Ask MBA Admit - Dr. Shel Watts

Hello Dr Shel
I have taken the Gmat twice, first I got a 490, and then year later, I got 640(V-34, Q-45). I have been advised by many to take it again. I am now aiming at 740, but have very little time, as I want to catch up for R2 applications(Nov/Dec). I have almost 2+ weeks to prepare. I have been going through Manhattan flash cards and strategies. from where should I practice quant, RC and CR? I am done with OG 11,12, Kaplan Gmatbook,Princeton Review gmat, 1000 SC, half of 1000 CR. Should I do OG 13, considering there is a new IR section as well?Should I also buy verbal review-GMAC?
Strengths-
SC- familiar with all rules, done manhattan SC, OG 11,12, 1000 SC
CR-I can categorise and recognise question type- Goal-plan/ Cause-effect/data etc.
RC-I am mostly fine with social sciences, business related passages
Quant-concepts clear. i have all notes/short cuts required, only need more practice


Weakness
CR-hit rate dwindles between 6/10 to 8/10. either I misinterpret the passage or I am mostly unsure between two answer options. I tried to do LSAT, but found it too difficult and discouraging.
RC-I am not good with passages on natural sciences. I take a glance(skim) of the passage->notice shifts and tone-> then read question->look for answer. I didn't practice this section much for last gmat exam.
Quant-slow at calculations, not a fan of probability/ P&C, make silly mistakes, in last exam-time management was shaky.
IR-I am not at all prepared for this section and have not been fond of interpreting data, but I do know that schools are really looking at this score. What should I aim in that case.

Profile-I am a 25 year old female from India and applying to US business schools in 2012. I have a GMAT of 640 (Q:45 / V:34 / AWA:4). I have worked for 4 years as a marketing executive in India in the hospitality industry. I have worked for two different hotel groups 1) 1 yr at a large single hotel located in the commercial center in the capital city of India 2) ~3 yrs at a large multi-national and multi-brand hotel chain, with responsibility for nationwide (India) marketing. I had hit a ceiling at my company and without an MBA they were not willing to promote me further or give me additional responsibilities. So I quit and for last 2 months, I have been working as a full-time volunteer for an NGO for differently-abled and underprivileged children. By the time I join a business school (hopefully), I would have worked at this NGO for almost 1 year. I am passionate about dance and was part of a professional dance group for 5 years (alongside my college and job). Both at college and as part of this dance group, I have performed at multiple shows with audiences of 1,000+ people and won many awards. I have an undergraduate degree in English (Hons.) where I studied English. I was very active in my college’s dance and theatre society. Indian colleges do not have a GPA system. I would consider myself a firm mid-tier performer academically. I am very keen on continuing a career in marketing.
Thanks

hi Dr.Watts

i am a Merchant navy guy.
age:25 years
Indian
work ex-4.5 years
Gmat score: 620(3rd attempt)
CGPA: 4.0/4.0

Travel world wide extensivley,worked with different nationalities...observed and learned various cultures and work patters.

Served NGO : 2 years

plan to switch fuction after doing mba to Operations...

can you please suggest me about my fair chances of admit in ISB(indian school of business) and any other school you can refer me too.

should i plan for the 4th attempt of GMat?

thanks in advance

Please evaluate my chances.


Nationality: Indian
GMAT: 740 (Q 49 V42)
GPA: 3.61 from top 50 engineering school USA (Tier 2/3) Graduated cum lade
Major: Electrical Engineering
Minor: Business Administration
Work Experience: 3 years at Matriculation
(India) 1 Year: Business Development officer for an online portal (gracerequest.com) for spa and salon reservations, and gym memberships. The business didn’t go well so we closed it after one year. I was working with the founder and 3 others.
(India) 2 years: Big 4 IT Risk, Associate Consultant
Internships:
• Comcast : Software QA 6 mths (USA)
• Central Electronics Limited (Govt of India) : Solar photovoltaic QA 6 mths
Community Service: Taught poor children in a village every weekend for 6 months
Leadership
• Elected officer for two professional organizations college chapter
• Represented the university at a leadership conference
Honors:
• Member electrical engineering honors society
• Ranked 3rd in Senior Design Competition
• Dean’s List
• Dean’s Merit Scholarship
Future Plans:
Use my mba education and international exposure to improve my business acumen and come back to India, an emerging economy, and start my own business.
Please evaluate my chances for the following colleges
1. Wharton
2. LBS
3. INSEAD
4. Kellogg
5) ISB
6) MIT
Also, please let me know if there is any apparent weakness.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you very much for your time.

Hello Sir,

I took my GMAT exam yesterday and scored 560. The score is not an impressive one and am little disappointed. I have a working experience of around 2 years and have good academic background. Please help me evaluating my profile and the suitable universities in Canada. Thanks and Regards.

Hello Dr. Watts,

First thank you for your time, I see you have patiently replied to many before me and appreciate you looking at my profile as well. I am late to the application process and will most likely be applying in r2 and maybe r3. i may need a more in depth consultation later, but for now I would like to asses my chances:

I'm Danish by nationality, but now live in San Francisco. I have also lived in Australia and Spain, where I worked and started my own company that unfortunately died with the recession/depression there. My stats below:

Age: 29
GMAT: 730 (Q47, V45)
GPA: 3.53 from UCSB
Major: dramatic arts (very liberal I know, but took half my classes in accounting, economics, business, math/statistic, and engineering
Also graduated from the ucsb leadership certificate program, and was a member of the technology management program (which is where I took my engineering classes)
Work exp: 5.5 years
1 year as account executive, promoted to marketing team leader. Working for large biz conference company. In Spain.
1 year as co-founder of own company, managing all biz development and financial aspects of business. Also Spain.
3.5 years in manufacturing/retail industry in San Francisco. Promoted from design consultant, to project manger, finally manager of biz development and project management.
Not too much volunteering industry, but I was the director of the international students association in college, and volunteered in a group that educated school kids about danger of drugs, drunk driving, etc.

Applying to:
Haas
Stanford
MIT
Harvard
IMD
IE
IESE
And maybe Stern, USC or UCLA

Thanks again,
Christian

I seek an evaluation for my profile:

Background: Indian male, IT industry (I am expecting an indistinct 'tsch' in your head at this point ), 28 years

Professional Exp: 5 years of service in the IT industry. Career progression from an engineer to senior engineer to an analyst. Onsite experience of 2 years and a couple of big(read much-sought) client honors and awards.

Education: BTech from a fairly-decent Indian university with a 6.1/10 GPA. No frills here.

Extra Curricular: Founding member of college music society and the lead vocalist of the band. Decent share of winning LAN gaming tournaments.

GMAT: 670 (Q48/V35). Again, no frills here

Career Goals: Since I have worked for an insurance major in the past five years, I can relate to working in this field post my MBA.

I understand this is an average profile, specially given the demographics. I plan to apply in:
Competitive: McCombs, Kelley, Kenan Flagler, Olin, Fisher
Safe: Smeal, Krannert
I also intend to apply in the MILR program of Cornell, though I have no justifiable reasons why.

Kindly, give your honest feedback, or suggest accordingly

Thanks!

I am a Pakistani National and want to do mba from a top usa university. Kindly provide me with realistic evaluation of my profile and the ways to improve it.

Born December 1991
O Levels 2007
A Levels 2009
ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Affiliate 2012
Bsc(Hons.) Applied Accounting Oxford Brookes University 2013 : Upper Second Class Honours
Work Experience : None

My profile in short
Male , Indian, 31 yrs
GMAT : Planning to write in April (expecting 600 - 650)
UG : Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from one of the Top University in India , 62%
Work experience:10 + in IT, US exp - 6 yrs, India exp - 4+
- Worked as QA Lead , QA Manager

Goal : After MBA, plan to work in Management/Strategy Consulting.

What are my chances for Top 15 EMBA programs.

Thanks and Regards

Hi,

It sounds like you have great work experience. Your 62% can be perceived as relatively low, depending on the university and where exactly you ranked in the class, so I would focus on getting a higher GMAT score than 650 if I were you. You will need the higher GMAT score (ideally above 710) to offset the GPA and also to enable you to be competitive among candidates from your profile in admission to top MBA programs. Your age will be another challenge at a few of the top schools, but many are open to "older" candidates. If you cannot get your GMAT up into the 700s, you can consider executive programs and part-time programs, or focus more on schools ranked 10-20.

Good luck in the admissions process and let us know if we can do anything to assist you in your MBA admissions process!

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Hi,

If you want to have access to top MBA programs, you need great work experience. I take it you will be graduating this year? Focus on landing a job with a highly reputable company. Sometimes a large, international/multinational company positions you well for top MBA programs in the United States and Europe. Sounds like your academics are solid. Study excellently for the GMAT to get a great score so that this also works in your favor.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Hi perturbedspirit,

Your profile does not read as "average" to me in terms of your work experience or in terms of your extracurricular activities. You credentials in those areas look great. I think you can present your credentials in those areas in an excellent light and in ways that aid you significantly in your quest for admission to a top MBA program. From here, you should focus your attention on your GMAT score. Your CGPA can be perceived as relatively low, depending upon the school from which you received it and where you were in the class (top 10%, top 25%, etc.). You should use the GMAT score to offset what might be seen as a more flat academic performance. So, it would be worthwhile to try to get a higher GMAT score, and if you cannot, consider taking the GRE to see if you can get a much higher score on that. Many candidates simply test better on the GRE than the GMAT.

An excellently written application (essays, recs, form, resume) can go a long way to helping you open the right doors, and applying ED can also have an impact. Let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Hi,

How did things turn out for you? The 620 would not have positioned you well for many full-time programs. Hopefully you took the GMAT again to get a higher score. If you did not receive good outcomes this past year, take time to study excellently for the GMAT in order to score higher. Your CGPA is outstanding, of course, and so with excellent essays and an improved score you should have lots of good options.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Hi Christian,

You have fabulous credentials - including your GMAT score, GPA and extracurricular activities. Your work experience might have taken some explaining so that the admissions committees would see the full value of your experience. But I can see just from glancing through your work experience descriptions that there would be many ways to present your experience excellently.

I hope things turned out well for you. If you did not get outcomes you liked, there were likely many flaws in your application itself (essays, recs, resume, form)... I think you should have had a solid shot at schools including IMD, IE, IESE, Haas, MIT, Stern, USC and UCLA. Harvard and Stanford might have been longer shots, depending on the specifics of your credentials.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Hi,

The 560 will very likely be a notable obstacle for you if you are aiming for top MBA programs. You should study well for the exam (that may mean enrolling in a formal study program) and take it again. You want to score at least in the high 600s. Otherwise, if you don't want to put in the time, money and effort for that, you should target schools that are less picky about the GMAT score.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts)
President, MBA Admit.com
https://www.mbaadmit.com
email: mbaadmit@aol.com

Hi,

I have recently taken GMAT but my score stood 650 after all my efforts. Please evaluate my profile and provide your valuable feedback/suggestions.

Personal:
Vibha/ 29 Y/ Female/ Indian

GMAT:
1st attempt - 650; V- 30(66%), Q – 49 (83%)

Academics:
Under grads – B.Tech (Information Technology) Overall percentage – 76% (with honors), GPA – 3.5, Stood 2nd at university level in 4th Semester, 3rd in 5th semester and 2nd again in 7th semester.


Work Experience:
- 7.5 years of full time work experience with Infosys Technologies
- Current designation is Technology Lead and role and responsibility involve managing projects.
- Got three promotions till date
- Managing a team of 16 associates
- Always worked with International Banking clients and thus have a very strong knowledge of international banking.
- Received a number of awards from Infosys such as Insta Award ’12, Spot Award ’12, Most Valuable Performer Award ’11 etc.

Extracurricular:
- Started my own training and placement firm, The Modulator, in 2010 (with my husband) and ran it till Jan 2012 (almost 2 years). Got a very good exposure but due to some personal reasons merged it with another training firm and taken out my share.
- One of the The Modulator unit (named 'Free Mondays') is still managed by me; Now it is renamed as 'Vibha's Mondays' in the new firm. It is a non-profit initiative wherein I provide basic computer training to underprivileged children every Monday evenings.
- I am a self-motivated artist and organized a number of my art work exhibitions, a few were curated by me. I am the founder of an online non-profit artists’ forum, UniqueArtClub. com, which is created with a vision to assist self-motivated/new artists to start their art career.
- College and school level:
Started an art and cultural club in college (being the first B.Tech batch of college got the privilege to do a fresh start of a club). This experienced helped a lot in creating a vision to start UniqueArtClub. com.
Vice-president of my school house (grouping of school children in 4 houses) during my school.
- Major awards won in school and college:
Best painter (State level)
Selected as Miss School 2000 (beauty collaborated with intelligence)
A number of awards in school level speech contests, dance competitions.. list is endless.

Few of my queries –
1. I am not planning to take the GMAT again and I am targeting top-20 schools in US and Rotman in Canada. Could you please provide me the list of at least 5 best schools out of these where I might have more than 70% chances to get in.
2. Which top 20 US schools you may help me the most to get in, with a target success rate of at least 90% or above? (I might take package for those schools with you)
3. What do you think are my major strengths and weaknesses?
4. I am planning for 2014 batch and I still have some time, so what areas I should focus to make a strong competitive profile.
5. What should be my road map to get into a good b-school, such as by when should I finish the school shortlisting, when to start the school packages and so on.


I value your time and effort you put in my queries. Thanks in advance.
Vibha

Hi i want to know my chances for few good us universities..

10th- 49% (2003)
12th- 60% (2005)
Grad- Bachelor in commerce though distance learning from Tier1 university 43% (2009)
Grad repeated- Bachelor in commerce though distance learning from different Tier3 university 73% (2012)
Diploma in Aviation and hospitality from Edexel university (2010)
Diploma in Theater (2007)
Apart from this a lot of small certificates.


Work Exp- Small family garments business(small botique) So dont think adcom will consider it.
Want to do MBA in finance.

Have not taken Gmat but in mocks getting around 650- 680, i can improve a lot more and target 720.

So as per my profile which colleges should i target, i know my profile is not good neither i am targeting top 20 US Bschools. Kindly guide me.
_________________

Hello there !!

Please evaluate my chances.


Nationality: Indian
GMAT: 700 (Q 49 V36)
GPA: 75% from a top 50 engineering school
Major: Mechanical Engineering

Work Experience: 7 years at Matriculation with a top Oil exploration and refining company (I worked only in downstream - refining)

4 Years: Mechanical Engineer - Maintenance. Lead a team of 6 technicians. Worked towards ensuring the reliability and availability of mech. equipment. Developed maintenance plans - Preventive and Predictive. Active involvement in Tendering and Contract Management.

2 Years: Senior Engineer - Maintenance and Projects. Leveraged the maintenance expertise to streamline and manage Revamp Project activities. Lead a team of over 40 technicians to complete shutdown activities well ahead of schedule. Job included planning, inter - department coordination and execution.

1 Year: Senior Engineer - Vigilance. Leveraged the technical and commercial expertise to bring systemic improvements across the organization. Focussed on areas that required system development or improvement and recommended changes to improve efficiency, transparency and effectiveness.

Leadership
• Elected Representative for Management Staff Association (Officer's association to liaison with the Management)
• Work profile full of leadership examples

Extra Curricular:
• Active Member of Toastmaster's Club
• Community Service through the CSR activities of my company - Organized blood donation camps, AIDS awareness campaigns etc.
• An active event organizer throughout my life - right from school till today. Was a member of Organizing Committee for Annual Tech. & Cultural fest at college. Active participation in organizing company events including handling venue, logistics, decor, liaison with speakers etc.

Future Plans:
Energy Consulting with a focus on sustainability.

Target Firms:
GE (internal consulting)
Bain
McKinsey

Backup Plan: Operations management in Energy industry. Target Firm: Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP.

Please evaluate my chances for the following schools

1. Tuck
2. Duke Fuqua
3. Darden
4. UCLA
5) Johnson
6) Emory
7) Mc Combs
8) Kelley
9) Ivey, Canada
10) Rotman

Please let me know if there are any apparent weaknesses.
What schools should I focus on. A list of schools reputed for placements in the energy sector (Consulting and Operations).

I have another query regarding GPA system. I graduated from India with 75% aggregate. What would be my GPA as per US system. In case, percentage can not be converted to GPA, any alternative to determine where i stand amongst the GPA averages for various B-schools.

Thank You.

Best Regards,
KUNAL