Hi
shikarikutta,
Thank you for your post. As you're likely aware, the pool of male applicants from India is quite crowded and competitive, particularly among engineers. A decent rule of thumb is to try to achieve a GMAT score that is 30+ points above the average for the programs you're considering. (And that that's just to "neutralize" the GMAT / align you with a program's score profile; you then have to tell a compelling story, communicate specific and coherent career goals, get to know the program extremely well, articulate your fit, convey what unique perspective you could bring and contributions you could make to the MBA community, have great recommendations, do well in the interview, and so on and so forth... in order to be competitive.)
I'd encourage to read the following two GMAT Club posts to give you further context into how you generally stack up:
1.
MBA Admission Chances for Indian Applicants - Top 50 Analysis2.
The Indian Male MBA Application GuideYou'll note from the first post that Indian applicants with a 720 or 730 GMAT score have only a 5% acceptance rate across the top 20 programs in the U.S., which is quite low, That rate increases to 11% with a 740 or 750 GMAT score, and then to 16% with a 760 or 770 GMAT score. (You will also see other information in there related to professional background, age, and work experience.) You'll separately note the comments in the second post regarding applying to top 25 programs with a score below 730.
The GMAT is only one piece of the application puzzle, and I happen to think that your career path and UN experience to this point could help to differentiate you, provided that you story is properly told and your career narrative is clear, coherent, connected, and specific. In other words, there seems to some interesting connectivity between your industrial work and then your UN work. You will want to tie that to why you're pursuing an MBA, what your career goals are, and how who you are and what you've done to this point -- plus the MBA -- will enable you to achieve those goals. You were an engineer and then worked in the public sector / international affairs. You will need to be clear about why you're now pursuing an MBA.
Your complete lack of post-college extracurriculars will hurt you some, so you might have to lean on the UN experience to show community engagement (and sort out whether there's anything at all you've done that you're not thinking of). Who are you outside of your job? What drives you? What impact have you had? What's the passion and purpose behind your goals?
Your story, career goals, and school research and engagement will require a great deal more development. I invite you to read more here:
https://www.avantiprep.com/blog/the-mos ... on-processGiven what you've shared, and with proper execution along the lines of what I've described above, I think an application strategy for you might include a couple of programs in the T16-25 range (
*as reaches*), and then a series of programs in the T25 to 40/45 range. Applying to several schools across that range would represent a balanced and diversified school strategy. I'd encourage you to pursue Round 1 over Round 2 if you can, and if doing so does not undermine the quality of your applications. Get to know the programs well. Chat with current students and alumni. Attend online events. (Again, read the blog post above.)
Please feel free to sign up for a Free Consultation if you are seeking assistance with School Selection, Story and Career Goal Development, Essays, Resumes, Interview Prep, or anything else:
https://www.avantiprep.com/free-consultation.htmlBest Regards,
Greg