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Hi,

I am an Indian male with work-experience in Finance.

GMAT:

Total Score: 710 (92 percentile)
Quant: 50 (94 percentile)
Verbal: 37 (81 percentile)
AWA: 4.0 (21 percentile)

GPA:

8.72/10.00 (simple conversion leads to 3.488 (approx. 3.5)/4.0
Ranked 2 in my graduation class

Graduation School: IIT, India (one of the best engineering school in India)

Work Experience till now, 2 years and 10 months (should be 4 years, 1 month by July, 2010)

I worked as a Software Engineer in a Finance and Consulting firm for the first 9 months. Thereafter I have worked as an Analyst in Investment Banking/Finance. There I trained and lead a team of 2 guys, one with similar work experience as mine, another had work ex of more than 5 years. Did very well in my role.

I also visited New York (for business purpose) for 5 months and met people of 10 different countries. I didn't face any problem communicating with them at all. Does this count at all?

Extra-curricular: I worked for National Social Service for 2 years (in my Graduation School, we had several options such as Sports, Social Service, Military, I chose Social Service). I did some role of leadership there, but had nothing much to brag about.

I am targetting the Top 10 B-Schools. My career path will be in Investment Banking. Hence, so far I have decided on:

LBS,
Columbia,
Wharton, and
NYU.
I will also apply at ISB, India.

My GMAT score is way below the average for my pool. Do you think I should take the test again? I had fallen very sick before my exams. Can I defend my low GMAT score in the optional essay? I am afraid it will sound more like an excuse than a valid reason.

I know that the Indian IT pool is very overcrowded in terms of applicants and hence requires very high GMAT scores. But, my work experience is in Finance (though for the first 9 months I worked as a software engineer). Is the avg GMAT score in this pool high too?

Will my GPA be acceptable? Do I need to defend it? Does class rank matter?

I have always studied in English medium schools. Does that help?

Do I stand a good chance in the top 10 B-schools?

Thanks a lot for the help,
K

Dear GMAT_2010,

Thanks for your post!

I've answered your questions below:

My GMAT score is way below the average for my pool. Do you think I should take the test again? I had fallen very sick before my exams. Can I defend my low GMAT score in the optional essay? I am afraid it will sound more like an excuse than a valid reason.

>>You have a nicely balanced score - performing reasonably well (above the 80th percentile) in each section of the exam. While I wouldn't say that your score is "way below average," I do agree that it is somewhat below the average in your portion of the applicant pool. A 710 is also likely to be below the average for all admitted students at a good number of top-10 schools this coming year.

>>I would not write an essay to defend your score. It will sound like an excuse and will only prompt the admissions officer to wonder why you didn't retake the test if you are so confident that you merely had a bad day.

>>Given that it's only April and that you have plenty of time before applications are due this fall, my advice is that you retake the exam and aim to hit a homerun. This is especially true if you have only taken the test once. While a 710 won't eliminate you from contention by any means, securing a 730+ would obviously help your case.

I know that the Indian IT pool is very overcrowded in terms of applicants and hence requires very high GMAT scores. But, my work experience is in Finance (though for the first 9 months I worked as a software engineer). Is the avg GMAT score in this pool high too?

>>While you are correct in pointing out that your career track is somewhat different from many Indian IT guys, I still think it makes sense to retake the GMAT. The reason for this is that if anything, you might be considered in both the Indian engineer pool AND the finance/banking pool - both of which typically have fairly high GMAT results.

Will my GPA be acceptable? Do I need to defend it? Does class rank matter?

>>Your results from udergraduate are excellent. The top schools are very familiar with the IITs and have a great deal of respect for them. They also know that securing an 8.72/10 from an IIT is virtually unheard of, so they will be impressed by your marks. Finally, your class rank should provide the icing on the cake, so to speak. [Note: While it could be tempting to ignore the GMAT and hope that you can ride into b-school in the sheer strength of your ugrad record (certainly not out of the question), I'd still lean towards having you retake the test with an aim to secure a result that is more in keeping with your stellar performance in school.]

I have always studied in English medium schools. Does that help?

>>No. This is fairly common in the applicant pool.

Do I stand a good chance in the top 10 B-schools?

>>You have the beginnings of a competitive candidacy, but there are many question marks. For example, in order to better assess your chances, I'd need to know which bank you are working for, what sort of XCs you have pursued (beyond the National Social Service work in ugrad) and whether or not you have any other unique interests/hobbies.

>>Also, if finance is your target field, you may want to consider adding Chicago Booth to the list...

Feel free to send along your resume to [email protected] to set up a free phone session with one of our counselors.

Best of luck,

Graham

Thanks a lot Graham. I will be definitely take GMAT again. Will also work on my other shortcomings. Once I am done with these things, I'll send you my resume to set up a session with you guys.

Dear GMAT_2010,

Thanks for your follow-up post. I'm glad to hear that you're planning on retaking the GMAT and looking to bolster other areas of your candidacy as you continue your journey towards applications this fall.

We'll look forward to seeing your resume and chatting further about your overall application strategy.

Best of luck,

Graham