Hi guys,

Can anyone advise?

[Edited by shohrat6383 on Aug 21, 2019]

Retake it. You know what went wrong and that won't happen again.

Shohrat,

Don't worry about it, you can always retake the GMAT. I had to take the GMAT 4 times over a span of 3 years. My scores were 600, 610, 630, 630. As you can see this is a flat line with little improvement.

I attended a conference at American University in Washington DC. There GMAC representative told us about the new GMAT (new features) Now, you can select which sections you can attempt first.
Also, ow after seeing your score you can Cancel it. and NO ONE would know. This is a change from earlier GMAT where even if we cancel the score it would be reported as such to B Schools - inviting questions from MBA admissions.

Did you talk with Price and Baylor to see how do they respond with your 600 GMAT? Did you use WES or ECE to convert your undergrad GPA? Undergrad GPA plays significantly into someone with little or no work experience. You have 11 years of work experience. your undergrad will have little impact - so don't worry about it.

This reminds me of: The sad facts about scholarships http://www.find-mba.com/board/37055

PS I love the really EXCELLENT guidance from Avon below.

[Edited by Duncan on May 13, 2016]

@Shohrat,

Let me tackle your application aspects one by one.

1) GPA: DO NOT convert your GPA to a US 4.00 scale. I have a 6.3 GPA on a 10 scale. And I received admits from US / French Universities. No one asked me to convert my GPA.

Going forward Don't mention your GPA to other B schools, unless they ask for it. And when they ask, give them the unconverted score that you received in your university, was it percentage based or on a scale of 10 or on scale of 5. Whatever that may be.

2) Your GMAT might be lower than avg. GMAT for many schools. But that's why you use your experience to differentiate yourself and to write good essays to overcome your less than perfect GMAT.

3) Your nationality. This can be your big card. Next time when you talk with B school. Ask them if they can put you in touch with someone who came from Turkmenistan and graduated from their school. Chances are there was no one. Now you use this as your bargain chip. Imagine that you'll be the first guy from Turkmenistan to atten XXX B school. What can the Admissions committee of XXX B school do to make it happen.

4) Schools. From the response you have provided McCoy (Texas State), LSU, UNT and Bauer definitely wants you to apply to them.

But i would stay away from them. You can get into a better B school..

5) Admit vs Scholarship: Read the article Duncan has posted. You have to come up with a decision. Do you want to join an unknown - unranked B school and get some amount of scholarship OR do you want to get into a relatively better school (ranked/known) and get no scholarship??

6) Location: I know because of Oil&Gas industry you are focused on the Texas region. But if it comes to it - decide between getting a good education vs location.

University of Northen Texas will not open any doors for you. I don't think doing MBA from there will do anything for you to find employment in Oil and Gas even with location in Texas.

7) Focus on your function: Well I know you want to get into Oil/Gsa/Energy Industry. But what function do you want to get into ? Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing?

I told you earlier also that you may look at Penn State, Michigan State, Arizona State.

Tell them you are from Turkmenistan and have 600 GMAT with 11 years of experience. Don't mention GPA. See what happens.

Totally agree with Ayon! Look at Penn State, Michigan State and Arizona State! They have good business schools.

A quick comment on that. I continued to work, around an hour or two a day, while studying full-time in the MBA at Dartmouth. I just woke up an hour early and did it. The important thing was to set the expectation: I'll work once a day, at that time of day, and then perhaps be able to give quick, short responses to emails in a second slice at the end of the day. But it was very hard. I missed out on focus. My mind was always full of too many things. I didn't fully benefit from the MBA experience. It was hard to keep the expectations in line with reality.

@Duncan: thanks for your kind comments

@Shohrat: Doing work for your employer might be possible - but difficult. I cannot speak for other MBA programs but my 1st year in William & Mary was intense.

Time management becomes the biggest task for the whole of 1st year. I had financial constraints so I did not have a car, which meant that getting to school - which was 1.3 mile - took a good 30 mins either by walk or by bus (because bus will go around and not straight). Doing simple things as buying bread and eggs from a grocery store meant a 2-3 hour affair because I had to take the bus which would go around the campus to the store, and run after every 30 mins.
Then there was cooking, if you want to save money you cook but it takes up time.
Also English is not my first language, now I can communicate in English just fine - but my reading speed is slower than Americans, so it meant that where it took 30-40 mins to Americans to read the assignment and attempt the questions, it took me 2 hours to do so.

It also took me time to adjust to the US education system. In US you are supposed to read the chapter/assignment before coming to class. You are supposed to do answer all the questions before coming to class. In the class you discuss your solution with other students, the professor facilitates the discussion. In contrast, back in India, we go to class expected to be taught, then go home and do the assignment.

Long story short. A lot will depend upon the city where you live, your financial condition. Will you have a car? How far will you stay? Can you live on subway sandwiches?

My suggestion will be to figure out what your financial constraints are, e.g. let's say without your employer you can manage $55,000 in tuition and $1,000 x 12 x 2 = $24,000 for cost of living for two years. Now with $55,000 tuition what's the best school you can get into?
Then see the Avg. GMAT for those schools. If you are interested in the William & Mary MBA let me know. Now W&M won't give you access to Texas Oil & Gas companies - you'll probably need to network and find a job on your own - but W&M will give you a solid education.

However, you still need to decide on your Function. Also with your experience I would suggest you to look at Consulting. E.g. PwC might hire candidates from University of Texas at Knoxville for Supply Chain. Now you would make an excellent consulting candidate for someone having SCM functional knowledge, Oil & Gas Industry knowledge, managerial skill and MBA from a school that has some relationship with a company where you want to work. (PwC, UT Knoxville are just examples)
Visit PwC, EY, Deloitte, KPMG website to see what positions they require in Oil & Gas. What skill set they require. Which schools they visit to hire such candidates?

Finalize your post MBA career goals - these needs to be specific. E.g. Deloitte Strategy & Operations - Senior Consultant - New York.
Finalize your function and figure out your financial constraints. Did you reach out to Rice University ?

Excellent points. At Dartmouth I lived next door to the school and ate there.

They normally show fees by the year, but sometimes it is shown by the price per semester, or per credit. I also find it confusing. Sometimes there is a "cost of attendance" summary, which shows the sum of money international students will be required to show for visa purposes.

Shohrat,

Don't read too much into that - If Rice did not reply back, that's ok. Email them again after 1-2 weeks.

About tuition and fees. Just focus on the Tuition part of it for now. I will explain why. Tuition will be given either by semester, or by year, or by credit.

Schools list out other fees and expenses. While some fees are required such as graduation fees or student fees etc. These are less in amount like $500 or something - It can be ignored for now.
Schools also mention cost of living, books, misc expenses etc. This is where the difference comes in. International students don't spend as much on rent, food, books. We buy used books for graduating students. So it doesn't cost as much.

For Total = $60,000
Think like this, 24 months in US (21 months MBA + 3 months after your MBA for job search)
$1,000 per month is a good ballpark estimate.) so $1,000 x 24 = $24,000
Remaining is $36,000 or $18,000 per year or $9,000 per semester.

In addition there will be other expenses
1) $1,000 one way flight to US
2) $900 for a new laptop
3) $500 for security deposit in Verizon or AT&T for mobile, since you won't have a SSN when you land
4) $600 for flight + hotel for going to various career fairs like National Black MBA, National Hispanic MBA. These happen in September. So the moment you land in US, you go to these events to find internship / jobs.

For now, worry about just the Tuition fees.

As per W&M feel free to mention that you talked with me- Ayon De W&M MBA Class of 2015.
When you are 100% sure that you want to get down that path. Let me know, I'll write them a note.
https://mason.wm.edu/programs/full-time-mba/admissions/tuition/index.php

W&M's Out of State tuition $41,682 per year. International students pay Out-of tuition. But W&M provides scholarship based on merit, it may bring down your tuition expenses considerably.
W&M also provides a $300 travel stipend to attend NBMBA and NSHMBA events. in addition they provide $150 as technology stipend - I used it to convert to LinkedIn Premium account.

Regardless, mention to schools whom you talk to that you may join back your employer upon graduation.

Good luck!

Hi Shohrat,

You have multiple options.
1) You have time to give GMAT again because it's already May 2016, which means that Fall 2016 entry is closed for International students. Fall 2017 application goes online around End of july / early Aug with Round 1 deadline targeted at End of Sept / Early Oct.

So assuming you have written your essays, researched schools, taken TOEFL, made your resume etc. You have a good 3-4 months for 1 or 2 GMAT attempts.

2) If you sponsor agrees to cover your tuition cost, then you can easily buy a used car - let's say worth $5,000 from your savings. The time you save from commute can then be directed towards your office work.

3) Working part-time during 1st year of MBA is not advisable. 1st year MBA is intense. In addition to class room education, students are also involved in various groups and clubs. More over Part-time job is limited to 20 hours / week by USCIS. Usually students cannot work more than 10 hours / week because of work load. These jobs are paid hourly around minimum wages e.g. $10/hour. This money can pay your mobile and food bill but not cover tuition.

4) Scholarship, Admission, Graduate or Research Assistantship will depend and vary from school to school. It's difficult to forecast who will provide how much. However, go for a cheaper program like University of Pittsburgh - Katz. Most schools may provide some form of scholarship around let's say $10,000 ?

It won't cover everything. But if you can get your GMAT up let's say around 680 - then you become very competitive and may get good scholarship.

5) Try websites likes mpowerfinancing.com to avail loans upto $25,000 or any banks in Turkmenistan who provide educational loans.

Optimal solution is A) Give GMAT again to get it higher B) Convince your employer to pay for your tuition

Shohrat,

The best skill I learned from my MBA was time management. Maybe you should start managing your time starting today. :)
You don't need to exactly write your essays - since you don't know what the essay questions are (they vary from school to school). But you must have a rough draft. Following are pretty standard questions - they are asked in one form or another.
1) Why you want to do MBA at this point in your career?
2) What are your career goals, how can XXX MBA help you achieve those?

Write your CV, try to make it a 1 page CV.

I cannot comment if 2 months will be enough or not. Depends how much time you can spend daily? Convert everything into time based action items
like a) 2 hours for CV
then break it out into 30 mins Monday, 30 Tues, 30 Thu, 30 Friday.
Mon - Outline and structure
Tues - Bullet points
Thus - converting data into %, $ value
Fri - proof read, clean up, font resizing, print area resizing etc.

This is just an illustration.

Focus on your GMAT, what when wrong? verbal or Quant? For me, (and my wife and sister). We were able to improve our quant part significantly in 1-2 months. But all 3 of us hit a ceiling in verbal.

Don't spend too much time in going through multiple guides. Just stick to Manhattan.Key is time management, understanding applicability of concepts. Know what you can do, and what you cannot in a given amount of time.

For me, I knew I cannot get a better score in verbal so I was stuck at below 650 level. I took GMAT 4 times but decided that enough is enough - and I would run with what i have. Instead of perfecting my GMAT, I opted for doing PMP etc. to strengthen my profile.

Shohrat,

Simply type MBA resume on google search. There are tons of resume templates - most are by good universities.

Don't self doubt yourself my friend. In W&M there are many students who are 33-35. One guy had 3 kids and he had the 4th one while studying, We had many who were nearing 40 - they would drop their kids at school and then come to class. We also had several who were fresh out of undergrad. Age is just another number.

You won't find it difficult, the 25 year old will bring in fresh ideas and enthusiasm into your learning. I had more experience and that's why I got a position of Consultant rather than a Sr. Analyst.
During my MBA, I treat my mind as an empty cup eager to get it filled by the knowledge around me. Knowledge and skills know no age, gender, race, social or economical status. It doesn't matter from where I get my learning from - 25 or 45 year old. Enough Philosophy for one day ;)

No, definitely not too old to do an MBA. Some career fields and companies (MBB consulting firms, for example,) might be harder to get into if you're older, but it depends on what you want to do after graduation. I wouldn't even think you'd be the oldest student in the class, depending on what schools you are looking at.

What are your goals?

I think you are right to focus on the US schools. The two year format is ideal for the sort of senior role you are preparing for.

Price is better in terms of its ranking in Businessweek and it's great for energy / oil&gas careers. So is Bauer though.

In the end, I don't think Price's Businessweek position is really enough of the edge to say that it's that much better. They're both excellent choices.

Priviet Shohrat,

Congratulations on your admits! Finally your hard work paid off. I would go with Bauer.

Oklahoma is more visible in rankings, but I don't think the program offers any distinctive quantified advantage over Bauer. If nothing else, Bauer will give you the advantage of a big city which is the hub for Energy/Oil&Gas. You'll have more opportunities to network there.

Why don't you ask Price MBA what specific advantage do they provide over schools in Houston?

I can see that Bauer has a lot of certificate offerings in Energy, in addition there is an Energy MBA. Maybe that will suit your needs better? I'd vote for Bauer.