Admissionado
Joined: 30 Nov 2009
Posts: 9216
Given Kudos: 69
Location: Chicago, IL
Schools:Brown University, Harvard Business School
Re: Profile review
[#permalink]
03 Mar 2019, 20:02
You are a non-traditional applicant & your GMAT is a bit on the low end so at this point all of those schools would be a stretch. Especially when you are coming from a non-traditional background, schools really look to the GMAT for evidence that you are up for the rigors of b-school; so the ideal in your case is to exceed the GMAT average for the schools where you apply. For a school like LBS or INSEAD, I'd try to hit a 730+.
Although you are a non-traditional applicant given your centrists background, as an Indian male you are also coming from a very overrepresented demographic when it comes to b-school apps & to some extent you will be compared against that group. What that means is that it's going to be a bit tougher for you to get into a top school compared to someone who's not coming from a demographic that's so overrepresented. It's also a group that tends to have very high GMAT scores (740+ for top schools), which makes it all the more important for you to improve your score if you can.
Your post-MBA goals will be critical as well: you'll need to make a strong argument for why you need the MBA & the skill gaps you plan to fill in b-school to achieve your goals. You want your post-MBA goals to be as specific as possible since that sets you up to make a stronger, more specific (and more credible) argument for why you need the MBA.
Finally, I would also definitely try to apply R1 if you can & would avoid R3, especially as an international applicant. It definitely gets more competitive for international applicants as you get later in the rounds.