How to move forward? Please evaluate my profile

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2013 was a bad year for me, a lot of personal issues and i took the GMAT multiple times trying to meet the MBA deadlines and just doing things, underestimating the GMAT. I realise my mistake and these were my scores:

01-Sep-2013 V31 / Q48 / IR6/ AW5 / 650
24-May-2013 V31/ Q49 / IR8/ AW5.5/ 660
11-Feb-2013 V25/ Q48 / IR6 / AW5 / 600

I stopped pursuing MBA schools and started working as a senior product manager in an analytics company. My products made it to 1MUSD license at my previous firm. I have worked for the past 8 years with some of the great companies like IBM, Nestle and also worked on projects with companies like Apple, Flipkart, HP and such. I have been very lucky to get an opportunity to travel and have lived in Frankfurt, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleaveland and New York.

I recently started my own company Bemo- which is an machine learning enabled online therapy app. Mental health bears a lot of stigma in India and it is tough to find a good solution. Bemo was selected for Start-Up Chile Sfactory, SEED, Numa Bangalore and 10000 startups by NASSCOM India. I lived in Santiago, Chile for 5 months and launched the MVP. It is going well but i need more hands on business knowledge and would like to invest in a MBA. I am technically sound and have a good experience leading teams.

Education details:

1. B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering - MITS, Jaipur (7.86/10) (2005-2009)
2. 1-yr Certification in Business Analytics - Indian School of Business(3.7/4) (2013-2014)
3. High School Mathematics/Science(99/100) Won a India-wide scholarship
3. I have many certifications for the job such as Scrum certified product owner and also trained people in Agile and Machine learning


Questions:
1. Should i think about retaking GMAT. My verbal is weak. Or should i try GRE instead? I want to apply to INSEAD, IMD, IE, Kellogg, UCLA, Emory and National university of Singapore.
2. Is my profile good enough ? Are there some areas that i should focus on for the applications in the coming year?
3. Considering my profile, are there some schools i should consider?

I really appreciate all the help from this forum. I have been so down about the GMAT since 2013. Please do help me move forward.

Thanks a lot!
Nidhi

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by Donna@Stratus » Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:40 am
nidsongmat wrote:2013 was a bad year for me, a lot of personal issues and i took the GMAT multiple times trying to meet the MBA deadlines and just doing things, underestimating the GMAT. I realise my mistake and these were my scores:

01-Sep-2013 V31 / Q48 / IR6/ AW5 / 650
24-May-2013 V31/ Q49 / IR8/ AW5.5/ 660
11-Feb-2013 V25/ Q48 / IR6 / AW5 / 600

I stopped pursuing MBA schools and started working as a senior product manager in an analytics company. My products made it to 1MUSD license at my previous firm. I have worked for the past 8 years with some of the great companies like IBM, Nestle and also worked on projects with companies like Apple, Flipkart, HP and such. I have been very lucky to get an opportunity to travel and have lived in Frankfurt, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleaveland and New York.

I recently started my own company Bemo- which is an machine learning enabled online therapy app. Mental health bears a lot of stigma in India and it is tough to find a good solution. Bemo was selected for Start-Up Chile Sfactory, SEED, Numa Bangalore and 10000 startups by NASSCOM India. I lived in Santiago, Chile for 5 months and launched the MVP. It is going well but i need more hands on business knowledge and would like to invest in a MBA. I am technically sound and have a good experience leading teams.

Education details:

1. B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering - MITS, Jaipur (7.86/10) (2005-2009)
2. 1-yr Certification in Business Analytics - Indian School of Business(3.7/4) (2013-2014)
3. High School Mathematics/Science(99/100) Won a India-wide scholarship
3. I have many certifications for the job such as Scrum certified product owner and also trained people in Agile and Machine learning


Questions:
1. Should i think about retaking GMAT. My verbal is weak. Or should i try GRE instead? I want to apply to INSEAD, IMD, IE, Kellogg, UCLA, Emory and National university of Singapore.
2. Is my profile good enough ? Are there some areas that i should focus on for the applications in the coming year?
3. Considering my profile, are there some schools i should consider?

I really appreciate all the help from this forum. I have been so down about the GMAT since 2013. Please do help me move forward.
Nidhi- You have some really interesting entrepreneurial experience that could resonate in the admissions process. But I still think you need an updated test score- I think the GRE could be a great option- as if you are going to be on lower end- a GRE is the better test to apply with in my opinion. So yes- do spend time on GRE. I think your profile could be stronger with higher scores- whether GRE or GMAT. I would look at schools with strong social enterprise mission- Georgetown comes to mind, but also maybe Fuqua too!
Thanks a lot!
Nidhi

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by mcbMcK » Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:17 pm
Consider the following points Nidhi:

- Your overall profile sounds pretty impressive and interesting. It will be good to understand career progression you may have had. The startup will be pretty good but you will have to clearly articulate how an MBA will help. Read here for schools good on social entrepreneurship front if that's what you are aiming for.

- On GRE vs GMAT, read here. Since the current score will definitely not take you places, it is not a bad idea to try your hand at GRE.

- Finally, in the time that remains, not a lot you can change/build in the profile. Best to focus on GRE/GMAT and work on your applications in parallel - R2 is just round the corner.

Cheers,
MG (Manish Gupta)|The MBA Crystal Ball Team

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Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com

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by Jon@Admissionado » Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:26 pm
Hey dude,
Well I don't know if you will want to hear this, but yeah if you want to aim for those schools you HAVE to get a higher GMAT (or GRE)

It doesn't mean you should despair! If it doesn't happen, you have plenty of other choices, the most obvious of which is to compromise on your school list. It's okay to not have the best score and to not go to the top ranked school. As long as you are still meeting your goals.

So definitely looking into the GRE and seeing if that is easier is an option. Or retaking the GMAT, if it's not tooooo frustrating for you.

I'd advise: Take it easy a bit. If you see you aren't gonna get the score in time for R2, take a breather, delay your application by a year, and then give yourself the time in ease and comfort to challenge the test under the best of conditions, and then come June, you can decide where to apply.

The voyage is long, and you have taken the first steps!
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by Michelle@ARINGO » Tue Oct 17, 2017 6:38 am
nidsongmat wrote:2013 was a bad year for me, a lot of personal issues and i took the GMAT multiple times trying to meet the MBA deadlines and just doing things, underestimating the GMAT. I realise my mistake and these were my scores:

01-Sep-2013 V31 / Q48 / IR6/ AW5 / 650
24-May-2013 V31/ Q49 / IR8/ AW5.5/ 660
11-Feb-2013 V25/ Q48 / IR6 / AW5 / 600

I stopped pursuing MBA schools and started working as a senior product manager in an analytics company. My products made it to 1MUSD license at my previous firm. I have worked for the past 8 years with some of the great companies like IBM, Nestle and also worked on projects with companies like Apple, Flipkart, HP and such. I have been very lucky to get an opportunity to travel and have lived in Frankfurt, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleaveland and New York.

I recently started my own company Bemo- which is an machine learning enabled online therapy app. Mental health bears a lot of stigma in India and it is tough to find a good solution. Bemo was selected for Start-Up Chile Sfactory, SEED, Numa Bangalore and 10000 startups by NASSCOM India. I lived in Santiago, Chile for 5 months and launched the MVP. It is going well but i need more hands on business knowledge and would like to invest in a MBA. I am technically sound and have a good experience leading teams.

Education details:

1. B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering - MITS, Jaipur (7.86/10) (2005-2009)
2. 1-yr Certification in Business Analytics - Indian School of Business(3.7/4) (2013-2014)
3. High School Mathematics/Science(99/100) Won a India-wide scholarship
3. I have many certifications for the job such as Scrum certified product owner and also trained people in Agile and Machine learning


Questions:
1. Should i think about retaking GMAT. My verbal is weak. Or should i try GRE instead? I want to apply to INSEAD, IMD, IE, Kellogg, UCLA, Emory and National university of Singapore.
2. Is my profile good enough ? Are there some areas that i should focus on for the applications in the coming year?
3. Considering my profile, are there some schools i should consider?

I really appreciate all the help from this forum. I have been so down about the GMAT since 2013. Please do help me move forward.

Thanks a lot!
Nidhi
Definitely retake as your profile has a lot of potential with the right application but the GMAT score is too low for your applicant group unfortunately. So like the others, I also really recommend retaking.

As for GRE vs. GMAT, you might find the following articles helpful in order to get a better idea of what the differences are:
https://aringo.com/should-you-take-the-gre-or-the-gmat/
https://aringo.com/gmat-vs-gre-for-mba/
https://aringo.com/more-mba-programs-co ... l-to-gmat/

Good luck! And don't despair, other than that score you are in great shape!
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