Q) I am planning to apply for Round 2. I have 5+ years of experience with 4 years with one of the 3 Big Cs and 1 year with an FMCG giant. My GMAT is 720 (Q50, V38). I would need your honest opinion on my chances to receive an admission to a top school and a scholarship. My undergraduate degree percentage is 64% (bachelor in commerce), and CA finals are 56%. I had continuous involvement with a non-profit until last year in the education sector. This year due to the pandemic, change in the company, and attempts at GMAT, my involvement has been sporadic.
Atul Jose (MBA Admissions Consultant, F1GMAT): First, I would like to share one trend that not many CAs in India know. Like the IT male Indian applicant, the Indian CA demographic is one of the fastest-growing application pools targeting top schools in the US.
I will start with the bad news – V38 is a low score despite an impressive Q50. The score will stand out since your undergraduate score is 64% for bachelor’s in commerce, and CA finals is 56%. As an Indian resident, I understand the competitiveness of the CA degree and the low score that the evaluators assign in the Finals. Still, it would be our responsibility to explain the CA finals score (56%). Another paragraph explaining the 64% for the bachelor’s in commerce and another paragraph for the V38 would be too much space dedicated to the academic part of your profile in the optional essay.
The non-profit experience is your strength. Like other applicants whose involvement physically with a non-profit has been cut short with COVID-19, the involvement this year wouldn’t go against your candidacy.
You must strategically highlight your communication skills from your volunteering engagements.
Is it unfair that GMAT is the biggest roadblock for talented applicants? Yes. It is unfair. However, from an admissions team’s perspective who receive applications in 1000s, the GMAT score is an easy tool to weave out the sub-par applicants.
End of the day, an MBA program is a quant-heavy program that requires that you have the communication skills and worldview to engage meaningfully in a diverse international class. Any academic data points that prove otherwise is a weakness.
I would recommend a GMAT retake and target a V45 and above.
Since you are targeting a scholarship, a GMAT retake would be even more vital to stand out from the crowd. We can assume that compared to a male Indian CA applicant, a female CA has better odds of acceptance. However, since the schools are nearing the 50-50% representation of male and female applicants, the advantages are short-lived.
