Need advice

[nehag84]

Hello.

I gave my GMAT today and scored 720; Quant - 49, Verbal - 39. I have a 87 percentile in Quant as well as Verbal and a 94 percentile overall. As luck would have it, this is the lowest I have ever scored in verbal till now :-( Was expecting somewhere around 760...

I needed your help on the following concerns:

1) I was planning to apply to Stanford, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg's and Wharton earlier...I guess will need to change my plans now. But hoping against hope, can you tell me what chances I have of making into these 5 colleges with my score. I have 1.5 years of work experience as an assistant Human Resources Manager in India.

2) I scored a miserly 58.67 percent in my graduation. It seems pretty low and makes me cringe every time I see it; however, the highest score was around 65%. I did my graduation from Delhi University in India, majoring in Economics and Maths; As you can see, the marks given for Humanities stream are not very high in Delhi University. On the CGPA scale provided by GMAC, this comes out to be less than 1. Pls advice if there is some way around it because this places me even lower in the rung.

3) I want to major in Human Resources and Organization Development/Change. Is the admissions criteria different from that of a general MBA - in terms of GMAT score etc.

4) I also have a Diploma in Management which I did after my first graduation. It was an on-campus full 2 years program. In that I have a CGPA of 4.18 (on a scale of 1 to 5). In what all ways can this help my application.

5) Is it true that people who apply in the first round have a better chance of getting through...I am not sure but might give another shot in Nov or Dec to improve my GMAT score. Is this advisable...?

Thanking You,

Yours Sincerely,
NG

[mbamission]

Hi NG -

I'll be happy to answer your questions but am a little bit confused on the first one. You seem to be implyin that with a 720 GMAT you fear not being competitive at the top schools, is that right? I want to reassure you that that is not the case. A 740 score is excellent and your Q/V breakdown is nothing to worry about at all. It seems to me that you are worrying excessively about an excellent score, which is of course only one factor in your overall application.

Let me address your individual questions.

1) Your list is very ambitious, not because of your GMAT score but because you are in an overrepresented demographic without extensive work experience. However, I do not have your complete profile (e.g. activities, recommendations, types of responsibilities at work) to be able to offer a full assessment. Being an HR manager as opposed to working in IT is a differentiator. There are no safety schools on your list, but again I urge you to consider your overall profile, not the GMAT score.

2) If you scored 58% out of 65%, you should be sure to address in your optional essay how rigorously your school graded students. Schools have a lot of experience with Indian universities and may provide you with better guidance as to how to convert it to a 4 pt scale.

3) No, there is no difference across majors within an MBA in terms of admissions requirements.

4) Your diploma can only help, by showing that you have more recent academic experience and performed quite well in it. Address that in your optional essay as well, demonstrating your strengths and academic maturity.

Best of luck,

Jessica


Jessica Shklar
MBA Mission
646-485-8844

Website: www.mbamission.com
Blog: www.mbamission.com/blog

[nehag84]

Hello Jessica,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes you are right...I am still worried a 720 score is not good enough and I need something at least 750+, especially for the top 5 B-schools :-( However, will apply with this score itself in the first/second round this year and see what happens (I m keeping my fingers crossed!)

Can you please tell me which are the top 5 schools for a majors in Human Resources (I would like to become a consultant in change management and organizational development).

Also, is it advantageous to apply in the first round as compared to applying in the second round?

Last but not the least, can you give me a realistic list of schools that I can apply for given my score and work experience.

Thanking You,

Regards,
Neha

P.S - I also worked with my father in his hospitality business - he owns 3 guest houses in my hometown - for 2 years while attending 11th and 12th standards at school. It wasn't much - basically front-ending (if that's a word) - taking care of the guests, ensuring things were in order to assure the guests had a pleasant stay. Should I include this in my work experience?

[mbamission]

Hi Neha -

The work you did for your father was in high school, right? Applicants generally feel that there isn't room on their resume to address that and it's not usually relevant to their goals either, so unless high school experience is extremely unusual, no I wouldn't list it.

In terms of R1 vs R2, there is sometimes a slight advantage to applying in R1 because fewer people tend to do so, so the acceptance rates go up a bit, but that's just historical information, not predictive for this year. Fundamentally the best time to apply is when you can do the best possible job on your application. A lower quality R1 application is not as effective as a higher quality R2 one.

For schools I think your best bet is to research through various forums which schools are strongest in your area and then compare your statistics to their most recent class to determine how realistic your chances are.

Best of luck

Jessica