After app review & interview - feedback GMAT score low!

Question

Hi,

Do colleges give genuine feedback? After application review and interview, the feedback I received was - Your GMAT score is low(660), and at this time we are looking for 690. If my GMAT is low, why are they offering me internet MBA or working professional MBA. 
If this was the case then why was I even called by college to give in-person interview. I thought they are very straight forward people, who expects truth and clarity from us and are they applying it to themselves, I doubt!!

Thanks!

Vips0000 · Answer

Many top ranked colleges don't even give feedback. At least the one you mentioned gave u one reason. Probably they liked ur profile but eventually selected someone else with similar profile and a higher GMAT. Which college was that btw?

CobraKai · Answer

...because your GMAT score won't effect the class profile of the full-time MBA. It's most definitely possible to get into a top school with a 660, but I'm sure the adcoms have a quota of some sort because in today's ranking games, they want to make sure that the average GMAT stays at a certain level.

What Vips said is a possibility, they took someone similar to you with a higher GMAT. Or, another possibility is that they took someone else with a 660 because they liked the rest of the application better than yours.

But to answer your question: I don't think schools will ever give genuine, specific feedback as in, If you do this, this, and that, you'll be admitted if you re-apply. There's too much liability in that and decisions are made against the current applicant pool, not some rigid standard.

sneha85 · Answer

Thank you Vips0000 and Cobrakai for your responses. This was my first interview and I had a lot of expectations from this college; probably that is the reason that I took it too much at heart. When I went there for interview, it was very informal discussion both with Admission committee and career services. It seems to me as if it was just a formality. I assumed that because I stay very near to UF, they would definitely take me. Part of reason could be that I have both options to apply for in-state and out-of-state fees - may be considering all these factors and GMAT(as you guys mentioned), they might have got better candidates.
Vips0000 - This feedback is from University of Florida; I applied for first round deadline.

All that happens is for good; may be there is something better in store for me

.

Thanks!

. Thanks!

MacFauz · Answer

I read somewhere that in a weird way someone with a low GMAT and great credentials might find getting into a top 10 school easier than a lower ranked school since the lower ranked schools are trying to boost their average GMAT.. Some rankings do give great credibility to the average GMAT score and hence the schools might give the GMAT maybe more importance than it deserves...

sneha85 · Answer

But the only question is: why to call for interview, and if calling for interview - why not say that 'interview reject'. I personally do not think that most of the people with 700+ score place UF in their top-targeted colleges.
All I understood from this is that schools wants everything clear and precise from us, but they themselves don't apply the rule.

CobraKai · Answer

Some schools don't treat the interview as a "final step." It's easy to think "I got invited to interview, my application must be good, if I do well on the interview, I'm in!"

I'll use myself as an example - I got invited to interview at Darden, had a really good interview with a 2nd year, and got waitlisted. The reason is because after the interview, the student probably filled out a performance sheet that was attached to my application, and then the adcom reviewed the ENTIRE application again before making its decision. Darden also interviews about 40-50% of the applicant pool with about 25% getting accepted, so that's still alot of interviewed applicants that don't get in. I aslo think due to the friendly nature, it's difficult to bomb the Darden interview, and they really are evaluting every piece of the application together, albeit subjectively.

sneha85 · Answer

I guess, that's how I should start thinking, and not get excited after getting interview call.
Hoping for the best!!

Some schools don't treat the interview as a "final step." It's easy to think "I got invited to interview, my application must be good, if I do well on the interview, I'm in!"

I'll use myself as an example - I got invited to interview at Darden, had a really good interview with a 2nd year, and got waitlisted. The reason is because after the interview, the student probably filled out a performance sheet that was attached to my application, and then the adcom reviewed the ENTIRE application again before making its decision. Darden also interviews about 40-50% of the applicant pool with about 25% getting accepted, so that's still alot of interviewed applicants that don't get in. I aslo think due to the friendly nature, it's difficult to bomb the Darden interview, and they really are evaluting every piece of the application together, albeit subjectively.

MBAbot · Answer

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After app review & interview - feedback GMAT score low!

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