Application to Mid Tier B Schools - Should I give GMAT again?

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Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
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Hey everyone,

I'm very confused about giving my GMAT again, I'll give you a brief about my profile.

In many ways, I'm a typical IT Indian Male Engineer. But during my final year, I was falling out of love with Computer Science. I wanted to explore, so I did Online courses in Marketing. After graduation, I had a varied work ex.

Work Experience:

Koldplay Cremerie - Marketing Intern - 0 Years 6 Months.
• A company with 10-20 employees manufacturing and selling ice-creams in Mumbai
• Managed Social Media
• Involved in the entire operations, learnt a lot about the industry

Self Employed
• A small company with 10-20 employees in the Beverages and Food industries
• Joined family business for 6 Months
• Was involved in Logistics and Storage, learnt about the beverages and cashew industry

MiM Essay - Operations Associate - 0 Years 10 Months.
• A small company with <10 employees in the Education Consultancy industry
• Led Operations, Client Engagement, and was involved in Marketing
• Learnt a lot about SEO, client communications, essay writing and more

Sutherland Global Services - Content Writer - 0 Years 3 Months.
• MNC in Customer Service and Research
• Improved Communication Skills

Byju's - Business Development Associate - 0 Years 1 Months.
• World's largest Ed Tech company
• Very valuable Sales experience, learnt a lot

Sutherland Global Service - Business Analyst & Project Manager - 2 Years 10 Months.
• Managed a chatbot development team - Lots of big name clients
• Learnt a lot about management, communications, technologies, AI, NLP, etc.

GMAT - 660 (Q-49, V-30, IR-8, AWA-5)
Nationality: Indian
Current Residence: India

My undergrad scores and experience was very weak.
Undergrad:

University of Mumbai - B.Tech (Comp Engg) 6.5/10 CGPA
• Involved in Sports and Extracurriculars
• Member of Creative Team (Commercium)

12th: 76%, BBPS, Mumbai
• Involved in Sports, part of State Football Team

10th: 9.6/10 CGPA, BBPS, Mumbai

I'm planning to do my MBA:
Aiming for colleges in European like: TCD, UCD, Manchester Business School, ESMT Berlin, and colleges in the same league.


Any tips or questions would be very much appreciated, but I have a few specific questions into which I would love some insight as well:
• Which other schools should I target?
• Any thoughts on whether my target schools are reasonable based on my profile?
• Is my profile good enough to get decent scholarships in the school I am targeting?
• What more I can do to strengthen my profile so that my chances of making to these and other prestigious schools increase? (I'm planning to do Google's Data Science Certification because I want to be a Project Manager or a Senior Data Analyst, and work with a lot of Data)

Thank you so much for your time, and I value your honest opinions!

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Hello Nad_y,

Thank you for sharing your profile. I am an ISB alum, CO14, and have been helping aspirants like you in their application journey ever since. Below is what I have gathered from your profile and if you should give the GMAT again:

Let’s start with your academics. Your academics is average but the fact that you entered into a non-traditional field post doing a B Tech can be spun off as a strength / diverse experiences. While the marketing courses you took definitely don’t add to your academic background, but they definitely can be used to show the trigger for your future career choices.

When it comes to your work experience, your varied work experience might come across as you not being so clear on your goals or what you want to do in the future. Clarity of goals is a very important prerequisite before applying to any institution. Be prepared with logical reasoning behind why you switched from one path to another in such short spans of time. Also, in this span of time, you will be expected to have taken on at least some leadership positions. Be sure to emphasize on them. Please be specific in mentioning becoming a Project Manager or Senior Data Analyst fascinates you and what skillsets you have already built in your career due to which you feel that the career you have chosen is a natural extension for you.
Your involvement in sports and being a part of state football is impressive; be sure to talk about that as it gives your personality a bit of an edge.

If you have the slightest of confidence that you can bump your GMAT score even by 20 points, I would definitely urge you to retake the exam since as far as MBA admissions are concerned, the more the GMAT score you have, the better are your chances especially since you come from an overrepresented Indian Male Software Engineering background. Apart from that, you will also need a stellar resume and essays to have a realistic shot at these schools. Below are responses to your specific questions:

• Which other schools should I target?
CA: You can target schools in Canada such as Mccgill and Queens. In EU, ESADE, Rotterdam, UCD Smurfit.

• Any thoughts on whether my target schools are reasonable based on my profile?
CA: Some of them are a stretch but if you can stitch all your diverse experiences into a consistent and progressive story, you stand a good chance of getting recognized.

• Is my profile good enough to get decent scholarships in the school I am targeting?
CA: Scholarships are primarily driven by your GMAT score. So chances of scholarships are low, and even if you get them, you should realistically not expect anything more than 20% of total tuition fees.

• What more I can do to strengthen my profile so that my chances of making to these and other prestigious schools increase? (I'm planning to do Google's Data Science Certification because I want to be a Project Manager or a Senior Data Analyst, and work with a lot of Data)
CA: I am sure you are aware that online MOOCs have become very prominent among a lot of Indian applicants especially with the advent of edu tech firms such as Unacademy, Udemy etc. So instead of taking up random courses, its better you work on your leadership skills – either at work or outside – pick up any voluntary / community-driven engagement and aim to create some impact there.


Wish you all the best and reach out to us in case you need personalized guidance! We have helped over 1000+ applicants as you get into the B-School of their choice.

Thanks and Regards,
Arijit Biswas
Founder, CrackAdmission
M| +91-9701215544
SI arijit_biswas89

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:58 am
Thanks a lot Arijit! :D
I am really thankful of your extremely detailed and logical response. I would be happy to reach out to you to find ways to make my profile stronger, and what timelines I am looking at.
Will give you a call soon!