Is a 323 GRE score good? Second MBA abroad with scholarship for happy IIT IIM grad

Are IIT IIM graduates happy, rich and successful?
If they are happy with what they’ve got from their degrees, then why would any IIT IIM graduate need a second MBA?

Well, other than having the most respected degrees in India, IITians and IIM grads are also among the most intelligent, hard-working and ambitious.

Which is what makes their definition of ‘happy, rich and successful’ unique.

Many long to make the geographical borders insignificant. One way to do that is by gaining another qualification that offers a better bang for their buck, and is recognised beyond borders.

MV graduated from one of the old Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and a BLACKI IIM. In the eyes of his family, relatives and neighbours – life was set!

But he was longing for more. Armed with a modest GRE score of 323 (slightly lower than his old, expired GRE score of 326), he decided to try out for the big international league. He shares his second MBA success story with a GRE score (instead of GMAT).
 

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Second MBA after IIT IIM with 323 GRE score

How I got into a top European MBA with scholarship

 

Why IIM after IIT

My experience at IIT was eventful. I did well academically, published a research paper and was involved in a couple of activities.

I wanted to do an MBA to shift to management jobs. I had applied to MiM programs after IIT and got through HEC and LSE that time but decided not to go since there wasn´t much information on MiM then.

Eventually, I joined a top IIM the following year.

Turned out our Indian PGPs from IIMs are considered MiMs internationally.

My time at IIM was great. It quite shaped my thought process. I participated in some case study competitions and was fortunate to get a job offer before the placement season with a FMCG major. I wanted to get into FMCG post my MBA and so yes, I was able to get my target job.

I was working as a Senior Category Manager with the largest e-commerce player in India. The work was quite challenging and demanding.

I regularly had to negotiate with brands and derive insights in ambiguity. Taking bold bets was always encouraged and there was a very high level of ownership and freedom at work.

I wanted to have an international / global career and therefore decided to pursue MBA from abroad, as that would help me more than my Indian degrees.

I wanted to work in Europe, and thus there were only two schools that I targeted.

I realized that without an MBA from a top EU school, having a thriving management career in the mainstream economy would be difficult. The other options without it would mostly be in new age companies in tech/non-core business related functions.

Choosing between GRE vs GMAT was easy

I had already written the GRE once in 2013 when I had applied for MiM courses and had a decent score of 326 back then. I decided to write the GRE itself since I was familiar with the format, though it had been a very long time.

I started studying for the GRE in Aug and wrote the exam in mid-October and managed to get 323 this time with 5/6 on the AWA. This was a lower GRE score than I expected. I could have got a higher score had I done well on the exam day.

I didn´t get into the GRE/GMAT debate since I thought its irrelevant and its only one component of the application to judge the overall profile.

Since I had already obtained admission in MiM in 2013 with the GRE (when business schools had just started accepting GRE scores) I thought that this GRE/GMAT debate in 2022 made no sense.

Besides, if one is uncertain, GRE gives a broader choice of courses to apply to compared to GMAT (e.g. MS courses).

Does an IIT IIM grad need admission consultants?

I had a relatively good profile in terms of grades, past education and work experience. The only concern I had was that of lack of international work experience.

I had written the GRE on 15th October and applied on the 15th Nov deadline and thus was running on extremely tight deadlines. I wanted to get quick and very objective feedback on my essays so that I could refine them.

I had read the reviews of MBA Crystal Ball (MCB) and they seemed genuine to me. I liked their objective and open minded response.

Besides, I had reached out to Manish once when I was wondering whether to pursue an MBA or not. His response seemed insightful and authentic as well. Thus, I decided to reach out to Manish on 16th October for 15th November deadline.

Manish referred me to Ravi. I had most of my interactions with Ravi. He was very sharp and objective in his feedback and had a very quick turnaround which helped me revise my application couple of times in the short application window.

We stayed authentic around the stories and decided to elaborate on management lessons learnt from them. He helped me structure and refine my stories.

My second MBA application experience

I applied to only two schools. My criteria was mostly the reputation and feedback from friends/alumni. HEC Paris had a great name in Europe and thus was a natural choice. I was also targeting programs with 1 year duration and evaluating the ROI and alumni network.

There were two interviews. Each interview had two components, one was the presentation which you had to give on any topic and the other was the questions segment about myself and why I decided to pursue an MBA from HEC. Why now, about my work, achievements in life, failure, about the responses in application essays, etc.

The interviews with HEC Alums working in Europe (my interviewers were non-Indians) who had somewhat similar profile as mine. Interviews were conducted through zoom.

I got into HEC Paris with 25% tuition waiver. I believe this is amongst the highest scholarship amount in my cohort.

I decided to join HEC. I had applied for the Sept ’23 intake and on the day of admissions, requested the admissions team to see if they can pre pone my admission to the Jan ’23 intake. They agreed for it post checking some visa issues and I had less than 10 days to join before the classes began.

I had rich work experience across two different functions and sectors, FMCG and E-Commerce, and I was able to speak a European language. Beside, I had an overall good profile in terms of past education, grades, paper, extracurricular, etc.

I tried to be very genuine with my application essays and portrayed application of management lessons learnt and their contextuality in my major life achievements and hardships. My essay stories were all personal and highlighted struggles at the very bottom of Indian society. This helped me distinguish myself.

My advice to other Indian applicants would be to consider the geography that they are interested to work in and then apply to schools. It makes no sense to just blindly search the rankings and start applying. Considering ROI is very important as well.

In case one wants to stay and work in India, I would say the Indian schools are the best when it comes to ROI, network and structured hiring process. However, when it comes to working abroad, the situation is different. Thus, I would suggest factoring this context in mind when targeting a school.

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Here’s another point worth highlighting. MV got the scholarship on 24th December for MBA classes beginning on Jan 5th. This is unheard of in the elite MBA circles, especially for an Indian male applicant!

We’d love to help you craft a similar success story. Send across an email with your profile details: info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com

Also read:
– Second MBA from M7 school (Kellogg) with scholarship for IIM grad
– Second MBA after IIM
– More second MBA success stories