Hi –

Thanks for your inquiry.

Regarding your potential concerns about lack of international experience as well as not having direct reports, I would not worry too much. AdComs understand that not everyone is afforded international work experience pre-business school and also understand that many pre-MBAs will not have supervisory roles. With that said, remember that international exposure does not always require travel. To the extent that you have worked on teams with individuals from other regions and/or collaborated with employees from a different country, this too can count as international experience. In addition, you can and should highlight your professional leadership roles/experience as I sure you can point to many despite not having a team to manage.

Your challenge will be to differentiate yourself from others with a similar professional background to your own. Having meaningful extra-curricular involvement is helpful - you may want to look through this posting from our blog that may be helpful as you think about ways to present your unique story. Further, a score of 700 or above with 80th percentile in Q/V is the benchmark for success. Best of luck as you retake the test!

https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2009/05/ ... esentation

Assuming you do break 700 on the GMAT, the 5 schools you listed in the first group are still quite competitive (with Kellogg, Tuck likely toughest)...I would think about this group as your potential stretch schools and the second group of five as more reasonable. We recommend that our clients create a well-balanced list of target schools; thus I would suggest taking 1-3 schools from your stretch list and 1-3 schools from the other group. Taking time to think about what is important in a program – i.e. location, class size, teaching method, etc. should help you narrow down your list from ten to five or so.

I hope this helps.
Regards,
Erin