vaibhav1221 wrote:
I want to understand how slim my chances are with following background. Of course there are several parameters that affect the final admit, however, a general idea would also be great.
GMAT: 710 (V38, Q49)
Graduation: Business Economics (First Division; 6.63/10)
High School: Business and Commerce (First Division; 9.43/10)
Current Industry: B2B Digital Media Publishing and Conferences (Times Internet)
Previous Industry: Advertising (Leo Burnett, Wunderman Thompson)
Role: Project Management
Experience: 50+ months right now
Post-MBA Industry: Management Consulting
Alternate Career Path: Product Marketing Management
What else do you need?
Pre-dominantly Indian male candidates (assuming based on username & GPA style- correct me if I'm wrong) at Duke have a GMAT of 730+ over the observation of candidates of previous years.
The ones that do have slightly (not more than 20 points) lower score have either had a different profile than general work ex- as in employee in a certain company with some promotion (e.g. business owners, could be generational wealth too)
That said, you've got a slight deviation from the general OR pool of Engineers. That does help in job search. From admissions standpoint, given what I've observed over the past 7 years, I'd recommend pushing the score up
There's a way still. I understand GMAT prep takes time.
Here's my suggestion, you can take it if you can, it's just that, a recommendation-
A. Understand if Duke really is your first choice school. If so, apply in early action round to maximize your odds. You'll still need to boost the GMAT score a little. But usually Duke's approach is to waitlist than to reject - not always but that's the trend again - can change. This buys you enough time to push GMAT until Feb 2024- they'll be releasing R2 decisions around then so you've to ensure they have seats. If they get a new score, and it's satisfying the criteria, you'll get in. And coz you applied in EA round, they have an assurance that you won't affect their acceptance rate. Taking you would be an easy choice for them.
B. Apply in R1 but notify about your GMAT retake, same process as above but the acceptance rate risk goes up
C. Apply in school better suited for your profile and GMAT score.
You can check this challenge we currently have going on - mbaconquerors.com/challenge
I'll be honest though, the best bet would be from T-15 to T-30.
Under T-15, every school (except Cornell & Stern) are a stretch. Even Cornell & Stern are hard to get in but there have been more cases of accepted candidates with slightly lower GMAT than other schools. Also, they have other MBA programs that they push to you just in case they think you'd be better suited for them.
Hoping this helps
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