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Question

Hi there,

Would appreciate an evaluation here. I just did my gmat today and got 620. I am from Malaysia working as a lawyer doing mostly litigation (court advocacy). Have been a lawyer for over 4 years now. Im am looking at top b-schools of either Canada or Australia. I have in mind, specifically, MeLbourne Business School, Sydney AGSM, Sauder, Schulich and McGill. Im quite disappointed with the GMAT score (q 45, v 30). Im also worried with age - I will be 33 this year. If possible I would also like to know if there will be difficulty getting a job post MBA considering I will be about 35-36 once I graduate. Thanks very much.

K.

bryantmichaels · Answer

Your age won't be a problem with job recruiters but b-schools will scrutinize your achievements more than they would a 26 year old. HAving said that, your achievements actually sound pretty interesting and of course they will know that law school takes three years, so you can really subtract three years from your age. The key will be in demonstrating what you will offer your classmates from the law field that will be valuable to them . B-school is a lot about what you learn in the classroom from your cohort as well as the professor of course. I agree that the GMAT is a bit of a concern, but as a diversity candidate who offers a unique international perspective, you will be given more leniency there---but not too much. If you could get the GMAT up a bit more that would be great. The top schools get diversity candidates with 750 GMATs too, so you have to think on why you should displace one of them. You need to demonstrate you can handle the curriculum--perhaps your academic record shows this? Shoot for a 48 or better quant if you can.

kellios · Answer

Thank you very much for your advice Bryant. Did not know there is a thing called diversity candidate. Is it due to my country of origin or my legal background? I guess I can use that in my essays. :-)

I will also seriously consider doing the GMAT again. Although im not sure if you meant that top Canadian or Australian b-schools would also require a more competitive score than 620. For the moment I am not considering any US schools. My academic record is not too good actually. So maybe I should focus on showing how I could offer some unique and valuable for the class. My scores for GMAT AWA and IR are 5.0 and 6.0 respectively. Maybe the AWA score might help offset the low verbal score. I am also thinking of applying to join the MBA program for this year. Meaning I will be applying in round 4. I guess this would make it harder to be accepted. Anyway thanks again! Kellios

bryantmichaels · Answer

You shouldn't run into any age bias with recruiters--in fact, many of them will probably like the extra work experience and maturity you bring to the table. Possible exceptions would be mgt. training programs etc. which typically take folks "of a certain age" and may not want to rock the boat with someone out of their range, but in general you will likely have an edge with recruiters. convincing the b-schools, however will be another story, so from an admissions standpoint, expect to be more heavily scrutinized for what you have achieved in your career vs. someone who is younger.

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