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Hi, I have been discouraged a lot during my Preparation for my GMAT scheduled Dec 9th 2010.

I am Indian Female 26 years of age

Did my undergrad in a top 20 engineerg school in India (Bachelors in Computer Science Engg) with a very low gpa or 5.65 on a scale of 10.(Reason being my mom passed away during my first year)

I later on joined a business school which awards post graduation diploma in business administration (PGDBA - most schools in India offer this and not MBA's) with specialization in telecom management with a gpa of 72 on a scale of 100 ...

I got placed through my business school in a telecom organisation and worked for 2 years as Senior Executive Product Management with a recognition award for excellence.

I later got married to a guy living in USA and came over to USA in June 2010. I cannot work here as I am on dependent visa. So I thought I should do a MBA here in supply chain to improvise my skills and get a work visa of my own ... hence started preparing for GMAT and scheduled the same for Dec 9th 2010. In the course of my preparation I have been meeting ppl and everyone seem to think that I have a very tough chance in getting into a good school due to my Low GPA and also the fact that I already have a Graduate degree in Business, low experience(2 years) and presently jobless(because I cannot work on a dependent visa)

I am looking at the following schools and my GMAT is in the range of 670-720 in my practice exams.
1) UC Davis
2) USC MArshall
3) ASU
4) Thunderbird
5) UC Irvine
6) UW - Foster

Can you please Advise me as to what my chances are in getting into one of the above schools. Will my existing business degree and low undergrad gpa(was depressed due to my mom's demise) and low experience(2 years) and presently jobless(because I cannot work on a dependant visa) hamper my prospect of getting into a good school ?


Should I even put any efforts to write my GMAT ?


Your frank reply would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Savithav,

You definitely should take the GMAT and get a real score you can work with as you evaluate which schools to apply to. Yes, your undergraduate GPA is very low but you have an understandable reason and your subsequent degree shows a tremendous amount of improvement. You do have some explaining to do in your optional essay, but your goal of going to business school is not a lost cause.

You also have an explanation for why you are not presently working. However, you should use this opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and managerial skills in a non-work environment. You could volunteer with a non-profit in a business capacity so that you have recent, concrete examples of how you have been a leader and manager whose efforts have meaningful results.

What CAN keep you from getting into a business school is the great degree of pessimism and discouragement I sense from your post. You have to be your own #1 fan in the process of applying to business school. It's stressful enough without you adding to your worries. Start with the first step--taking the GMAT--and move on with confidence from there.

Good luck!
Kaneisha