GMAT 700 - Rice, UT and Cornell

Question

Hi All

I recently gave GMAT and got a 700 (47 Quant and 39 Verbal). I am a Petroleum Engineer (Reservoir) in Houston, TX with about 8.5 years of experience in total; spread across big oil & gas companies in the US and a consulting company in India. Post full-time MBA, I am looking to venture into Energy Investment Banking or stay with an Oil & Gas operator, but in a different role. My target schools are Rice University (Jones Graduale School of Business), Univ. of Texas, Austin (McCombs) and Cornell (Johnson). I will also try my luck at some other top schools, but feel that, I have less than avg. score and fall on the right side of the curve as far as avg. age is concerned. Keeping all these factors in mind, is 700 good enough or should I retake the GMAT ?

I do think I have a decent overall profile with BS in Chemical Engineering from India (graduated with distinction) and an MS in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M Univ. (GPA - 3.5), and have around 13 technical publications with 150 citations.

PS: I am an Indian citizen with US green card

Thanks
Kush

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

A few thoughts on your profile and plans  KushGakhar :
 
  The profile contours sound interesting. However, it would be important to understand the actual nature of your work - purely technical, something else? This is critical to showcase transferable skills so think hard and deep on this. 
  While your post-MBA plans sound logical, if you research, you'd see that Energy IB can be very niche - dig deeper to assess how feasible that would be. Also, O&G doesn't tend to be a big recruiter of top MBA grads generally speaking - so make sure you develop a compelling proposition there. 
  Since you'd be targeting R3 (?) and in general, you'd be also competing against Indian candidates to some extent who score much higher than a given school's average. Thus, a retake would definitely be recommended to boost your prospects.  
  Finally, anything on ECs? This is why   ECs matter in your MBA application  .

Hope this helps some.

Cheers,

PersonalMBACoach · Answer

Hi Kush! Do you plan to sumbit your applications next year or pursue R3 this year? I certainly think O&G IB makes a lot of sense, and McCombs is an obvious choice. You could also look at Fuqua and Kenan-Flagler, as both send good numbers of students into IB and have ties to the Southwest. Fuqua is particularly strong in that regard. Rice is a great school, but it doesn't have the investment banking networks that the other schools do. Cornell sends mostly to NYC, but Houston is a possibility, just more time consuming to recruit with the long flight between locations. For your list of schools, I think 700 is a decent, but not great, score. If you have the chance to take it again and score 20-30 points higher, it would be a boon to your overall application. With 8.5 years experience, I would still apply now with a 700 (if you don't score higher or are not able to re-take) and make sure your essays and story are coherent and concise. Hope this helps and feel free to reach out to discuss more in depth! Regards, Personal MBA Coach www.personalmbacoach.com

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

8.5 years of experience in total with 700 gmat score is more than enough to get admission in those specific universities, i guess. Better, if you search these universities' profile from their website. Thanks__

KushGakhar · Answer

The profile contours sound interesting. However, it would be important to understand the actual nature of your work - purely technical, something else? This is critical to showcase transferable skills so think hard and deep on this.
  While your post-MBA plans sound logical, if you research, you'd see that Energy IB can be very niche - dig deeper to assess how feasible that would be. Also, O&G doesn't tend to be a big recruiter of top MBA grads generally speaking - so make sure you develop a compelling proposition there.
  Since you'd be targeting R3 (?) and in general, you'd be also competing against Indian candidates to some extent who score much higher than a given school's average. Thus, a retake would definitely be recommended to boost your prospects. 
  Finally, anything on ECs? This is why ECs matter in your MBA application

Hope this helps some.

Cheers,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Here are some answers to your questions:

> My work is technical and business oriented. In fact quite impactful, I am responsible for managing wells worth a billion dollars in an unconventional reservoir in USA. Other than that I have lead trial programs worth quite a few millions. In oil industry I believe there is a thin line between technical and business domains. Plus I worked in technical consulting for Schlumberger for 5 years managed client relationship and did business development as well. Also, I was a field engineer for 2 years, so that was a very very unique experience as well.

<<snip>>

I sincerely appreciate your feedback.

Regards
Kush Gakhar

> I do understand energy IB is quite niche, but I want to leverage my current experience and have some contacts in that domain, hopefully will be able to use them. This is my first option, if not I would try to get into business dev. or investor relations and then go from there. I do not want to switch industries. Plan C could be consulting companies, as I think my experience won't be totally wasted if move to consulting, but that's not my first preference, don't want to start something totally new at 36 - 37 age.

> I am planning to apply to round 1 next year as I think that most of the schools would have run out of scholarships by now (please advise). Also my personal finances would be in a better spot to support me in student life going forward.

> I am an Indian citizen, but have a US green card, have been living here since last 10 years, which pool will I be compared against. I am familiar with typically higher GMAT score of Indian students; will I be compared against them ?

> Not much on EC. I am an active member of Society of Petroleum Engineers and editor of a few technical journals. Any advice on improvements on that front.

I sincerely appreciate your feedback.

Regards
Kush Gakhar

KushGakhar · Answer

Thanks AsadAbu. Are there any other schools you can recommend for investment banking domain considering my profile. Here are some additional details about mmyself:

> My work is technical and business oriented. In fact quite impactful, I am responsible for managing wells worth a billion dollars in an unconventional reservoir in USA. Other than that I have lead trial programs worth quite a few millions. In oil industry I believe there is a thin line between technical and business domains. Plus I worked in technical consulting for Schlumberger for 5 years managed client relationship and did business development as well. Also, I was a field engineer for 2 years, so that was a very very unique experience as well.

<<snip>>

I sincerely appreciate your feedback.

Regards
Kush Gakhar

> I do understand energy IB is quite niche, but I want to leverage my current experience and have some contacts in that domain, hopefully will be able to use them. This is my first option, if not I would try to get into business dev. or investor relations and then go from there. I do not want to switch industries. Plan C could be consulting companies, as I think my experience won't be totally wasted if move to consulting, but that's not my first preference, don't want to start something totally new at 36 - 37 age.

> I am planning to apply to round 1 next year as I think that most of the schools would have run out of scholarships by now (please advise). Also my personal finances would be in a better spot to support me in student life going forward.

> I am an Indian citizen, but have a US green card, have been living here since last 10 years, which pool will I be compared against. I am familiar with typically higher GMAT score of Indian students; will I be compared against them ?

> Not much on EC. I am an active member of Society of Petroleum Engineers and editor of a few technical journals. Any advice on improvements on that front.

Thanks

Regards
Kush Gakhar

KushGakhar · Answer

Thanks a lot for the recommendation. I would not prefer to take GMAT again. Instead would like to build a strong application. I felt 700 is close to the median score for the three schools I am planning to apply. I might expand my application to Fuqua and a few others as well. Any recommendations for extra curricular activities that might be able to help my case.

Regards
Kush Gakhar

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

KushGakhar , tough to say which pool as that's not public info. But the comparison is likely. The reason I assumed this cycle was because you have a Green Card. For internationals, R3 is even more risky. But if you are ok to wait, R1 is always better. However, also bear in mind that   MBA after 30 is tricky  . So sooner the better. IB also tends to prefer younger folks.

Association with Schlum brand will definitely help. And it's good to hear that you have a network you can leverage - make sure to bring that out well in your application.

On ECs, tough to do something substantial in the limited time. But try your best to ramp up say what you do at the Society if that's an interest area.

All the best buddy.

GMAT 700 - Rice, UT and Cornell

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards