We’ll start off with the obvious. A high GMAT score offers many advantages. Here are a few.
Benefits of a high GMAT score
1. Differentiation: This is more pronounced when you’re from a highly represented applicant pool – like engineer, or male, or Indian – or all 3 if you’re lucky!
2. Demonstrating intellectual capability: With all the arguments around its legitimacy and relevance, within the world of management admissions – a high score is still considered a proxy for intellect.
3. Recruitment: Elite firms in some industries ask candidates to share test scores in their resumes. They use it to filter the volume of applicants to a manageable number.
But does a high GMAT score guarantee scholarship? Or for that matter, even an admit? Aditya answers these questions. He includes an honest review of MBA Crystal Ball and explains why MCB was not his first choice!
Does a high GMAT score guarantee admission and scholarship?
Review of MBA Crystal Ball
by Aditya Sulakhe
After completing my Chartered Accountancy, I joined my father’s Chartered Accountancy practice in 2018.
Having already worked there for three years during my articleship (a three-year internship that all Chartered Accountants have to go through), it was an easy choice to build on the firm’s established legacy.
During my time there, I had the opportunity to lead teams on audit and consulting assignments, providing me with valuable managerial experience.
However, I soon realized the need to embrace changing dynamics and explore value-adding services. This realization led me to establish a new advisory division within the firm, where I could provide tailored guidance to our clients.
Although I was passionate about my work, I recognized that scaling the division would require additional skill sets and experiences.
In order to acquire the relevant skillsets needed to expand the business, I decided to venture out and gain industry experience. This led me to join the investments team at Marcellus Investment Managers in 2021.
As an Equity Research Associate, I analyzed various small companies in India and determined their suitability as investment opportunities for the hard-earned money of 9,000 families.
This position allowed me to travel to different parts of India, engage with industry experts, and gain valuable insights into diverse industries.
Over the course of two years at Marcellus, I honed my technical skills in understanding businesses and conducting thorough financial analysis.
My experiences in the industry highlighted the importance of exposing myself to diverse perspectives, deepening my understanding of business strategy, and developing softer skills. Recognizing the significance of these aspects, I decided to pursue an MBA.
My MBA journey began with the daunting task of choosing between the GMAT and GRE. After thorough research, I opted to take the GMAT, capitalizing on my strengths in the Verbal section.
While I initially sought assistance from a test prep provider, I ended up primarily relying on self-study.
After a mock test yielded a score of 650, I was determined to improve and intensively reviewed my mistakes, identifying weak areas and implementing new strategies to train myself in what I think is the most critical area the GMAT tests you on – managing time without obsessing over accuracy.
I discovered valuable resources on platforms like GMAT Club and YouTube channels like GMAT Ninja, which revolutionized my approach to tackling different question types and helped me gradually improve my GMAT score.
Finally, on the day of the exam, I achieved a score of 760 (Quant: 50; Verbal: 41; IR: 8; AWA: 5), an accomplishment that filled me with confidence to pursue my MBA aspirations.
As I embarked on the MBA application process, the biggest challenge I faced was showcasing my work experience at a smaller unrecognized firm.
I believe this is where I encountered difficulties in my first attempt at applying to B-Schools, resulting in rejections from all the 5 schools I had initially applied to.
For my first attempt I spoke to a number of consultants – including MBA Crystal Ball (MCB). But I decided to take help from a different consultant, because MCB did not fit my budget back them (Affordable MBA consultants in India).
While I had a good experience with my first consultant in terms of responsiveness, I believe they were not able to understand my story and the initiatives I worked on in my earlier organization (Top reasons for MBA rejection).
This led to an application that did not showcase my capabilities to its fullest, and ultimately resulting in rejections despite the high GMAT score.
To enhance my chances, I decided to work with MCB for my second attempt after receiving a strong recommendation from a friend who told me how the team at MCB took time in understanding his story and helped him craft essays that were unique to him.
The MBA MAP assessment provided invaluable insights, helping me identify my strengths and weaknesses. MCB guided me on areas that required focus and helped me strategize on building differentiation in my story.
The assessment also enabled me to rank schools based on the level of difficulty in gaining admission, helped me shortlist schools I would apply to and concentrate my efforts on those schools.
In shortlisting schools, I was upfront with Vibhav right from the start – I wanted to target my efforts on schools in the “Stretch” and “Ambitious” category and did not mind not having a safe school as a backup option.
The initial calls with Vibhav were pivotal in defining my strategy for the second attempt. Vibhav guided me on what universities look for in candidates and emphasized the importance of constructing stories that showcase my unique capabilities.
While Vibhav did not write any of my essays for me, he encouraged me to address the “Whys” and “Hows” of my story, provoking me to think deeper and articulate my story and my skills better.
Using the feedback from our thought-provoking discussions, I redefined my narrative and highlighted my unique contributions in my essays to solve for my work experience at a smaller unrecognized firm.
This, I believe was the biggest difference in my applications the second time around.
I applied to seven schools and received interview invitations from four of them (Columbia, UCLA Anderson, Dartmouth Tuck, and Michigan Ross).
Recognizing the importance of being well-prepared for the interviews, especially given my limited interview experience, I once again turned to MCB for their expertise in interview preparation.
Vibhav and Maitabi played instrumental roles in helping me structure my answers, draw on personal experiences, and craft compelling stories. The following three to four weeks of waiting were filled with nervous anticipation.
Finally, the news arrived—I received admits from UCLA Anderson and Michigan Ross. The realization that my efforts had borne fruit was incredibly rewarding.
After careful consideration, I have decided to accept the offer from UCLA Anderson, which includes an $80,000 scholarship spread over two years.
UCLA stood out to me as the ideal choice to bring me closer to my goals, both professionally and personally.
The school’s increasing focus on finance and entrepreneurship, coupled with its proximity to the finance ecosystem, made it the perfect place to achieve my post-MBA aspirations.
Making the CA articleship count as work experience
There’s a lot of confusion around whether CA articleship is counted as work experience or not during international MBA admissions.
The way I approached this was – I counted my full time work experience from the time I got my bachelor’s degree.
There was some overlap there – I completed my Bcom in 2017 and CA in 2018 – so 1 year of articleship gets added to my work experience.
And I transparently explained how I calculated my work experience and the nitty-grities of the CA course in the optional essay.
I think this approach helped me in showing a few extra years of work experience.
Reflecting on my MBA journey, I believe 3 main factors helped differentiate me from other Indian applicants:
- My background in sports, where I represented my school and college in state-level badminton tournaments.
- The fact that I had ranked 30th throughout India in my Chartered Accountancy final exams.
- My risk taking capability of choosing to leave my family business and work outside in the Industry to gain valuable experience.
A high GMAT score offers benefits, no doubt. But on its own, a high score does not guarantee a scholarship, or even an admit. For that, you’ll need to focus on many other things.
Send us an email if you need some professional help with your applications:
info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com
Also read:
– How to overcome a low GMAT score and get into a top MBA program?
– All about GMAT waivers
– MBA admissions consultants ranking factors
