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Poor Quant/Good Verbal Kelley Direct

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Poor Quant/Good Verbal Kelley Direct

by UnMathletic » Wed Dec 18, 2013 6:15 pm
Hi everyone,

I am a young professional interested in pursuing an MBA part-time through Indiana's Kelley Direct online program. I went to a small regional school for undergrad and majored in a liberal arts field (I graduated with a 3.5 GPA). I minored in business in college so my transcripts show that I have Accounting, Economics, Marketing, Finance, etc. I earned an A in every single business class I took.

After college I miraculously landed a great job at a Fortune 50 company where i've been promoted rapidly (3x in 4 years) and have had some great work experience. I'm not doing heavy quantitative lifting in my job, but enough to show that I can handle quantitative analysis and work with numbers and data effectively in a business environment.

Unfortunately, my GMAT left a lot to be desired. I only managed to get a 590. At first I was really disappointed but felt better knowing that about 35% of Kelley Direct Students have a GMAT in the range of 500-599 (according to their class profile). So there is hope, right? Maybe not...The breakdown between verbal and quantitative was roughly 87% percentile for verbal and 35% for quantitative. This was really frustrating as I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on how to use data, but I'm terrible at standardized testing and I never had algebra in college. I really do NOT want to have to take the GMAT again.

So I'd love to get some perspective here. Am I screwed? Or does my good undergrad business performance and strong resume with a history of performing tasks that are quantitative in nature put me over the hump? Any advice or thoughts welcome!
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:13 am
Do you have other ways to demonstrate quantitative proficiency, such as good grades in math subjects (e.g. statistics) or analytical skills in work? For a review of how MBA Admissions Committees look at your application, visit MBA Evaluation Criteria.

Have you contacted the admissions office to see if a 35% would preclude you? I do not know how less selective the online admissions process is compared to their normal admissions process.

Good luck,
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by UnMathletic » Fri Dec 20, 2013 5:28 am
MBAPrepAdvantage wrote:Do you have other ways to demonstrate quantitative proficiency, such as good grades in math subjects (e.g. statistics) or analytical skills in work? For a review of how MBA Admissions Committees look at your application, visit MBA Evaluation Criteria.
Per my original post...Yes, I can demonstrate quantitative proficiency with good grades in some of my undergrad business courses (statistics, finance, accounting). I got all A's in these subjects. Also, I use data, numbers, and spreadsheets on a daily basis at work. I have excelled in a competitive work environment and been able to advance quickly within the organization.

I fully understand the components that ad coms look at in evaluating an application. What i'm hoping to get is some tailored advice relative to the Kelley Direct program through IU.

Thanks.
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Fri Dec 20, 2013 8:42 am
Gotcha.

Unfortunately, I do not have insight into the differences in competitiveness between the online and campus part-time programs. I would recommend you give a call to the admissions staff and calmly explain your situation. Although a 35% is very low, the selectivity might not be such to exclude you.

Have a great weekend,
Michael Cohan
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www.mbaprepadvantage.com

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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Fri Dec 20, 2013 9:03 am
One more thing for other reading this thread who might think to extrapolate contacting the admissions staff of a program for similar circumstances. Generally, contacting admissions directors and staff about specific situations in which one or more of your dimensions (in this case GMT quant. score) is an outlier works better with programs of smaller size (such as part-time or executive MBA programs) and of less selectivity (either between that school and say Top 15 programs or between that program of the school and other programs) because you are treated less as a number.

Also, schools sometimes encourage everybody to apply (even if the likelihood of accepting a candidate with certain low scores is minuscule) for two reasons:

- The school never knows whether the rest of the application will be so strong that the school does not want to exclude a potential applicant that would be accepted.
- The school wants to increase its selectivity perception by boosting total applications which decreases acceptance percentage.
Michael Cohan
MBAPrepAdvantage Founder & AIGAC Board Director
305-604-8178
www.mbaprepadvantage.com

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Follow Michael Cohan on Image Image and BeattheGMAT.
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