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Get the inside scoop on what makes Emory’s Goizueta Business School great, learn how you can present a strong MBA application, and connect with an Admissions Director to get your questions answered.- May 01
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18 Nov 2020, 06:45
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Hey Folks Admissionado
I recently took my GMAT and scored a 760(Q50,V44). I felt the test to be harder than my mocks and I feel I can potentially achieve a 780-790 with the right additional preparation.
Given that I'm an Indian male engineer and that I'm looking to apply to Wharton, Booth, LBS & Tuck/Ross(preferably with financial aid), would it make sense to re-take the test and target a higher score? In your years of experience, have you seen anyone who's improved their chances or increased the amount of financial aid they've received by improving within the 99th %ile of the GMAT?
I understand that there's lot more to the app than just the GMAT score but I'm viewing this purely through the lens of a potential re-take right now. For context, my profile reads:
UG - Engineering - Electronics & Communication - 65%(First Class). Not sure what this corresponds to on the US GPA school. The scale on the mba.com website denotes this as a 4.
WE - Consultant at Big 4 - Promoted in 2.1 years, amidst the pandemic no less(Average promotion time for my role is ~3.4 years)
Became the functional SME on my project + primary point of contact for the head of a client division, a role previously held by a manager with 8+ years of experience
Was personally requested by client to help out at their offices in California for close to a month
Led the planning phase(Team of 5) to pivot our company's annual CSR activity to a virtual setting post COVID-19. This role included liaising directly with the head of CSR in India and collaborating with 19 partner NGOs. Impacted all of our Indian employees - ~50k.
Acted as an external consultant to a startup in the CPG space, post graduation - Reduced order processing time by 90% through automation of related processes and data flow between 3 systems
Elicited a pricing model change that helped switch the company from a reliance on one-time buyers to subscription-based revenue.
Co-founded a couple of startups back in college. While both were shuttered after a year in the MVP(minimum viable product) stage, one of them got selected for the prestigious NASSCOM 10k startups initiative.
Social - The CSR initiative for my company is the strongest. I've also done psychological and financial literacy mentoring for close to 25 people. I'm hoping to conduct more lessons on financial literacy by partnering with NGOs
Personal - Played for the school teams for Football and Cricket. Called up for trials at Indian League level Bengaluru FC.
I recently took my GMAT and scored a 760(Q50,V44). I felt the test to be harder than my mocks and I feel I can potentially achieve a 780-790 with the right additional preparation.
Given that I'm an Indian male engineer and that I'm looking to apply to Wharton, Booth, LBS & Tuck/Ross(preferably with financial aid), would it make sense to re-take the test and target a higher score? In your years of experience, have you seen anyone who's improved their chances or increased the amount of financial aid they've received by improving within the 99th %ile of the GMAT?
I understand that there's lot more to the app than just the GMAT score but I'm viewing this purely through the lens of a potential re-take right now. For context, my profile reads:
UG - Engineering - Electronics & Communication - 65%(First Class). Not sure what this corresponds to on the US GPA school. The scale on the mba.com website denotes this as a 4.
WE - Consultant at Big 4 - Promoted in 2.1 years, amidst the pandemic no less(Average promotion time for my role is ~3.4 years)
Became the functional SME on my project + primary point of contact for the head of a client division, a role previously held by a manager with 8+ years of experience
Was personally requested by client to help out at their offices in California for close to a month
Led the planning phase(Team of 5) to pivot our company's annual CSR activity to a virtual setting post COVID-19. This role included liaising directly with the head of CSR in India and collaborating with 19 partner NGOs. Impacted all of our Indian employees - ~50k.
Acted as an external consultant to a startup in the CPG space, post graduation - Reduced order processing time by 90% through automation of related processes and data flow between 3 systems
Elicited a pricing model change that helped switch the company from a reliance on one-time buyers to subscription-based revenue.
Co-founded a couple of startups back in college. While both were shuttered after a year in the MVP(minimum viable product) stage, one of them got selected for the prestigious NASSCOM 10k startups initiative.
Social - The CSR initiative for my company is the strongest. I've also done psychological and financial literacy mentoring for close to 25 people. I'm hoping to conduct more lessons on financial literacy by partnering with NGOs
Personal - Played for the school teams for Football and Cricket. Called up for trials at Indian League level Bengaluru FC.
18 Nov 2020, 18:33
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi there,
First of all, congrats on everything you've accomplished to date. You have a seriously impressive profile and a lot of good stuff to work with!
As far as whether you should re-take the test, you're spot on that there's more to the app than the GMAT. I don't think you mentioned when you're planning on applying, but if you're aiming to get in applications by Round 2 deadlines to start in fall 2021 it's probably time to shift focus to working on the rest of your story. (If you aren't applying until next year for a fall of 2022 start then by all means try to re-take the test if you feel you left something on the table!) At this point a really crisp, compelling story that makes you stand out from alllll the other folks applying with a similar background (Indian, engineer, Big 4) is going to do way more for your chances of admission than another 10 or 20 points on the GMAT. (And that's if your score goes up--we see applicants all the time who retake the test all either get the same or even a slightly lower score.)
Just given the brief amount you shared here it sounds like you have some really interesting leadership stories to lean on (the CSR one in particular sounds like a unique, timely challenge) and it will be important to be super crisp on your short-term goals + long-term goals and how an MBA will help you achieve them (which you might just not have shared).
Hope that helps and feel free to reach out to us if talking further would be helpful!
Best,
Karen
First of all, congrats on everything you've accomplished to date. You have a seriously impressive profile and a lot of good stuff to work with!
As far as whether you should re-take the test, you're spot on that there's more to the app than the GMAT. I don't think you mentioned when you're planning on applying, but if you're aiming to get in applications by Round 2 deadlines to start in fall 2021 it's probably time to shift focus to working on the rest of your story. (If you aren't applying until next year for a fall of 2022 start then by all means try to re-take the test if you feel you left something on the table!) At this point a really crisp, compelling story that makes you stand out from alllll the other folks applying with a similar background (Indian, engineer, Big 4) is going to do way more for your chances of admission than another 10 or 20 points on the GMAT. (And that's if your score goes up--we see applicants all the time who retake the test all either get the same or even a slightly lower score.)
Just given the brief amount you shared here it sounds like you have some really interesting leadership stories to lean on (the CSR one in particular sounds like a unique, timely challenge) and it will be important to be super crisp on your short-term goals + long-term goals and how an MBA will help you achieve them (which you might just not have shared).
Hope that helps and feel free to reach out to us if talking further would be helpful!
Best,
Karen
18 Nov 2020, 21:20
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thanks a lot for the detailed review, Karen. Your words do fill me with confidence 
I am indeed looking to apply in R1 next year so I have time to think about my application in great detail. I still haven't formed a coherent story between my pre-MBA experiences and my post-MBA goals which is why I didn't list them yet! *grins sheepishly* I'm going to start working on that soon enough.
I'm cognizant of taking too much of your time and would prefer to schedule a consultation with you once I start the process but if I may add one last question pertaining to the current topic -
My rationale for re-writing was that if a score increase might net me even a $5k increase in financial aid, that would be a 16x ROI on my money($300 - 50 for test prep,250 for the test)
I know this is a hard thing to answer and I'm not going to hold you to a black/white reply but do you think the exact same application with a 780 as opposed to a 760 gives me a shot at larger $$'s in financial aid? Another way of looking at my question would be - Is my current score of 760 enough(assuming an outstanding application) to net me a really good scholarship(Let's say $100k) at the target schools I mentioned? I'm just looking to understand if the GMAT might be a bottleneck(even if a minor one) in my efforts to obtain a large scholarship, especially given my over-represented demographic.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to go through my posts and responding to me. I really can't stress how helpful this has been.
Regards,
Vignesh
I am indeed looking to apply in R1 next year so I have time to think about my application in great detail. I still haven't formed a coherent story between my pre-MBA experiences and my post-MBA goals which is why I didn't list them yet! *grins sheepishly* I'm going to start working on that soon enough.
I'm cognizant of taking too much of your time and would prefer to schedule a consultation with you once I start the process but if I may add one last question pertaining to the current topic -
My rationale for re-writing was that if a score increase might net me even a $5k increase in financial aid, that would be a 16x ROI on my money($300 - 50 for test prep,250 for the test)
I know this is a hard thing to answer and I'm not going to hold you to a black/white reply but do you think the exact same application with a 780 as opposed to a 760 gives me a shot at larger $$'s in financial aid? Another way of looking at my question would be - Is my current score of 760 enough(assuming an outstanding application) to net me a really good scholarship(Let's say $100k) at the target schools I mentioned? I'm just looking to understand if the GMAT might be a bottleneck(even if a minor one) in my efforts to obtain a large scholarship, especially given my over-represented demographic.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to go through my posts and responding to me. I really can't stress how helpful this has been.
Regards,
Vignesh
