Please Help! Can I make it to Round 2?

Frankly, Medium is a good or as good as anyone can tell you. Nobody can guarantee admission and everyone has been wrong in their predictions too!

Hey Arielltl,

Beginning with your academics, the brand of your undergraduate college - ranking 1st in Vietnam gives your profile a boost as schools tend to pick out applicants from the top schools of each country. However, your undergraduate GPA of 2.8/4 is on the lower end, but posing the right alibi (in your case the family issue) for the same would allow you to overcome this drawback in your profile. You can also shine light on the UG extracurriculars you endeavored in to showcase a well groomed profile.

Coming to your work experience, since an MBA is a manager's degree and requires significant work experience, your 4+ years of work experience in varied roles would put you at par with other applicants. Also, MBA specializations require the students to showcase leadership skills and initiative-taking capabilities, hence you ought to explain and highlight the major projects of your work and how these experiences helped you develop and further groom your skills and knowledge. Showcasing such endeavours in good light would differentiate you from the rest of the competition.

Since you lack big brands in your work experience, you can compensate for this by providing an apt reason as to why you chose these firms, how you have gone beyond the role, any initiatives you took, award won, and any kind of impact created to showcase an equally competitive profile.

Moving on, your GMAT score of 640 is a bit low and thus I would highly recommend you to go for a retake and aim for a minimum of 720 in order to target your preferred list of schools.

Since you haven’t provided any information regarding your extracurriculars, I would like to tell you that your extracurricular activities and your other endeavors matter as well because AdComs are looking for applicants with holistically developed profiles. Thus, it is essential to shed light on the endeavors you’ve taken up at the clubs, associations, and events you managed or participated in. Also showcasing any volunteering or CSR activities that you participated in more recently would strengthen your application as it would bring to light the socially responsible aspect of your personality, a trait held in high regard by any and every b-school. In case you do not have such experiences, I would highly suggest you build on the same to showcase an equally competent profile.

Furthermore, you could take up some courses or certifications in the field of management, as top b schools are on the lookout for those who are constantly on the path of upskilling themselves.

As for the schools that you are targeting, NYU and Darden fall under the dream category and Tepper and Fisher fall under the competitive category. Based on your profile, you stand a chance acceptance of 50% in the dream category and a 70% in the competitive category. Therefore, to increase your chances of getting admitted to these schools you would need to ensure that you have a very strong application (consisting of LORs, Essays, and Resume) to back your profile.

Coming to your question, I would recommend you to target the round 2 deadlines. If you’re not able to attempt your GMAT retake and thus get an updated score before the upcoming deadlines, then you can submit your profile with the previous scores and send the updated scores when you receive them. This would ensure a higher chance of getting accepted.

On this note, while you have a competitive profile, you should pay attention on strengthening your profile as your application holds 30% of an impact on your chances of acceptance (with GMAT scores only holding 15-20%). Furthermore, you need to showcase your journey, what makes you different from your peers, and how you are a great value addition to the school.

Therefore, in lieu of that, I would recommend you to check out our flagship ALL-IN-ONE service, which has helped 3500+ applicants to get into their dream schools. Not only that, you’d be connected with B-school alumni who’d be helping you directly with your application process, right from shortlisting the right schools to submitting the application to the school!

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Hope this helped!