Hello ladies and gentlemen,
First, I would like to say THANK YOU to all of the experts and members of the "Beat the GMAT" community. I feel like some of the success stories on here definitely motivated me to put my best foot forward during the application process.
I know people on here are very curious and stat crazy so here is my profile:
Applied to: UBC, Rotman and Schulich
Male
Mid 20's
Canadian
2 years work experience (1 in wealth management, 1 in education)
610 GMAT, even breakdown, 6 AWA
undergrad GPA - 3.44
I want to give hope to those people who don't have a high GMAT score. I completed the GMAT test 3 times and 610 was my highest score. We didn't have standardized tests when I was a high school student so I believe I'm just a terrible test taker. I don't even want to talk about my first score. However, I remembered what one of my past managers had taught me and that was "control what you can control". I did not want to go through another GMAT sitting, so I decided to control what I could control, and that was the rest of my application, more specifically my ESSAY's. I believe I gained admission through telling my story creatively.
I had a very diverse background, including many extra-curricular's and volunteer activities. I made sure to highlight my various leadership roles throughout my life. My advice would be: DO NOT be the typical applicant and write generic essays, especially if the rest of your application is weak, like mine was. I consider a 3.44 GPA pretty average at best and I only had the minimum amount of work experience. But, quality IS better than quantity.
Again, I reiterate the fact that my essay's were "different". I spent a lot of time on them. I applied to 3 schools, I have not heard back from UBC but will not be attending there anyways. I had taken someone's advice on here, and made sure to complete 1 school's essays at a time, and to NOT submit my application for any school until I had completed all 3 school's essays. This piece of advice proved to be incredibly crucial. After completing my essays for UBC, I thought that they couldn't get any better, but after letting them marinade, and writing my Schulich and Rotman essays, I kept on coming up with more creative ideas to tell my story.
I guess the moral of the story is, the GMAT is NOT the be all and end all. The admission's committee's are not kidding when they say they take a holistic approach to reviewing your application. Great scores and grades aren't everything, if you're a well rounded person and able to think creatively, I'm sure you'll gain acceptance into your school of choice!
Here are some websites, other than beatthegmat, that I referred to during my application process:
www.accepted.com
https://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmiss ... essay.html
Best of luck!
First, I would like to say THANK YOU to all of the experts and members of the "Beat the GMAT" community. I feel like some of the success stories on here definitely motivated me to put my best foot forward during the application process.
I know people on here are very curious and stat crazy so here is my profile:
Applied to: UBC, Rotman and Schulich
Male
Mid 20's
Canadian
2 years work experience (1 in wealth management, 1 in education)
610 GMAT, even breakdown, 6 AWA
undergrad GPA - 3.44
I want to give hope to those people who don't have a high GMAT score. I completed the GMAT test 3 times and 610 was my highest score. We didn't have standardized tests when I was a high school student so I believe I'm just a terrible test taker. I don't even want to talk about my first score. However, I remembered what one of my past managers had taught me and that was "control what you can control". I did not want to go through another GMAT sitting, so I decided to control what I could control, and that was the rest of my application, more specifically my ESSAY's. I believe I gained admission through telling my story creatively.
I had a very diverse background, including many extra-curricular's and volunteer activities. I made sure to highlight my various leadership roles throughout my life. My advice would be: DO NOT be the typical applicant and write generic essays, especially if the rest of your application is weak, like mine was. I consider a 3.44 GPA pretty average at best and I only had the minimum amount of work experience. But, quality IS better than quantity.
Again, I reiterate the fact that my essay's were "different". I spent a lot of time on them. I applied to 3 schools, I have not heard back from UBC but will not be attending there anyways. I had taken someone's advice on here, and made sure to complete 1 school's essays at a time, and to NOT submit my application for any school until I had completed all 3 school's essays. This piece of advice proved to be incredibly crucial. After completing my essays for UBC, I thought that they couldn't get any better, but after letting them marinade, and writing my Schulich and Rotman essays, I kept on coming up with more creative ideas to tell my story.
I guess the moral of the story is, the GMAT is NOT the be all and end all. The admission's committee's are not kidding when they say they take a holistic approach to reviewing your application. Great scores and grades aren't everything, if you're a well rounded person and able to think creatively, I'm sure you'll gain acceptance into your school of choice!
Here are some websites, other than beatthegmat, that I referred to during my application process:
www.accepted.com
https://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmiss ... essay.html
Best of luck!
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