Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi,

I would request you to kindly evaluate my profile and suggest the best suited business schools for me.

GMAT: Nothing to write home about, multiple attempts and highest score 610

Work profile: 7.8 Yrs work ex in IT/Software Services including 5.4 yrs with Financial Mortgage services company. Currently working as senior project lead with a telecom vendor ranked among top 3 in the world. I have been in leadership role for 3.5 years now with team size varying from 5 - 12 members depending on project.

Education: B.E (Non IIT college, India)
GPA: Below par (My performance was affected by some personal problems at the time).

Extra Curricular: I have been involved with a NGO for over 3 years where we take care of street children, children with special abilities. The NGO is now working on a self-sustainable model with minimum donations. I have also been been the school captain in my higher secondary days and have multiple awards in various sporting and cultural activities. There is a little more in this list.


Post MBA goal: To work with leading PE/VC firm.
Long Term (2-3 Yrs after MBA): Join my family to expand our firm into a respected REAL Estate company.

Recommendations: VP from my previous organisation will recommend me and one recommendation from my first manager.

I have always wanted to do my MBA from among the top 20 schools. Can I look to apply to some good schools or would you recommend taking another dig on GMAT (4th time).

Thanks,
Vishal

Hello, Vishal,

From the information provided I'd conclude that top-20 programs will be reaches. With an Indian IT background and relatively low GMAT and GPA, it will be difficult. If one of those numbers is low, then to be competitive for challenging programs the other number should be higher than average. So if you have a justifiable reason for a low GPA, then you'd need to show your academic capabilities with a relatively high GMAT. I think you'd need to either raise your GMAT to the high 600s to be competitive or be willing to consider less competitive programs.

The other factors sound positive - the work leadership will help, and your extracurricular involvement will be an enhancement. But top-20 schools will want to still see a stronger academic record or GMAT.

To get a clear sense of what levels of schools it makes sense to target, I suggest my free subscriber mini-report that walks you through how to select a list of schools, including assessing your competitiveness, your wants/needs, and what the schools offer: Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Best Ones.


Best regards,
Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, www.Accepted.com

Unfortunately, I agree with Cindy that top-20 MBA schools would be out-of-reach.

Thanks for your response guys.

Like I mentioned I have already taken 3 attempts on GMAT. Would it help even if I get a good score (680+) on the fourth attempt? Wouldn't the ad coms ignore that considering the highest score in my previous attempts has been 610.

Regards,
Vishal

The adcoms only accept the highest score so retaking the GMAT would be your best option.

Good luck,

Hi Vishal,

First suggestion - retake GMAT ( even if its the 4th time and target a 650+ or so)

Even if you cant target more European schools than US schools. US schools want a comparatively higher GMAT score and lower Avg experience than European schools and hence your credentials are more suitable for European schools.

Consider RSM Erasmus, Warwick, Manchester, Cass.

Feel free to contact us if you have any queries.

Apphelp Team