chichibulu wrote:
Dear Linda,
I’ve taken GMAT two days back and am quite disappointed with the score. Please let me know your opinion whether I stand any chance to the schools I am targeting:- HBS, Columbia, Chicago, Stanford, Wharton, Kellog, LBS, INSEAD
GMAT Score: 650 (quant-48, verbal-31)
Details : Female, almost 25yrs, Indian
Work Ex- 2 yrs and over 3 months. This does not include my part time stints during undergrad. I was selected from campus by CARE India for its national fellowship program under which I had the opportunity to rotate around the whole organization (all its units – health, education, emergency response, HR, finance, gender, governance etc) for one year. Thereafter I have been absorbed into CARE’s microfinance program in India. I have received two promotions in last 1 year. My job profile requires me to do heavy networking, manage and monitor a team of field workers of NGOs to transform them into microfinance institutions and do a bit of consultancy kind of work. All this includes ingredients of both livelihoods and microfinance.
I am now planning to switch over to some bank which may be looking at microfinance as a business proposition, so as to gain an understanding of how FFIs see things.
I want to do an MBA from a good school to get corporate exposure, professional growth, feel of competitive environ and high quality professionals and also for the rigor involved. I feel that it would help me gain an entry into an area like investment banking which is becoming so relevant to the microfinance context today as an absolutely huge demand for credit from the microfinance clients unfolds itself. I believe that exposure to that side of the market will help me get into place where the latest of the microfin is happening and contribute meaningfully to the sector.
Education: I’ve done a 3 yr BA degree with English, Political Science as the main subjects and Economics as the third subject. I was among the very few in the humanities department to get a 64%. Thereafter, I have completed a 2 yr Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Management from a premier sectoral management institution in the country. Here I was a merit holder with a 3.67 CGPA (on a scale of 4.33).
Other stuff: I like reading, traveling and investing time in networking. I’ve been a cadet with the National Cadet Corps Naval wing during my undergrad years and passed from the naval unit with a ‘C’ certificate and a high grade. I also volunteered as an assistant editor in an environ mag during the same time apart from some other short term work stints (interior designing and sales). I was the editor of the institute’s alumni newsletter for two years and I fulfilled my commitment of regular production of the newsletter during this period. I was also a member of the core editorial committee of CARE India’s inhouse mag for a year.
Based on the above, please let me know whether
- Retaking GMAT is essential (I’m not too keen on this as a two week break for prep was not easy this time around and its impossible to study while working coz of mad travel schedules and wierd work hours)
- my profile is ok for my target schools or I need to look at other options? I feel that it won’t help much if its not a top notch program since I am doing quite well on the job front currently.
Thanks,
SK
I strongly encourage you to prpare again and retake the GMAT. (Sorry!) You may get accepted somewhere given your work experience, but your chances are so much better with a higher score. If you don't want to retake the GMAT, you should consider other options. Georgetown comes to mind.
Good luck!