Ask Stacy Blackman

Dear admissions consultant,
I am a doctor from India with an MBBS degree which is equivalent to
an MD from the US.
I have just graduated a month ago.
Have given my 1st GMAT a few days ago and i got a score of 730. Q49 V40.
96 percentile.
I can build on work experience in the next couple of years.
I am also confident of some strong letters of recommendation and some good essays.
However, my GPA in med school has been extremely low.In fact i have had a few back
logs as well. In India, especially in the med schools, we do not calculate GPA.
But if i have to be honest, i would say that i am in the bottom 25 percentile
of my class.
However, i have had reasonably good scores throughout high school....i am placed
comfortably above the 75th percentile.
The only honest reason for my utterly poor performance in med schools is that i was
least interested in the course and was very lazy.
However, i am very interested in starting my own business some time in the future.
I am very inclined towards getting an mba in management or entrepreneurship or finance
from the best B-schools in US.
I am also a permanent resident of the US so i wont have any visa problem.
I am only concerned about getting into Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago Booth or Oxford.
I feel that though my Gmat score is just above the median score of these schools, being an
indian male would work against me.I have heard that many Indians, depsite scores of 740 &
750 still get rejected from these premium schools due to over representation.
I was wondering if you could tell me what my chances are.(taking into account also my low med school
scores.)
Also, i am seriously considering giving my gmat again. I am very confident that i will get
a 750 or 760 the second time(at the minimum).However i am worried if those who evaluate applications to these schools would frown on more than one attempt on the gmat.In case they dont mind a second attempt, would they know that i got a reasonably good score in my first attempt or will they just look at the highest of the two.

Kindly advise on how i should proceed.
Will be waiting for your reply.Thank you.

Hi,
Thank you for the reply Stacy.I have read through the case study for which you had provided the link.
I feel uncomfortable thinking that being an indian male, i might be in an over represented bracket as far as gmat score is concerned.However i cannot do anything else with my GPA, so i think i work on some really good and relevant work experience in the next 2-3 yrs.
Thank you for all the information.That was very helpful.

Prajwal.S