Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate an honest profile evaluation for top European pre-experience Master’s in Management / Grande École programs. Background Turkish applicant BBA in Business Administration and Management (100% English), Hacettepe University Hacettepe is generally considered one of the target universities in Turkey GPA: 3.75/4.00 Graduated as department rank #1 Ranked #1 in my Faculty for Erasmus placement and received an Erasmus grant Ranked 3,733 / ~1.2 million in Turkey’s national university entrance exam International / Academic Exposure Erasmus at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany Took master-level courses there and completed them with a 3.92 GPA 5 months in Germany, 5 months in the US Traveled across 13 countries and 35 cities Experience Business Development Intern at InfoDif, where I worked on business development projects involving meetings and collaboration with multinational / foreign firms Co-founder of a small e-commerce venture with 200+ customers and real revenue Co-founder and Presidential Advisor of the first and only management consulting student club at my university Work and Travel experience in the US Goals Long-term: entrepreneurship Before that: strong international management training, strong work experience, and later an MBA (ideally Harvard) I’m looking for schools with strong brand value, international exposure, and ideally exchange / multi-campus / CEMS-type opportunities I am also trying to apply in Round 1 to maximize my chances as an international applicant Current school list HEC Paris INSEAD London Business School ESCP ESSEC Bocconi St. Gallen IE ESADE maybe emlyon / EDHEC GMAT Current level seems to be around 595–625 on GMAT Focus Target: 695+ My questions How competitive does my profile look for these schools? Which schools seem like the best fit for my goals? Which schools are too ambitious vs realistic? What should I focus on most in the next 2–3 months to maximize my chances and be ready for Round 1? How much would a significantly stronger GMAT improve my odds? I’d really appreciate direct and realistic feedback. Thanks in advance.

Hi @rbarnozdemirhbs This is a strong MiM profile. The 3.75 GPA, department rank #1, national exam rank, excellent Erasmus grades, venture with 200+ customers, and consulting-club co-founder experience give you both academic strength and evidence of initiative. We would view HEC, INSEAD, LBS and St. Gallen SIM as ambitious but absolutely legitimate applications, ESSEC/ESCP/Bocconi as competitive targets, and IE/ESADE/emlyon/EDHEC as increasingly safer options. St. Gallen is particularly interesting because its published evaluation gives 20% weight each to GMAT/GRE and undergraduate grades, 25% to extracurricular/work experience, and 35% to the video interview, which plays well to a balanced profile like yours. For your goals, HEC would probably be our first choice, especially because you specifically want brand, entrepreneurship, exchange options and CEMS. HEC offers exchanges, double degrees and the HEC-CEMS joint degree. INSEAD would be another excellent fit if international exposure is the priority because the MiM is genuinely multi-campus across France and Singapore, with additional international study opportunities. ESCP also deserves serious consideration because its multi-campus structure and broad management specializations fit someone still exploring the route toward entrepreneurship. The GMAT is currently the main weakness, but we would not become obsessed with reaching 695+. Your present 595-625 range is not disastrous, particularly given the strength of the academic record, but for HEC/INSEAD/St. Gallen we would ideally push toward roughly 655-675+. A 695 would obviously strengthen the application further, but the incremental value of moving from, say, 675 to 695 is probably much smaller than moving from 605 to 655. GMAC itself notes that 645 on the current exam corresponds roughly to the old 700 benchmark by percentile. Over the next 2-3 months, focus on GMAT + turning your activities into impact stories, rather than adding random new extracurriculars. For the e-commerce venture, quantify revenue, growth, customer acquisition and what you personally built. For the consulting club, explain how many members you recruited, events/projects you created and what changed because of your leadership. Erasmus and the US experience support international orientation, but “13 countries and 35 cities” by itself adds very little. Also, do not make “eventually Harvard MBA” a prominent part of the MiM application. The school wants to understand why its MiM is necessary now, not why it is a stepping stone to another prestigious degree. Round 1 is realistic if you execute quickly. INSEAD R1 closes October 6, 2026, HEC R1 October 7, 2026, and St. Gallen's first round November 4, 2026. We would therefore spend August and September primarily on the GMAT while simultaneously developing a much sharper immediate goal, perhaps consulting, strategy, startup operations or business development, followed by entrepreneurship later. With a 655-675+ score and strong execution, there is no reason to treat HEC/INSEAD/LBS as fantasy applications. Hope this is helpful. Reply here or contact us directly .

It is currently 09 Sep 2026, 15:41

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Profile Evaluation for MiM 2027

rbaranozdemirhbs

Joined: 15 Mar 2025

Last visit: 08 Sep 2026

Posts: 30

Location: Turkey

Schools: HEC MiM '27 INSEAD MiM '27

GMAT Focus 1: 675 Q83 V84 DI83 Verified score

GPA: 3.75

Schools: HEC MiM '27 INSEAD MiM '27

GMAT Focus 1: 675 Q83 V84 DI83 Verified score

Posts: 30

24 Jun 2026, 06:46

Hi everyone,
I’d really appreciate an honest profile evaluation for top European pre-experience Master’s in Management / Grande École programs.
Background

Turkish applicant
BBA in Business Administration and Management (100% English), Hacettepe University
Hacettepe is generally considered one of the target universities in Turkey
GPA: 3.75/4.00
Graduated as department rank #1
Ranked #1 in my Faculty for Erasmus placement and received an Erasmus grant
Ranked 3,733 / ~1.2 million in Turkey’s national university entrance exam

International / Academic Exposure

Erasmus at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany
Took master-level courses there and completed them with a 3.92 GPA
5 months in Germany, 5 months in the US
Traveled across 13 countries and 35 cities

Experience

Business Development Intern at InfoDif, where I worked on business development projects involving meetings and collaboration with multinational / foreign firms
Co-founder of a small e-commerce venture with 200+ customers and real revenue
Co-founder and Presidential Advisor of the first and only management consulting student club at my university
Work and Travel experience in the US

Goals

Long-term: entrepreneurship
Before that: strong international management training, strong work experience, and later an MBA (ideally Harvard)
I’m looking for schools with strong brand value, international exposure, and ideally exchange / multi-campus / CEMS-type opportunities
I am also trying to apply in Round 1 to maximize my chances as an international applicant

Current school list

HEC Paris
INSEAD
London Business School
ESCP
ESSEC
Bocconi
St. Gallen
IE
ESADE
maybe emlyon / EDHEC

GMAT

Current level seems to be around 595–625 on GMAT Focus
Target: 695+

My questions

How competitive does my profile look for these schools?
Which schools seem like the best fit for my goals?
Which schools are too ambitious vs realistic?
What should I focus on most in the next 2–3 months to maximize my chances and be ready for Round 1?
How much would a significantly stronger GMAT improve my odds?

I’d really appreciate direct and realistic feedback. Thanks in advance.

Kudos

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GyanOne

Joined: 24 Jul 2011

Last visit: 08 Sep 2026

Posts: 3,439

Status: World Rank #4 MBA Admissions Consultant

Expert

Expert reply

Posts: 3,439

10 Aug 2026, 22:16

Hi @rbarnozdemirhbs

This is a strong MiM profile. The 3.75 GPA, department rank #1, national exam rank, excellent Erasmus grades, venture with 200+ customers, and consulting-club co-founder experience give you both academic strength and evidence of initiative. We would view HEC, INSEAD, LBS and St. Gallen SIM as ambitious but absolutely legitimate applications, ESSEC/ESCP/Bocconi as competitive targets, and IE/ESADE/emlyon/EDHEC as increasingly safer options. St. Gallen is particularly interesting because its published evaluation gives 20% weight each to GMAT/GRE and undergraduate grades, 25% to extracurricular/work experience, and 35% to the video interview, which plays well to a balanced profile like yours.
For your goals, HEC would probably be our first choice, especially because you specifically want brand, entrepreneurship, exchange options and CEMS. HEC offers exchanges, double degrees and the HEC-CEMS joint degree. INSEAD would be another excellent fit if international exposure is the priority because the MiM is genuinely multi-campus across France and Singapore, with additional international study opportunities. ESCP also deserves serious consideration because its multi-campus structure and broad management specializations fit someone still exploring the route toward entrepreneurship.
The GMAT is currently the main weakness, but we would not become obsessed with reaching 695+. Your present 595-625 range is not disastrous, particularly given the strength of the academic record, but for HEC/INSEAD/St. Gallen we would ideally push toward roughly 655-675+. A 695 would obviously strengthen the application further, but the incremental value of moving from, say, 675 to 695 is probably much smaller than moving from 605 to 655. GMAC itself notes that 645 on the current exam corresponds roughly to the old 700 benchmark by percentile.
Over the next 2-3 months, focus on GMAT + turning your activities into impact stories, rather than adding random new extracurriculars. For the e-commerce venture, quantify revenue, growth, customer acquisition and what you personally built. For the consulting club, explain how many members you recruited, events/projects you created and what changed because of your leadership. Erasmus and the US experience support international orientation, but “13 countries and 35 cities” by itself adds very little. Also, do not make “eventually Harvard MBA” a prominent part of the MiM application. The school wants to understand why its MiM is necessary now, not why it is a stepping stone to another prestigious degree.
Round 1 is realistic if you execute quickly. INSEAD R1 closes October 6, 2026, HEC R1 October 7, 2026, and St. Gallen's first round November 4, 2026. We would therefore spend August and September primarily on the GMAT while simultaneously developing a much sharper immediate goal, perhaps consulting, strategy, startup operations or business development, followed by entrepreneurship later. With a 655-675+ score and strong execution, there is no reason to treat HEC/INSEAD/LBS as fantasy applications.

Hope this is helpful. Reply here or contact us directly.

rbaranozdemirhbs