I have three years of work experience in the banking field, my last role being that of Manager - Investment services at The Standard Chartered Private Bank. I have graduated in Operational research and Economics from The Delhi University with distinction (GPA 3.5). I have recently taken the GMAT and scored 620. My extra curriculars background is strong and I am currently working in Africa with The UNICEF.
On the basis of the above, request recommendations on my profile and if there are any other areas that you feel I need to address.I am keen to apply to IE, IESE, Oxford,Cambridge, Insead Singapore, NUS, HEC Paris, Nanyung, Cornell and Columbia. Is it recommended that I retake GMAT? What are the chances of my getting into a B school of choice?

Thanks,
Sonakshi

Hi Sonakshi,

Thanks for writing in. Your extracurricular work sounds really interesting and could be a starting point to differentiate your application from the rest of the banking applicants. Your list of schools is quite extensive and I'm not an expert in all of them, but an early red flag I see for most of those schools will be the GMAT. You can look up the middle 80% range for these schools on BusinessWeek.com or on the schools' individual sites, but I do think for most of the schools you list you will find yourself at the bottom, or even outside that range. In order to give yourself a competitive shot, I think retaking the GMAT is the route to go, especially if your practice tests indicate you can score higher. While you don't go into much detail here, you'll want to also make sure your "Why MBA?" story is airtight, so that the schools can see a logical progression to your career.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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Dear Daniel,

Thanks a lot for the response. I was scoring between 680-700 in practise tests so 620 was a bummer. My only dillemna is whether I should go ahead and apply with this score as I am in Africa right now and would be able to retake the exam once I'm back in my home country in September. I was hoping if you could especially throw light on IE Spain as this B school is on my dream list and the application deadlines for this year ie November 2011 intake are still open. So it's a trade off between this year and the next. Also, does retaking GMAT go against a candidate?
Thanks a lot,
Sonakshi

Hi Sonakshi,

Traditionally schools only look at the highest GMAT score, so retaking would not be held against you.

The bottom part of the range at IE is 640, so getting in with a 620 is going to be very difficult. I can't speak to your personal goals and how an extra year impacts those, but I think with an improved GMAT your chances at IE would go up.

Good luck!
Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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