xanhart wrote:
Hello!
I think I have rather unusual profile, please provide some feedback on it.
I'm 25, white male. I'm from Armenia, small Caucasian post-Soviet country, have 7+ years experience mostly in management, also have some entrepreneurial ventures(4-5, half of them successful).
1) Brief description of your full-time work experience. What do you do?
Game publishing company, pioneer and leader in online games sphere in CIS countries
Project Manager - 3 years
Direct and bear ultimate responsibility for online game, supervise a team of 14 in this effort(team is located in Moscow), assemble team and make personnel decisions, provide comprehensive customer support, team management, responsible for marketing strategy, direct strategic planning, conduct foreign negotiations with partners. Business trips to Russia, South Korea, Europe.
Military Service - Sergeant Major - 2 years
Responsible for 24 platoon members, planning and delegation of duties, complete responsibility for virtually all aspects of platoon life.
Head of Department - 2 years
Built department where none existed, hired individuals for department, responsible for price setting, directed marketing campaign, managed 6 employees, led logistics operations, handled issues with customs.
2+ years of non-managerial experience earlier. Actually I have worked full-time all along my undergrad and grad schools, had to work to help my family.
2) Your GMAT.
First attempt - 680 (Q48/V35) (Dec 2012)
Toefl - 97 (Dec 2012)
3) College info: The name of the college, your GPA or grade average, your major, year of graduation. For any graduate degrees, please provide the same info. If you grades are low, please indicate if there were extenuating circumstances.
Undergrad. - Top Undergrad University in Armenia - Radiophysics 2.7/4 GPA (I was not interested in studying, while trying to find myself in work and entrepreneurship)
Grad. - Top Grad University(American University of Armenia, language of instruction is English) - Computer and Information science 3.51/4 GPA (Still studying, only 3 classes left, class of 2013)
Got into Grad school after military service. Had offer to continue education - do master's, but refuse it and gone to the army.
4) Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience.
Student Council President in Grad school (re-elected 1 time)
President of 2 clubs in University: Charity and Movie
Member of Parliament at Youth Parliament of Armenia
Awarded Medal of Honor and Medal for Excellence in Army
I'm involved in different aspects of social and political life. Many charity events.
Many interesting stories of leadership could be described in essays.
5) Important certifications like CFA, CPA, FSA, or CA.
Winner of Annual Educational Presidential IT award 2012 (President of Republic)
6) Your target programs.
Stanford, Wharton, HAAS, Oxford Said, Cambridge Judge
7) Your post-MBA goal.
Technology management, Entrepreneurship
My English is not perfect, but I think I can score 105+ on TOEFL if I take it one more time within a month. Also I can score little more on GMAT(~710-730).
How do you think should I apply for Round 2 or re-take GMAT and TOEFL and apply for Round 3?
First of all, check with the schools you are applying to. If your the language of instruction for your graduate degree was English, you may not need to take the TOEFL. However, if you do need, you also probably need a higher TOEFL.
You're a little hard to assess because there aren't many Armenians applying to business school, your experience sounds very impressive, but your academics are weak. Given your youth, I would say apply R2 with these scores. However, after applying prepare to retake the GMAT (and TOEFL or other English as a second language test, if necessary) so you can apply R1 next year. In other words, proceed on parallel tracks.
Best,
Linda
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Linda Abraham
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