in to ask them? Send a brief email. It won't hurt your chances.

Good luck!

Dear Vincent/Brian

My apologies for taking some time in getting back with my details. I was trying to get my arms around other aspects of the application process.

As suggested earlier, I reached out to Wharton and I have been told not to worry about my IR score.

With that, can you please evaluate my profile for executive MBA! (My apologies for the long post)

Indian Male working in IT Company
Age: 37

ACADEMICS:
GMAT - 760 (Q50, V44), AWA- 5, IR - 2
Graduation (Undergrad)
- In 1994, secured all India 3rd rank in India's 2nd ranked private engineering college (College overall rank - 8th).
- CGPA - 6.25/10 (not a stellar one - due to some family problems, I can explain it in my essays/interview)
12th - Second rank in college (out of ~150 students)
10th - Second rank in college (out of ~250 students), Math - highest marks in college, 5th highest in district

WORK EXPERIENCE:
"¢ 15+ years of IT industry experience
"¢ 10 year leadership experience including recruitment, mentoring, goal setting, appraisals, career counseling, issue/conflict resolution etc
"¢ I have taken up different roles/responsibilities such as programmer, Tech Lead, Architect, Project Manager, Program Manager Development Manager etc
"¢ Managed 100+ resource and up to $15 million budget
"¢ I have been heavily involved in recruitments. I must have interviewed more than 200 candidates so far.
"¢ First Job - Started with a leading IT company in India. Received 5 promotions in the duration of 6.5 years (batch average ~ 4 promotions).
"¢ Second Job - A fortune 100 company. Received 4 awards in 3 years.
"¢ Third Job - Received 2 awards in 2 years, and then I moved to USA in 2010.
"¢ Fourth Job - I joined a startup 1 year back, primarily to learn how to build clientele and setup office etc. This relates to my long term goal of setting up my own IT Company.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
"¢ In 12th, I was student representative in College organizing committee for golden jubilee celebrations.
"¢ I was College chess champ and college team captain in engineering college
"¢ I played for state chess team for 2 years (may not mention it in application as I may have lost all the certificates)
"¢ I was General Secretary Photography society in engineering college
"¢ An amateur poet (haven't written anything in the last 7-8 years)
"¢ Formed a small group of friends and taught village kids for 3 years
"¢ I was member of organizing committee for Annual festival
"¢ Worked as a volunteer in 'National Youth festival'
"¢ Member - Dramatics society, Hostel cricket team
"¢ In-charge - hostel mess committee, hostel reading room
"¢ In the first job, I used to conduct regular K-Hour (Knowledge hour) sessions on Chess and Photography
"¢ In the first job, I used to be the official photographer for all the center level events/festivals in the office.
"¢ In the second job, I used to conduct regular knowledge sessions on Photography
"¢ In the second job, I was a member of recreation committee that was responsible for organizing all the quarterly events, quizzes, fun activities etc
"¢ In the 2nd/3rd job, supported blind schools/ elementary schools through CSR.
"¢ I worked (sporadically) in a leading NGO for 5 years. Most of the time, I worked on events/activities related to environmental issues such as Global warming, Carbon footprint etc.
"¢ In 2008, I co-founded a society to fight against a fraud realtor. Right now we have more than 300 registered members in the society. Fight is still on!

HOBBIES
"¢ Fountain pen collection
"¢ Silver coin collection
"¢ Playing chess
"¢ Photography

REASONS FOR EXEC-MBA
I want to start my own IT Company focused on Cyber security and Virtualization space. Though I have leadership experience in IT domain, I do not have skills to run IT as a business. I want to learn these skills from the best brains in the industry. Also, exec-MBA will give me enough networking opportunities that might come handy while setting up my company.

I have a target of setting up a company with at-least 50 headcount in India by 2017. I know I am starting late, but better late than never.

TARGET COLLEGE - Wharton, Booth, Kelloggs, Berkeley

Dear san_sri,

I'm glad that you were able to sort things out with Wharton.

Your profile is clearly outstanding.
Having such a strong GMAT and undergrad performance is not that common among EMBA applicants, since a lot more emphasis is usually put on work experience.

Your professional experience is actually impressive too. You seem to have demonstrated leadership skills in many occasions, leading large teams and overseeing multi million dollar projects.

Your extra curricular activities highlight your open mindedness. It seems that you have regularly found ways to give back to your community, which will also be a plus for your application. Your interest in arts (poetry, photography) will not go unnoticed either.

Finally you seem to have a solid rationale for earning an EMBA, and your post MBA goals are clear and realistic.

Bottom line: you are a very solid candidate, and I think you have a serious shot at the programs you mentioned, provided you are able to write compelling essays and secure strong LORs. Try as much as possible to attend events organized by these schools (admissions events, open lectures, etc.). It will allow you to get a better understanding of what these programs are looking for while helping admissions officers remember your name when you submit your application.

BTW, I was admitted to the Booth EMBA program just a few years ago. It's a great program, and I'll be happy to discuss my experience applying there if you have questions. Feel free to pm me or visit my site to get in touch.

Good luck!

Hi, I really really really need to know what is the probability I will end up into one of the top colleges?? Here is my score card:

Quant: 48 -- 76 percentile
Verbal: 41 -- 93 percentile
Total: 730 -- 96 percentile

AWA: 4 -- 21 percentile
IR: 4 -- 37 percentile

Would I be handicapped because of this scorecard....

I am a Bachelor of Commerce (H) from Delhi University, Masters in Finance from Delhi University, Chartered Financial Analyst (USA), Financial Risk Manager (USA) and have five years experience in financial industry..

I am interested only in top ten B-schools and do not want to pursue mba anywhere else..

Will I be able to that with the above scorecard and profile??

I am male from India, mentioning this assuming this also matters..

Thanks