Greetings! I am an aspiring MBA candidate and I want to start school in Aug 2012.I took my GMAT yesterday and I scored a 690. I wanted to cross the 700 mark very badly but missed it by 10 points. Now that I have got my GMAT score, the top question on my mind is what are my chances of getting in to my target schools ? Based on my GMAT score and profile, which schools I should be targeting? It will be great if you could evaluate my profile and enlighten me.

Kindly evaluate my candidacy as I am targeting top schools in the US. Here is a brief overview of my profile :

About myself: Indian female/28 years old / total 5.5 years industry experience

GMAT: 690 (Quant : 46, verbal 38)

GPA/school: I hold a first class degree in Bachelor of Engineering (Information Technology) from the University Of Mumbai. I scored an aggregate of 61% in my bachelor’s and I am not sure how this translates to the GPA. My official college transcript specifically says that GPA is not the achievement index for the student’s academic performance in University Of Mumbai.

Target schools: Harvard, Wharton, Yale, Tuck, Ross, Fuqua, Columbia, Stern, MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Ross


Professional background: I am software engineer by qualification and profession. I completed by Bachelors degree in June 2004 and joined one of Asia's biggest software companies as a software developer. I worked with the same company for 5.5 years and during this period I have done many projects in which I have donned a variety of roles namely, software developer, business analyst, team leader, change management lead, tester and project manager. I have worked in multiple domains such as e-learning, finance and insurance. I have worked in the United States for close to 2 years while I was doing assignments for my company's American clients. My work has been highly commended by clients and I have been presented with certificates of appreciation in recognition of my contribution to the project.

Community Service: I was a volunteer for 1 year with a non profit organization which focuses on providing education to slum children. I worked as a mentor with a particular group that focused on mentoring teen aged slum children. The main focus of this mentor group is to keep these children focused on completing their education and help them deal with the problems they face in day to day lives due to their underprivileged socio-economic back ground.

Extra curricular Activities: At school level, I have participated in elocution, essay writing and quiz competitions and I have won numerous prizes. I have participated in such competitions at college level too but I have not won prizes. I used to be a member of the Toastmaster’s club and I have attended several sessions.

Current Status: I quit my job in August 2010 (after putting in 5.5 yrs of service) as I got engaged to get married. I am not working at present. I live in Gainesville, Florida with my husband.

Area of interest: I am interested in pursuing a MBA in finance


Thanks a lot for all the help in advance !

Hi s.jananee,

Thanks for writing in. Two main challenges jump out from your background. The first is separating yourself from the cohort of Indian IT candidates. The best way to approach this is by differentiating yourself with clear career goals and perhaps through your community service work as well.

The other challenge is to explain your gap in work experience. You will need to explain this clearly as well and demonstrate that you are committed to attending an MBA if accepted and also rejoining the workforce, as employability is a factor in admissions.

As for your list of schools it seems like you're planning to apply to most of the top-15 or so. I suggest selecting 2-3 schools from that list (perhaps Fuqua and MIT among them?), and then adding 2-3 schools from the top-25 range to diversify your chances of admission.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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