Hi All,

I have 2.5 year work experience in IT.I will be applying next year for B schools in Canada.I don't have any extra curricular activities/awards to show for in Resume.Following are my academic credentials.

Tenth-85.2
Twelth-80.2
Grad-77.3

With these scores and work ex of 3.5 years and GMAT score of 660+ which B schools i should target? I want to target only the B schools where profile can be considered "competitive",or should i say where i stand decent chance of getting in with a good SOP,LOR and interview. Thanks.

Try any Canadian school with an average GMAT between 550 and 660. If you are retaking the GMAT, try to get a better balance between the two halves.

Usually a good strategy is to spread your applications among schools where you are competitive and one or two that are reach schools for you. So based on your GMAT score and not knowing much else about your profile or your career goals, you may be relatively competitive at unranked schools like Ryerson.

A "reach" school might be something in the range of Rotman. The ranked schools will of course provide more leverage in terms of post-graduation job opportunities.

What about B schools higher than Ryerson and lower than Rotman like schulich,Beedie,Ivey,McGill,Sauder etc ? I am working as developer in TCS(IT company) and i intend to stay in IT only, i.e post MBA i want to be in Product Management, or any field where i can leverage my past technical knowledge and MBA education (bascially i don't want to switch my domain i.e IT).

If possible i don't really want to go for Unranked schools.I am keeping 660+ as a conservative estimate and since i am fine with both Quant and Verbal i believe i can get 700 score with decent amount of hard work.

Though i don't have Extra curriculars to show but i intend to work on my profile and if that means waiting for 1-2 more year and applying with better profile then i am fine with it.

Also i am a bit concerned about my CGPA, my CGPA is 7.73 and SGPA in last 4 semester was 7.30,7.33,6.83,8.50 (telling because some B schools like Mcmaster consider only last 2 years score). I don't know how each B school arrives at GPA,so is my GPA low for schools like schulich,Beedie,Ivey,McGill,Sauder ? Thanks

I think that your work experience will definitely handicap you, so the higher your GMAT score the better, especially if you are applying to the MBA programs ranked in the FT.

I'm not sure how that GPA translates to a typical 4.0 scale, but in general, if you can score higher on the GMAT or show that you have matured since your undergraduate years, then a low GPA is not usually a problem. I would say if you can get 700 or higher on the GMAT, you should try to apply now; of course, there are no guarantees, but if you get shot down you can always try to apply next year with another year of work experience under your belt.

Thanks a lot,i have 2.5 year work ex now and next year i will be applying with 3.5 year work ex.It is really reassuring to know that low GPA (though i don't think mine is too low) is not a problem if i can prove that i have matured after undergraduate. Thanks a lot.

By saying that "work experience will handicap you" you mean to say i have less work experience for good B schools where average work ex is 4-5 years right ?

By saying that "work experience will handicap you" you mean to say i have less work experience for good B schools where average work ex is 4-5 years right ?

Yes, exactly. Usually if other parts of your application are under the average - say a lower GMAT score or poor GPA - then the admissions people will want to see the other parts of your application be above average.