Profile Evaluation

[messi10]

Hello,

I am looking for a profile evaluation.

I am a 28 year old Indian male. I completed my Bachelors degree in Engineering from England with a 1st class honours (which roughly translates to a 3.8 GPA).

I continued to live in England and joined a start-up IT consultancy, and worked there for 5 years. The company has grown every year since its start-up and I have been a part of some very good projects that show leadership, business acumen, problem solving and project management.

At this point, I was looking to move away from IT so I returned to India in 2010 to pursue some personal interests. For 6 months, I worked to help in the start-up of a mental health charitable organisation. and now, I am working in Sierra Leone, Africa as a volunteer (Business Advisor) with a rehabilitation and development agency working towards securing livelihoods for individuals and communities affected by civil war.

The reasons for working in the development sector have been more from a career change standpoint than philanthropy. I was interested in General Business Management and found more opportunities to learn that by volunteering.
Now, I feel that its the right time to pursue an MBA. I have taken the GMAT once and scored 630 (45Q, 31V). This was done before I enrolled in any prep courses. Since then, I have completed a MGMAT course and am confident that I can raise the score to 680-700.

I am still working on the list of target schools but here is what I have so far:

INSEAD (France)
ISB (India)
Dartmouth (Tuck)

I know that at the moment I am well below their median GMAT. But problem is that I will be in Sierra Leone till the end of the year so not sure if I will be able to take GMAT from here as there is no test centre and travelling to another country will be expensive. Given my age and profile, do you think I have a chance with a score of 630 or should I wait and apply for 2014 with a better GMAT score

Thanks

Sunil

[rachel]

Hi!! It sounds like you have some interesting experience, and I like what you are doing now, in particular, because it will help differentiate you from other candidates with similar backgrounds in IT. Your worry about applying with a 630 is warranted - the score is outside of the range of the schools that you want. That doesn't mean that you absolutely will not get in with that score, but it won't be easy to get in.

Best of luck,

Rachel Beck


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[messi10]

Hi Rachel,

Thank you very much for the prompt reply.

INSEAD seem to have a January intake as well. The applications for that are now open. I was thinking of applying for it with my current GMAT score.

In the event that I don't get through and manage to improve my score next year, I would probably want to reapply. I am not sure how much the other parts of the application will change. So my question is that is a better GMAT score good enough reason to reapply?

This is obviously based on assumptions that I successfully improve my score and also that INSEAD reject me on the basis of GMAT only.

Thanks

Sunil

PS - Does MBAMission have an insider guide on INSEAD?

[rachel]

If you don't get in this year and can boost your GMAT significantly, that will certainly help your application when you reapply.

In addition, mbaMission does not have an Insider Guide for INSEAD.

Best of luck,
Rachel

[messi10]

Hello,

I have given my GMAT today and the new score is 690 (Q49, V35). Given my profile, is it advisable to take the test again to try and score over 700?

Thanks

Sunil

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi Sunil,

Congrats on your new GMAT score! That is definitely an improvement. I wouldn't say you necessarily need to re-take for the schools you have mentioned, as you are in their common range of scores, and that means they will focus on the other areas of your application in making a decision. Yes if you went up say 30-40 points it might give you a slight extra plus but if you are choosing where to focus your effort and energy on right now, really working on strong application essays can go much further on your likelihood of gaining acceptance when you are already at that GMAT level for the schools you mentioned. Admissions officers look at the whole picture of your application and consider your work experience, academics, goals, experiences, strengths & weaknesses, recommendations, etc along with the GMAT.

Wishing you best of luck on your applications!

Jennifer Kedrowski
MBA Admissions Consultant
www.mbamission.com
jen@mbamission.com

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[messi10]

Thanks Jennifer! :)

[mbamissionjenK]

No problem, good luck and keep us posted!