Hello Alex,
#1:-GMAT
GMAT1: 580 (Q47 V22), AWA (6.0)
GMAT2 : 650 (Q47 V33) AWA (6.0)
GMAT3 : 710 (Q49 83 %ile V39 - 88%ile) (Overall - 92%ile)
GMAT4 : 730 (Q50 90%ile v38 84%ile) (Overall - 96%ile)
#2 Education:
Undergraduate Education : Engineering at NIT - India Department Rank 2 of 35.
GPA: 80.8% ~3.9/4 as per WES
Postgraduate Education : US GPA: 3.83
#3 Demographics:
Nationality: Indian
Age: 30
#4 Professional experience:-
Work Experience: 2 Years Indian software firm 2004 -06
Currently, working for a wall street firm (top 5 US bank) Project Manager/Product development manager -technology (~ 5 years)
-Received 1-2 awards.
-I could manage decent to good recommendations.
#5 Extracurricular:
-I am a professional photographer.
-Won the Presidential medal for my contribution to volunteering (2011 and 2012)
-Active guitar teacher. (I was a guitarist during college days; I teach music to my community people)
-Won some academic medals during UG for standing first in my department/university.
-accomplished meditation expert -- taught courses at office.
-president of the photography club
-These days, I am organizing and participating in Indian classical music under Mewati Gharana
-Won national level debates during college days (2003ish)
#6-Target schools
Post MBA career goal - Consulting.
I applied to Booth, Kellogg, MIT, Columbia and Wharton in 2012, and I was dinged by all of them.
Hence, I thought of improving the GMAT. I am hearing mixed reviews. Some people say that I need to push the GMAT above 750. Is that true?
Target schools for this year - Booth (I interviewed at Booth), INSEAD, Haas, Stern ..(any other school?)
I am open to your thoughts, suggestions and expert guidance. I would appreciate your help. IF you need any additional details, please let me know. I hope that I haven't exceed 500 word limit specified by you
Thanks
I think the key problem is that you're overreaching - you were targeting schools where your chances were slim to none based on your profile (and no, it has little to do with your GMAT).
As a middle-of-the-road Indian IT/engineer, your stretch schools are in the top 16: Stern, Yale, Cornell, Ross, Darden, Duke and UCLA (choose 3-4 from this list). Sweet spots are in the top 30 (Texas, Tepper, USC, UNC, Georgetown, Emory, Maryland, Purdue, Indiana) -- choose 3-4 from this list. I think the top 8 schools are long shots: maybe look at Booth as the only one on that list.