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HI Brian,
Please evaluate my profile
Age:
28 years
Academic profile:
Chartered Accountant (2004)(Equivalent to CPA in US)(Has secured merit rank, remained in 99 percentile), CFA Charter holder (2008), Bachelor of Commerce (2003)
GMAT 640(Q50,V27) AWA 5.5
Work profile:
I have 7 years of experience in Investment Banking and Fund raising. I am working as a manager in Fund Management Group in Arcil, largest distressed asset player in India. I have remained in top performers in my Company. I have raised more than $150 million in funds at Arcil. Prior to Arcil, I was working in Investment Banking in JPMorgan tracking Financial Institutions across Asia Pacific. Prior to JPMorgan, I was working with SR Batliboi & Co. (Associate firm of Ernst & Young in India) in Assurance.
I was planning to apply at NYU, Booth, Wharton and Ross in second round, INSEAD in March 2012
Do you think I must retake GMAT. Do my credentials at CA compensate for low GMAT score
Thanks and regards,
Rajiv Chandak, CFA
Rajiv,
Thank you for your profile submission. On the basis of the information above, and under the assumption of strong essays and recommendations and a GMAT score of 640, our experience shows that you will be a stretch candidate at the schools you list as your targets.
However, in short, you leave out a fair amount of information in your profile that may potentially improve your chances. You have seemed to focus entirely (at least in your profile) on your professional accomplishments and financial certifications. These are, undoubtedly, important. But you did not talk about your undergraduate institution and its relative reputation, undergraduate GPA (I think the 99th percentile refers to the exam score for certification), extracurricular activities, and future career goals/motivations. So, to answer your question, a strong CA performance can help, yes. In our experience, with a low GMAT you definitely want to point to other objective measures of your capabilities. But, I almost get the impression that you're a bit too focused on describing your professional accomplishments - remember that an MBA application is about telling a compelling, complete story.
If, for example, you can point to a rigorous undergraduate program, a strong academic performance, at least decent extracurriculars and non-professional leadership examples, and a reasonable future career goal set (which I assume includes some kind of finance because of your target school set), then you can potentially at that point also reference your financial certifications/performance and describe that the GMAT is an exception to an otherwise strong profile.
If, on the other hand, you have multiple opportunities in your profile elsewhere, then it becomes more challenging to overcome collectively, and you may consider retaking the GMAT.
With a quant split of 50 on the GMAT, in addition to your background and performance at well-known financial institutions, there is not going to be any concern about your analytical skills. Can you lead a group? Are you a good teammate? Can you persuade with a qualitative argument on a strategic issue where there is no data? These will be the potential concerns of the admission committee that you will want to consider when crafting your essays. These also would be issues where you would want to select recommenders who can speak to these abilities and can describe you as a strong applicant.
Best of luck,