Paul, how would you approach my situation.....Thanks

Question

Hi Paul,

I would be very grateful for your help. 

I am a Medical Doctor (Psychiatrist) in the UK. I have got excellent leadership and teamworking experience, I can prove that I am not running away from medicine and have clear aims as to why I need an MBA, and I have got a list of great achievements (e.g. published work in top class medical journals and in the Financial Times). Also I will get great recommendations.

I took that GMAT two weeks ago and scored 620 on it (Verbal: 80 percentile. Maths 58 percentile). I wanted to meet the London Business School deadline on Feb 23rd (3rd round).

What would you recommend: Appply to LBS for the 3rd round deadline with my current GMAT score. I could put in the application form that I would be happy to retake the exam if reqiured. Or resit the GMAT and apply for round 4 deadline (End of April). I worried that there may be only very limited places left by round 4.

Thanks for your help, it is very much appreciated.

PaulBodine · Answer

GMAT?

I think your odds are not good with a 620 even with your strong and unusual career profile. So I would recommend retaking the GMAT and applying 4th round or next fall 1st round. If you apply 4th round the odds will be against you since most of the school's slots will be filled, so you'll need a really strong score to wow them. 

Good luck,

lfox2 · Answer

Why not try Imperial, with a 620 it is in the range, also Cranfield might be a possibility.

PaulBodine · Answer

I agree.

antapple · Answer

I would say that LBS keeps some places to R4, at least that is what was told by one of the adcoms at an information session.
He said that they have that round because they still admitt people by then. I understood it as a larger amount of vacancies the the usual US university last round, but you can't ever be sure of that. I believe you should apply, furthermore because LBS is keen on reaplicants, so if you really can't get in 2007, try again 2008. But if you really are going to try it this year have a really good application, make a lower gmat (if you can't improve it by R4) your major weakness.
It's just my opinion, but it is interpreted partially from what I've heard directly from an adcom.
Good luck with the new gmat and the application.

Paul, how would you approach my situation.....Thanks

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