Hello,

I just recently took my GMAT and got a 640. I graduated the University of Wisconsin Madison with a 2.9 in International Studies (focused on global economics and politics) as well as Portuguese. I had studied abroad in Brazil for one semester and had good extracurricular experience working with AIESEC the international student organization.

After graduation I have been working for an Indian IT firm as an enterprise sales Trainee/Executive/Manager for almost 2 years. I have traveled much of South America and Europe and am looking to get an MBA in a large city outside of the US. I am fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and Advanced in French. I also plan on taking the GMAT again and think that I can improve as there were some issues I had the day of the test I felt negatively impacted me.

What Universities would accept my profile? My GPA and GMAT are not elite and my work experience is at a small company. Nonetheless I think I have a very unique profile due to my international experience and language skills. I have sent my scores to LSB, INSEAD, ESADE, Rotterdam and HEC Paris. I plan to send my scores to 5 more universities and am considering internationally minded programs in large cities around the world in Europe, China and Australia.

If anyone could provide me with advice on what these programs will be thinking when they look at my profile, as well as any programs that look for internationally minded, multi-lingual Americans enough to overlook my flaws I would appreciate it. Also if anyone could provide me with tiers so that I can decide on one or two safety schools I would appreciate it as I feel that all my schools are somewhat of a stretch at the moment.

As your GPA is a little sub-par, the schools will generally look for a higher than average GMAT score to re-assure themselves that you're ready to go back to school. Given that, I think your chances at the LBS/Insead/HEC Paris tier are fairly low. You might have more chances at a school like RSM which likely receives fewer American applicants. If location is not an issue, maybe check out some of the Asian schools - like NUS or CUHK for example - which tend not to receive as much interest from American applicants as schools in western Europe.

I agree that the top tier odds are fairly low so I'm wondering what are some programs that would be solid in the next tier in Western Europe? I'm planning on applying to CUHK, one or two programs in the US then I still would like to apply to two more programs in Europe. What would be considered a solid alternative to LBS in the UK that I would be fairly assured of getting into? Also I plan to take the GMAT again and hope to score better since I was a bit sick and had done better in some of my practice exams. What difference would these scores make? In the end everything I applied to is a stretch and I want advice on one or two safety schools in Europe.

Thanks again for your response by the way. Very helpful and relevant with my thoughts.

The MIT/Lisbon MBA comes to mind. You are very low on work experience for the UK, but Glasgow and Henley come to mind. The Iowa MBA at CIMBA in Italy , and the CEU as well, might suit you because you might want to have a qualification that will be understood in the USA.

[Edited by Duncan on Oct 28, 2016]