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Question

Hi. I'm from Argentina, and want to apply next year to start my mba on sept 2011. 
Here is some information about me: I'm 26 years old (will apply with 27), I scored 710 on Gmat (Q48 V39) and I have a degree in Social Communication. It's hard to say what is my GPA, in Argentina we use a different grading system and my university doesn't provide a student ranking. Nevertheless, I have good grades (though probably I`m not in the best 10%, but I will never know that).

Right now I'm working in the sales and marketing department of one of the most important (number two actually) car racing series.

I play rugby in a first division (most important league here in Argentina), I've been playing for 8 years now , and I have represented my country and my state playing for Argentinian's under 21 years old rugby team and for Buenos Aires's team.

Also, since I was 17 years old I've been taking part of community service activities.

My top choices are Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, LBS. What do you think are my chances?

Thank's a lot!

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Hard to say. You aren't from the typical banking/consulting/corporate/engineering crowd so as a relatively unique applicant it'll be harder to really benchmark you vs other applicants. As such, your case will be that much more subjective and you could end up with very strange results (i.e. getting into a higher ranked school but dinged at a lower ranked school) - and this also assumes you've done a great job on the applications (essays, interview, rec letters) as well.

Applying to those schools you listed is fine - just be prepared for the possibility that you may not get into any of them. You may also want to add 1-2 schools outside the top 16 (maybe Oxford/Cambridge if you want to work in Europe, or USC/Texas/Georgetown/etc if you want to work in the US).

Tacho28 · Answer

Alex, thanks for your help.

Two last questions: what do I have to do if my university has a policy of not showing the student`s ranking? My average grade will probably mean nothing for the admission's people, since it will be a mark out of a hundred and they won't be able to compare it with the other students. I know Harvard and Stanford give a lot of importance to GPA.

Is my Gmat score ok? Is 710 enough to apply to these top universities?

Once again thank you very much

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Don't worry about your GMAT or GPA.

HBS/Stanford adcoms care about GPAs for those who went to US colleges. For those who went to universities outside of the US, it's more about the overall reputation of your school if you're from some of the big countries with lots of applicants (i.e. UK - Oxford/Cambridge; India - IIT; China - Beijing U/Tsinghua; Japan - Tokyo U; Russia - Moscow; France - Grande Ecoles; Canada - McGill/Queen's). If you're from a country with less applicants (like yourself), it won't matter which university you went to since they will be less familiar anyhow. In your case, they will look at your GMAT as the primary indicator, and do a scan of your transcript to get a feel for the kinds of courses you took.

Beyond that, what will make or break you at these schools won't be your academics/GMAT. It'll come down to a combination of how the adcom views your raw talent/achievements, leadership potential, and so forth. Focus on showcasing your professional achievements, athletic achievements, and community/extracurriculars.

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