Hello,

I think I have a very unique and unusual profile, so I'd kindly ask you to provide feedback on it.

Male, 24 yrs old, from a small former USSR country.

GMAT 720 (Q50, V35), AWA 5.0, taken in Nov 2009

Academics:

Bachelor of Science in Physics, GPA 3.85/4.0 (From a top regional university, graduated with honors in May 2009)

MPhil in Management, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK (2010-2011, a TAUGHT course, not a research oriented one), GPA 61% overall, pass rate 60% (this might seem a bit low, but in the past 5 years nobody's GPA in the course exceeded 75%. Spent most of my time in Cambridge on networking events, hence a low GPA, but this ultimately paid off since I found a job thru that network)

Work Experience:

Full Time, Director at a small local Holding Company ($5mln-10mln valued), which has stakes in different companies in very different fields (including the vending machines company where I was previously a director). Mainly responsible for control and management of the companies which comprised the holding and their financial performances. (2012-current)

Full Time, Director at a newly founded joint local-Spanish vending machines importing and operating company. In less than a year company became the dominant one in the country, having the biggest market share. Staff up to 20 people. 2011-2012

Full Time, Marketing and PR Specialist at a start up IT company. 2009-2010

Part Time, PR Specialist at one of the biggest local media companies, 4 months

AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
1 $20K scholarship from a local government-supported fund to study in Cambridge
2 $10K scholarship from Cambridge Overseas Trust
3 Full scholarship at my local university during my undergrad degree, which was renewable each year

Extracurriculars:

I have been very active at college during all 4 years there. I have been the member of student council, organized numerous conferences at my department, including one international conference. Working closely with student council, on my initiative several times I made fundraising in my department for children at orphanages.

Elected by classmates, at Cambridge I've been the class representative in the Operations User Group Committee, representing the class and its needs at the committee and suggesting changes to improve the infrastructure of and student experience at JBS.
Actively engage in sports activities, esp. mountain biking and skiing.

Back in 2009 apart from applying to Cambridge MPhil in Management program, I also applied to Booth's MBA program (applied in third round) since they were accepting early career applicants. I got an interview, but ultimately got rejected: my best guess - lack of experience. I got suggested to work for few more years and try again.

Now being in my mid career, I am looking for Harvard, Booth, Wharton to start in 2014 preferably (will be around 26 yrs old by then). I want to know two things:

1) Would you recommend me retaking GMAT? (my verbal is a bit low and dont you think my score will be a bit old at the time of an application?)
2) What you think are my chances at my target schools and what other schools would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance.

Dear Christine,

Thanks for your answer. My first GMAT score was around 600, the second one I took is the 720 score I reported in the previous post. The time interval between two scores is about 6 months, and yes I dis study hard to dramatically improve my score. I believe if I start preparing again, I might improve my score by 10-20 points, to be realistic.

Regarding the post MBA plans, I am not exactly sure, but I want to go into Management and/or Entrepreneurship. Not much interested in finance or consulting.

Apart from the top schools I have mentioned, what other "safe" schools would you recommend me (including Canadian schools)?