Hi msathyan -- congrats on the 640! You're getting in range of qualifiying for some very good MBA programs with that score. Your quant score is obviously very good. Unfortunately your verbal score is still quite low and it may be an issue at many of the better bschools. If you're interested in going for a Top 30 program, you might want to consider testing one more time to bring the verbal side up further. If you get the verbal to the ~34 range or so, you will probably be able to get about a 680 total, given how strong you are with quant.

As you are likely already aware, the biggest challenge with your profile is standing out from all the other Indian tech candidates. A higher GMAT score will be important to simply be "in the running" for a good American or European MBA program, however it will come down to the essays in terms of how the adcom will assess your profile. It sounds like you have some interesting stories of impact with counseling those college students. This type of recent evidence of community involvement will help you. Depending on the NGO activities, you may be able to come up with some interesting examples of leadership and impact that the adcoms will appreciate. You should focus on the activities you've done since graduating, rather than going back to your college days, in terms of stories to use in the essays. The adcoms usually want to see what you've done since graduating, both personally and professionally, as a way to evaluate your candidacy.

Your international experience is also important - if you're targeting US or European schools, it will help to show the adcom why you want an education overseas. You'll be at an advantage if you are trying to build an international career of some sort. Then, it will be obvious why you need to pursue an education outside of India. Without that angle, many schools have a hard time accepting foreign candidates because they need to see why the education in another country is so important to their career development. So, establishing this reason and a rationale for why you want to leave India for the MBA will help a lot.

With your current GMAT score, you'll be an appropriate fit at schools like Tippie or Mendoza. Your choice of school depends on many factors, including a lot of personal ones like location/geography, class size, etc. And, first and foremost are your career goals - what do you want to do with an MBA? Having those defined in advance will help you both in selecting the schools and in articulating to the adcom why you want to go there.

If you have other questions for us, please ask!

EssaySnark

Hi essaysnark,
I want to do my MBA in Information Management. And the preferred Geographical location would be either US or Singapore.
So can I apply for the colleges mentioned below(considering they are decent colleges for MBA in Information Management) . I have considered it with the 80% GMAT score.
But considering the fact that I am from India and belonging to the most competitive segment. What are my odds in getting into these colleges if not please suggest some colleges.

1.) NTU Singapore
2.) University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
3.) University of Maryland: Smith
4.) University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler

Thanks in advance.

Hi msathyan--

It sounds like you're going through the right process to select your target schools - you're looking at them from the context of your career goals, and you're evaluating whether your profile is strong enough, specifically with the 80% range of GMAT score. So yes, you would be qualified to apply to any of those on the list.

The gazillion dollar question, of course, is "what are my chances...?" -- and unfortunately that's not something that we can do much with!! The schools look at the entirety of your application. Most important are career goals, and demonstrated evidence of leadership and contribution. This is obviously not something that any admissions consultant can evaluate through a BTG posting.

The GMAT score is your ticket to play the game - a higher score always helps, but it's not the end of the story. The bulk of the adcom's evaluation will be focused on what you've done to date, and what you want to do in the future.

So what we can say to you is, you're approaching this the right way, in terms of how you're researching programs and selecting schools. Next it will be up to you to present the strongest profile possible through the essays!! It's a big challenge, we know... Check out our blog and https://30days.hoop.la for more resources that we're offering every day to help Brave Supplicants like you with this task.

EssaySnark