Dear All,

My dream college have been INSEAD from the time i started thinking of MBA. But due to my job nature, i could not commit enough time for preparation and ultimately landed at 560 GMAT.

When i was going for GMAT, I had three colleges in my mind and i got through one of them already (Schulich Business School for global mining management course).

Obviously, i will enever ever again get a chance to apply for INSEAD but am not getting courage enough to apply for INSEAD, so thought i should put the query here and get expert opinion before i decide, i should apply for INSEAD or not.

If i evaluate myself on the INSEAD entry requirement criteria, i score myself very good apart from GMAT.

My profile is -

Indian Male, 34 Years
10 Years of experience in mining sector (5 Years in mining technical consultancy and 5 years in raw operation , out of which around 5 years experience is international)
Currently handling a team of 60 persons and looking a CAPEX of 12 million USD and working with world giant steel manufacturer as Mine Planning and Strategy Planning Manager.

Have experience in Technical and operation in site job , Sales & Marketing and technical consultancy. Have also handled supply chain, logistics and human resource in time shift responsibility.

University topper (Have done Masters in Geology from Unievrsity of Delhi)

I have working knowledge of Spanish language apart from Hindi and English.

I will request for your honest opinion.

Should i apply with a score of 560 (Q40 and V 27)?

Kind Regards,

Praveen Mishra

I don't think there's any real chance of your being admitted to the Insead MBA with that GMAT score: the other applicants are also great, but they are able to function at a high level in the classroom and work quickly through the case studies. Your GMAT suggests you will contribute less in class. You are, in any case, older than most of their applicants. Spend your €250 admission fee instead on a GMAT tutor to help you with the verbal side of the GMAT, where you can obviously make a big improvement. Then aim for a school that fits your career goals. Take a look at these posts:-

GMAT Tiers - strong schools for your GMAT www.find-mba.com/board/27082

How to use LinkedIn to find the best school www.find-mba.com/board/33571

Best schools for international students' placement http://www.find-mba.com/board/41143

[Edited by Duncan on Feb 23, 2016]

Indeed, 650 is the low end of the 80 percent GMAT range, and I don't know if the school has even admitted candidates with lower than 600 in the past few years. Even with a 600 score, they'd be looking for something extraordinary about your profile. Your substantial work experience will help, but I'm guessing not enough.

If it is your dream, get your GMAT score up.

Additionally, because you do have more experience than the average MBA at Insead, you'll have to take care to explain why the school matches your goals.

Thank You Duncan and Laurie for your valuable comments.

Praveen