Is 680 good enough for my profile for INSEAD/LBS/Judge?

Question

Hey guys,

I appeared for my GMAT today and got 680. Below are the details:

QA: 50
VA: 31
IR: 8

I am an Indian male (based out of India), non-engineer with 7 years of work experience as a Marketing Analyst / Consultant with a Fortune 50 tech company. I have worked on global projects across Europe and US. I am looking for my second MBA and targeting INSEAD/ LBS/ Judge. My GPA is average (around 2.8 - 3.0). Apart from my regular job, I love to spend time training professionals for competitive exams. I have successfully trained more than 4,000 professional over last 4-5 years with significant results.

My score is not balanced and this is my major concern. I am yet to get my AWA score and I expecting a good score. With my current score I am not sure if I should apply for these programs or retake the GMAT. Any suggestions would greatly help.

pushpitkc · Answer

Hey  joshik

You have a phenomenal work experience and I agree, the GMAT is 
going to be a small problem if you were to listen to me(simply
because of the demographic - at least for INSEAD. Anyway, this
is just my opinion!

However, for better feedback moving your topic to the appropriate forum.

Hope this helps you!

IvyGroupeCEO · Answer

Hi there,

You come from a tough demographic and your GPA is on the lower side, so I would recommend retaking the GMAT to get that score up!

Best,
Shaifali

joshik · Answer

I totally agree with both of you. I would prefer to retake GMAT and aim for a 700+ score. I am confident that with a little more focus on verbal, I can do it.

On the GPA part, I used a conversion scale to arrive on the numbers. My grades are reported on a scale of 100; I have consistently scored above 70% and have been in the top 10% cohort. Since the Indian universities are little stringent on the grading system, with 70%-75% score, I have always been above 90 percentile range. I heard a lot of B-Schools recommend not to use any conversion scale. However, if required, in that case my grades do not appear great on a 4 point scale.

99Colleges · Answer

You don’t need to convert GPA to a scale of 4.0. Schools understand peculiarities of different grading systems. A 70 percent may look average, but it may be much higher in percentile terms, like it’s in your case. If you see room for explaining your GPA somewhere, you can mention your percentile finish. You may read more on this   here  .
And, as pointed by others, a higher GMAT score will help.

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

A few more perspectives and questions for you to consider joshik:
 
  While the profile 'sounds' interesting, it is not clear as to your achievements and differentiation. Analyst role sounds a bit junior for 7 years and not clear about your leadership experience. Do tell more.  
  For INSEAD and European schools in general, international experience matters (read  here  why). Not clear if those global projects of yours were remote or on location?  
  With the change in US scenario, we have seen a surge in INSEAD applications and in that context, both your GPA (it would be good to understand which college btw - as 70% is usually not very regularly in that percentile) and the GMAT will make for a pretty average/below par academic arc. Definitely worth a retake or two!  
  The ECs sounds impressive in terms of scale. Do think about how that gives you some transferable skills for MBA and beyond - a bit tough for teaching so make sure you introspect well

Hope this helps some.

Admissionado · Answer

Well first and foremost I'd say we need more info.

I don't think with your current score and profile that LBS would be very viable, but the other two schools perhaps, depending upon the detail in your profile.

Is 680 good enough for my profile for INSEAD/LBS/Judge?

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