Can i even take GMAT?

Question

hey,

My name is Divya. i am a computers garduate from India. I am married and in the US on an H4. I want to crack GMAT and get into a good B-school. hopefully UCLA.
And this a my profile ---

* Have had a consistent record of being an average student all through school and college life. 

* very very poor in Maths. infact i had maths a suject in my second yr grad which i fluncked almost 4 times to complete the subject almost 3 yrs after i finished my graduation final yr. (had given up on it for a coupla of yrs)

* i can study only if its in California unless its a very very gud school .

* i am getting my funding by selling property i have on my name in India ( unfortunatly my In-laws and husband don't want to fund my education. can't blame them , they have enough reason to doubt).don't want to bother my parents either.

*I want to do an MBA in HR. Go back to India and work their

* i can't work too hard. Actually have never. always made sure i pulled through.

But i am okie with verbal or RC and stuff. I have what they call a good apptitude. i have always cleared all the aptitude test i have given including CAT(not too much of a percentile though thanx to quant). Got seats in most colleges i applied to , cleared all interviws i applied for jobs at ,..........but couldn't get to any of them coz i didn't have a graduation. 

I have also worked Wipro's call center Spectramind for an yr and 3G's captive center for about 7 months. And Hutch for about 6 months.

So dispite all this do u think i can still work and Crack Gmat and get into a Good B-school. I plan to take Gmat sometime in Oct but get completly ready by september.

Any and all kinds of responses are welcome.

regards
Divya

saturnring11 · Answer

Divya, I'm not Hjort, but I am of Indian origin, therefore I think I could give you a piece of advice. You don't have to be a great student to get into a good school. 

There are a couple of things you can do to help admissions committees see you in the best light. 

1) Score well on your GMAT. The fact that you're a woman will work in your favor. A high GMAT (700+) will make you a serious candidate. The GMAT is not about how smart you are. It is about being persistent and consistent in your preparation.

2) If your GPA or Percentage is not very good, you can take a few courses at an accredited college to prepare an alternative transcript. The system in America is very different from the system in India. One test rarely determines your total grade on any subject.

3) Your financial situation and independent thinking in the face of opposition can be an asset when it comes to writing essays. However, you need to do a lot more research on schools and about what they are looking for. Use Richard Montauk's "How to get into top MBA programs" to get an idea. Your stories of financial hardship, opposition from your family and inability to work due to US immigration laws can provide you with plenty of material for quality essays. Also, your persistence to obtain a college degree can be an interesting story in an essay. Remember: Failure provides some of the most important lessons in life.

4) California has many quality schools. Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and USC are all in the top 20. 

5) Volunteer for local organizations. While you may not be able to work, you can help several community organizations either part-time or full time. Go to VolunteerMatch.com to look for opportunities near you.

I would suggest that you figure out why you want to do an MBA and then read "How to get into top MBA programs" for an idea on what it takes to get in.

smilez · Answer

hey saturnring11,

thanx a ton for your reply.
well i am sure i would want to move back to India after i get masters. i was looking at pplz profiles and i was totaly lost...
so ur email comes has mjr boost. 
well money was never much of a problem for me up till now. I am in a situtation where me asking my dad to fund my education would be wrong and my husband is apprehenvice .......i know hez not wrong ....

Its my only chance to get back on trackkkkk

thanx again and will definatly read the book
regards
Divya

Hjort · Answer

I am curious by your mention of an MBA in HR. It is unclear whether an MBA is the best approach to a career in HR unless you are primarily interested in HR consulting.

Canis lupus · Answer

I think i can help you out a little bit there Hjort..You see in India, one can pursue an MBA in Human Resources, which is currently the new buzz in the Indian MBA circle..Unlike in the US where if im not mistaken HR is more of a contract basis consulting kinda more MS than MBA degree..

@ Divya..your work ex is slightly on the weaker side but you could be competitive if your other application parts are strong viz GMAT score, strong comm involvement, acads etc.. 

Personally as one Indian to another..the marketing and hr job scene in the US is a "white man's" job..this is not based on any discrimination or racial behavior, its simply because a native would understand the culture and work ethics behavior and mentality of that country..

I'd also encourage you to actively look at other excellent CA based schools such as CA- davis, irvine etc..

I have no doubts that if you work hard and get good score you will be able to build an excellent application for your MBA..

Best of luck

Hjort · Answer

I agree that one can certainly be admitted to a good MBA programs in the US without a stellar academic record. My one concern is about how applicable the coursework might be. Some aspects of HR/Employment are very country specific. Compensation and benefits standards, not to mention employment law, differ greatly across countries. This is not meant to discourage anyone from applying but is something worth keeping in mind.

saturnring11 · Answer

From personal experience, I've observed that there are many Hispanics, African-Americans and Indians (both American-born or otherwise) in HR and Marketing. Ofcourse, this may be skewed by the fact that I work for a corporation located in California, which is a state known to warmly welcome all races and foreign-born workers. Your mileage may vary.

Canis lupus · Answer

I'm speaking purely about people requiring work visa's in the US.. Statistically companies provide work visa's readily for Finance graduates rather than Marketing or HR...

It is fairly obvious by the statement that i made concerns with people who are at a disadvantage when it comes to foreign cultures..People of latin american, african american and Indian origin living/born in America are clearly more aware than would be a student..

saturnring11 · Answer

If you re-read my reply, you will see that I stated that people who are "American born or otherwise" are well represented. If you believe that there are no immigrants in marketing, you don't have your facts straight. 

Also by referring to a particular type of job as a "White man's job" you are being politically incorrect and perpetuating a stereotype.

Canis lupus · Answer

And if you re-read my reply you'll know that I didnt say there were no immigrants..i said they were at a disadvantage..therefore i do have my facts straight..

And i mentioned that the "white man's job" was not based on discrimination or racism, so i dont understand where the politically incorrect statement comes from..its simply the truth whether one admits it or not..

Go to a school's website with the exception of the top 3-4 marketing majors, email the admission/career directors and ask them explicitly.

I have already done this and apart from selling their school to me they have explicitly told me that this is a realistic situation there..

saturnring11 · Answer

You obviously have a very black-and-white view of the world. I'm assuming that you are pretty young. Don't base your understanding of the world on what people tell you, base it on your first-hand experiences. 

Good luck to you in your admissions. I hope you achieve your goals.

Canis lupus · Answer

Thank you very much..good luck with your apps too..and congrats on your most excellent gmat score

Hjort · Answer

It is somewhat difficult to tell which comments here were meant to be sincere and which were meant to be sarcastic. I think most objective observers would agree that all parts of the US, including California, leave something to be desired in the form of racial/ethnic equality. If one has doubts about this, I invite that person to see for herself in places like Oakland, Watts, Richmond (CA), and the fields of the Central Valley. 

There also seems to be some confusion about the distinction between between normative and positive assertions. The assertion that rascism or sexism exists is a positive (i.e. factual) one, that should be subjected to evidentiary review. However, it should not be confounded with a normative claim that rascism or sexism is correct or should persist. Both members in the exchange above make positive assertions about people from different demographic groups being treated differently (one member asserted that female applicants face different admissions standards, another member asserted that people from some nationalities would have a more difficult time being hired in some types of positions).

Marketing is often culturally specific- thus there might be legitimate reasons to favor people from a particular culture if you are attempting to sell products to people in that culture. 

Further, many of the most important decisions in our lives are black and white in the sense that they are binary. One is either admitted to HBS or she is not, one is either offered a particular position or she is not, one's proposal of marriage is accepted or it is not, etc. 

I strongly agree that first-hand experience is extremely valuable. However, it cannot be everything-otherwise we would never learn from one another. Indeed, the modern academic system is based on the idea of transmitting the knowledge gained by one set of people to another set of people. Further, for those who have a strong interest in intercultural understanding it is crucial to learn from one another even if they cannot share the same first hand experience.

Canis lupus · Answer

Nice read..very insightful..

saturnring11 · Answer

I'm not disputing that racism exists in America. I spent 3 years in Texas including the period immediately following 9/11 when foreigners were being attacked and killed, and I've experienced first hand how ignorance and hatred can combine with disasterous consequences.

While it may be true that decisions in life are often binary, the situations surrounding those decisions are often not so. There are shades of grey in almost every facet of life and several factors cannot even be effectively measured. The concept of a "tie" is familiar to most people -- you either win, lose or tie a game. Reality often falls somewhere in between these states. And to me, life is the most complex game ever created.

In a world that is quickly coming together (read: "The World is Flat." by Thomas L. Friedman), the need to market goods globally is more important than ever before. To say that the profession of marketing is closed to a non-native is to be a bit too harsh. Especially in America, which is the world's melting pot. I say this because I personally know a former VP of Marketing at Sony North America who is not a native and is not caucasian either. While you may dismiss this statistic as an outlier, the fact remains that positive examples of this phenomenon can be observed if you keep an open mind. My objective in pointing this out is to give hope to non-natives who want to enter non-traditional fields.

Also, as important as academic learning is to the development of an individual, there is a reason why actual first-hand experiences are valued more by most people (admission committees included). There is no subsitute for real world experience. If there were, business schools would be full of college grads with no real world experience and 800 on the GMAT.

Hjort · Answer

I suppose we've wandered off the topic but this is still an interesting conversation. While there are some differences in the form of our statements, I think that there is considerable common ground. 

1) It is certainly possible for people from all nationalities to succeed in the US but there is probably more of a bias toward people from the US (of all cultures) when it comes to "soft" fields like marketing and HR. I am in complete agreement that people should be encouraged to enter non-traditional fields. 

2) I think virtually everyone agrees that first hand experience in extremely important. However, MBA programs have long accepted students with varying levels of first hand experience and the emphasis on several years of experience was a trend of the last few decades that appears to be past its zenith, especially at many US schools in the top clusters. As I've stated many times before, I believe that chronological diversity is a useful attribute for MBA programs. Others, of course, are welcome to disagree. 

Hjort

saturnring11 · Answer

1) I agree with you. Every country favors providing opportunities to its citizens first. America is no different and rightly so. That being said, if you are smart enough to get into a top 10 business school or good at networking with people, no career is off limits. Admittedly, networking is a "soft" skill -- but can it be acquired.

2) Maintaining a diverse class is the goal of every B-school admissions committee. I agree that chronological diversity is as important as any other type of diversity. With business schools producing diverse MBA graduates, how long will it take corporate America to also hire a diverse mix of employees? I hope the coming years will prove that the world is indeed flat and that opportunity is equally distributed.

andrew_hall9 · Answer

Well friend I am planning to take a prep course for GMAT but not sure where to take it. I know there are KPLAN, Manhattan GMAT & Princeton Review in the Boston area. If you took GMAT prep class in any of the above or other schools I would appreciate your feedback (maybe pros & cons.) and personal experience. Thank you!



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 Arizona Payroll Company

ab · Answer

Divya,

Are you absolutely sure you want to do an MBA?

Can i even take GMAT?

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