Ask Stacy Blackman

Dear Stacy,

I am asking for profile revaluation since my GMAT score has gone up.

I am a 29 year old MBA prospective student from Pakistan.


GPA/Percentage:I have done my bachelors in Computer Sciences from NED, a local University that is among the top 3 Engineering universities in my country. My final accumulative percentage was 83%. When I will apply for transcripts, the percentage will be converted into equivalent GPA. I, however, cannot tell you the equivalent GPA right now. I was among the top 15 in my class.

Career: I have been working with Standard Chartered, which is a British bank, for more than 6 1/2 years. Standard Chartered has a decent network of more than 140 branches in Pakistan. I started my career as a sales executive in branch banking in February 2005. I have steadily progressed and was promoted four times during these 6 1/2 years. From 2008 to 2010, I was the floor manager for one of our flagship branches in Pakistan. I managed a sales/service team of more than 12 people and a portfolio of more than 100 million dollars. At the start of 2011, I was promoted as a branch manager. Later in June, I was hand picked for a sales transformation project. The scope of the project is to standardise the way sales is done in consumer banking. In my current role as a coach, I am responsible for implementing the new sales model, bringing about a behavioural and cultural change in the whole of consumer banking. I am part of team of 7 people. I will be able to get good/stellar recommendations.

Personal life: My father was in army and we moved a lot till I was 18. I have lived in all four provinces of Pakistan and speak atleast 2 provincial languages besides the national language.

Volunteer experience: I had around 3 months of volunteer work experience last year and would be doing the same before filing my applications this year.My volunteer work was on Saturdays. I was working with a local NGO and my work consisted of assisting under privileged children in improving their education and social life.

MBA major: I am aiming to get an MBA with major in general management or consultancy.

GMAT: I have taken the GMAT test 5 times. Break-up of score is given below

GMAT 1

March 2010 : 650 (Q 43, V 37)

I was blown away by the difficulty of the Quantitative section. The testing laminated sheet also put me off. In short, I was not prepared.

GMAT 2

Dec 2010: 600 (Q 47, V 27)

This time I was more prepared. However during the verbal section of the test, I had a migraine attack. I just randomly selected most of the verbal answers and my score dropped as a result.

GMAT 3

Feb 2011: 640 (Q 42, V 37)

I couldn't keep up with the timing in the quantitative section and ended up missing 2 questions.

GMAT 4

Jan 2012: 680 (Q 44, V 40)

I messed up with my Quantitative section timing again.

GMAT 5

Mar 2012: 720 (Q 49, V40)

My questions from the experts

Please evaluate my profile on my current scores. Please advise me on whether

1) Giving the test five times would reflect negatively on my application? especially that I did not show any improvement during my second and third attempts.

2) Would my applicant age of 30 this August/September be a turn-off for US MBA schools?

3) What are my chances with respect to the following tier of schools? These are 15 schools in total. I would be bringing this list down to 6-8 schools by August. I just want a perspective of my chances for each tier.

I am considering the following schools

European Schools

1) IMD (Europe)
2) LBS (Europe)
3) INSEAD (Europe)

Second tier US Schools

4) Duke ( USA)
5) Michigan Ross (USA)
6) Cornell (USA)
7) Virginia Darden (USA)

first tier US schools

8) Harvard
9) Wharton
10)Kellog
11)Berkley
12)Columbia
13) Chicago

NON-US schools

14) Rotman (Canada)
15) Australian school of business (Australia)

Rotman and ASB , although good schools in their own sense, would be my back up.

Please let me know If I am missing any information in my profile.

Thank you for reading my long post.