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gayathrikeerthanas
Joined: 23 Jan 2018
Last visit: 09 Oct 2019
Posts: 30
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 32
Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Marketing
Schools: HEC Sept19 intake (D) ESADE '21 (A)
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V39
GPA: 3.45
WE:Analyst (Computer Software)
29 Jan 2018, 06:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hello!
I'm an Indian female engineering graduate, currently working as a Digital Marketing Analyst / Data Analyst in a reputed IT products company in Chennai, headquartered in the US. I'm 29 months into this job, right after my under grad. I'm also working part-time for my NGO/NPO which is a registered one, for the past 4 years. I'm the Founder and President of it. We've done quite some commendable programs over these years. I also have some decent extra curricular that I did well during college and held leadership roles. Received 2 awards - "Best Student Award" (State level, recommended by my University) and "Seva Ratna Award" (for my contribution to the city). Also worked as a free-lance writer during college. Coming to my acads part of my profile, it's bleak I must say. 85.6, 78.25 & 69.4 in 10th, 12th and under grad respectively.
My last attempt in CAT (MBA entrance test in India) was a serious one (CAT 2017) but I failed miserably compared to my mock tests and scores. But prep wise I did well this time which was evident through my tests. Yet the D day was totally not mine for some abstract reasons that I cannot justify.
I've got calls from the New IIMs, just like last year (for CAT 2016) when I cracked the interviews and got admits to all of them. The interview is on 27th of Feb 2018. After that, the final admit results would be some time around end of May. I am contemplating a plan of taking the GMAT by say May start. So by the end of the month I'd know if I should give up on IIM Ranchi (if I get selected), assuming I cross a target score in GMAT.
I'd like to finally land up (if not for now, at least after MBA) at countries like the Nordics, Germany, France, Netherlands and Canada. The kind of streams of MBA that I want to go for are: general, marketing, strategy, and sustainability, in decreasing order of priority. Also, I'm stumbling upon some prep and practice tests (OG/GMAC for now). Getting a full score in PS and SC with a difficulty level of 2.0 and above. I need to seriously work on CR and RC. Kind of improving. My essays are not great yet. I can get LORs from scholars in Finland, one of my professors at college and a Civil service officer (In India) who's a mentor for my NGO.
With all this said, what should be my target score, strategy, plan, timeline, realistic options and the like?
TIA.
P.S: My under grad score worries me a lot!
I'm an Indian female engineering graduate, currently working as a Digital Marketing Analyst / Data Analyst in a reputed IT products company in Chennai, headquartered in the US. I'm 29 months into this job, right after my under grad. I'm also working part-time for my NGO/NPO which is a registered one, for the past 4 years. I'm the Founder and President of it. We've done quite some commendable programs over these years. I also have some decent extra curricular that I did well during college and held leadership roles. Received 2 awards - "Best Student Award" (State level, recommended by my University) and "Seva Ratna Award" (for my contribution to the city). Also worked as a free-lance writer during college. Coming to my acads part of my profile, it's bleak I must say. 85.6, 78.25 & 69.4 in 10th, 12th and under grad respectively.
My last attempt in CAT (MBA entrance test in India) was a serious one (CAT 2017) but I failed miserably compared to my mock tests and scores. But prep wise I did well this time which was evident through my tests. Yet the D day was totally not mine for some abstract reasons that I cannot justify.
I've got calls from the New IIMs, just like last year (for CAT 2016) when I cracked the interviews and got admits to all of them. The interview is on 27th of Feb 2018. After that, the final admit results would be some time around end of May. I am contemplating a plan of taking the GMAT by say May start. So by the end of the month I'd know if I should give up on IIM Ranchi (if I get selected), assuming I cross a target score in GMAT.
I'd like to finally land up (if not for now, at least after MBA) at countries like the Nordics, Germany, France, Netherlands and Canada. The kind of streams of MBA that I want to go for are: general, marketing, strategy, and sustainability, in decreasing order of priority. Also, I'm stumbling upon some prep and practice tests (OG/GMAC for now). Getting a full score in PS and SC with a difficulty level of 2.0 and above. I need to seriously work on CR and RC. Kind of improving. My essays are not great yet. I can get LORs from scholars in Finland, one of my professors at college and a Civil service officer (In India) who's a mentor for my NGO.
With all this said, what should be my target score, strategy, plan, timeline, realistic options and the like?
TIA.
P.S: My under grad score worries me a lot!
29 Jan 2018, 09:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi there! Thanks for posting, and welcome to the GMAT world 
Good to get started soon, as it does take many applicants several months to achieve their target score. I would focus on that between now and May. Most schools won't release their applications til May or June for fall deadlines, so you can focus primarily on GMAT til then. As far as what score to target, it depends a lot on which schools you are targeting. Once you've identified a list of initial target schools, find out what their median GMAT scores (this should be readily available online) and aim to be above that (since your grades are not great -- by the way, undergrad is all that b-schools look at, not 10th/12th). But a good generic target for top schools (in raw scores) is 35 verbal, 47 quant, 6 IR.
Take a look at some of the MBA programs in Europe and Canada -- if you are interested in working in those areas then schools there will have the best job placement rates. The Financial Times ranking is a good place to start to identify target schools: https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolra ... nking-2018
Otherwise I think your profile is really interesting -- especially your NGO/NPO work, that's impressive. Given that you're fairly early in your career, have you been promoted? Have you had significant leadership roles? Any international exposure? If so, then highlight those things in your materials.
One final note on recommendation letters -- typically MBA programs want professional recommendations, not academic ones, and ideally one should come from your current supervisor (if possible). I think your mentor from the NGO would be a great option too.
Best of luck!
Kate
Good to get started soon, as it does take many applicants several months to achieve their target score. I would focus on that between now and May. Most schools won't release their applications til May or June for fall deadlines, so you can focus primarily on GMAT til then. As far as what score to target, it depends a lot on which schools you are targeting. Once you've identified a list of initial target schools, find out what their median GMAT scores (this should be readily available online) and aim to be above that (since your grades are not great -- by the way, undergrad is all that b-schools look at, not 10th/12th). But a good generic target for top schools (in raw scores) is 35 verbal, 47 quant, 6 IR. Take a look at some of the MBA programs in Europe and Canada -- if you are interested in working in those areas then schools there will have the best job placement rates. The Financial Times ranking is a good place to start to identify target schools: https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolra ... nking-2018
Otherwise I think your profile is really interesting -- especially your NGO/NPO work, that's impressive. Given that you're fairly early in your career, have you been promoted? Have you had significant leadership roles? Any international exposure? If so, then highlight those things in your materials.
One final note on recommendation letters -- typically MBA programs want professional recommendations, not academic ones, and ideally one should come from your current supervisor (if possible). I think your mentor from the NGO would be a great option too.
Best of luck!
Kate
gayathrikeerthanas
gayathrikeerthanas
Joined: 23 Jan 2018
Last visit: 09 Oct 2019
Posts: 30
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 32
Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Marketing
Schools: HEC Sept19 intake (D) ESADE '21 (A)
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V39
GPA: 3.45
WE:Analyst (Computer Software)
05 Feb 2018, 07:10
Kudos
Bookmarks
Thank you very much, Kate! I had posted a reply on the same day but missing it now. So here's some more insight.
Work: qualitu and performance per se I've done quite well. I've been recently promoted as a lead. I've represented my company at Dubai in a trade show. Does that count as a substantial international exposure?
And when it comes to recommendations, my manager would give a letter but as a practice they don't encourage it. Kind of retention-centric company. So I don't think his letter could be strong enough. We work with Google teams in CA. The team knows me in a professional level. Will their letters speak enough?
And I did a bit if research about the schools. IE, IESE, Esade, HEC, SDA Bocconi and Cambridge are my likely targets. In your analysis, do you think I should take out any of these because it's quite long shot for my profile?
Sent from my SM-J710F using GMAT Club Forum mobile app
Work: qualitu and performance per se I've done quite well. I've been recently promoted as a lead. I've represented my company at Dubai in a trade show. Does that count as a substantial international exposure?
And when it comes to recommendations, my manager would give a letter but as a practice they don't encourage it. Kind of retention-centric company. So I don't think his letter could be strong enough. We work with Google teams in CA. The team knows me in a professional level. Will their letters speak enough?
And I did a bit if research about the schools. IE, IESE, Esade, HEC, SDA Bocconi and Cambridge are my likely targets. In your analysis, do you think I should take out any of these because it's quite long shot for my profile?
Sent from my SM-J710F using GMAT Club Forum mobile app
