Hi Guys,

Gave the GMAT second time a few days back. The first time i scored 660. My target schools are Emory University (USA), Nanyang, NUS (Singapore) ,and SDA Bocconi (Italy). Let me share my background with you guys so that you have a better understanding and can can advise me well. I am from Pakistan. Did my bachelors in Engineering from the best college of the country but with a very low GPA:2.01(It is not that i was not good at studies, I was simply not interested in good grades at that time, my target back then was always to just get passing grades, I stood 45th in the entrance exam out of many thousand students, i had always been an intelligent student during my school days but never a hard working one) but i was involved in many extra curricular activities (Set up my college's adventure club and was responsible for all its activities in the last 2 years of college, was the cricket team captan both in college and in school). I have a good work experience (4 years in the largest mobile network operating comapny of the country with 1 year as a team lead and the last 6 months as the acting manager, 8 months in Malaysia as Team lead for a 3g Network deployment project for a leading Mobile operating comapny in the country). As i had a significantly low GPA i wanted to improve my GMAT score so that it could offset the GPA. I did extensie preperation and was scoring good on the mock tests. Never scored less than 740 on the GMAT prep exams. But on the test day i was suffering from fever, had a high headache and shivering from cold throughout the test. I wasn't even able to compelete both sections; nevertheless i opted to report the score and when it was reported it was like the roof of the world has fallen upon my head, 590 it was and i had also sent it to my target schools. Now i am left with very little time as i have not worked on my applications and faced with the dilema of giving the test one more time. Please advise as in how much the very low score of the second time will affect my admission chances keeping my target schools in mind and wether shall i give the GMAT another try or move on with my application process. Please help out guys as i am stuck in a difficult situation. Hope to hear from you guys soon.

Rgds,

hi.. why are you targeting SDA?

Babar, I don't think you should worry - and long as you take the preparation for the next test seriously, and remember to prepare both mind and body. After you send your new score to the schools, then sent a follow-up note to explain what happened.

By the way I was on the Emory campus a little while ago: it's very lovely there.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Maubia i am targeting Bocconi for many reasons. Italy is one of my dream coountries around the world. It is the best university of the country and i think if i graduate with good grades from SDA it will definetly help me to get settled in Italy. Its one year MBA program is also what inclines me towards it; i have served in a job market which is very demanding and in which you have to be on your toes throughout the year (When i joined the project in malaysia it was way behind its schedule and the company was enduring huge losses because of miss management and hap hazard work flow proccesses, everything was done on day to day basis and the records kept were so in complete that they were of no use. in the role of team lead i had to re-structure the whole work flow proccess, can you believe it i didn't take a holiday in the first three months since i joined: not even on weekends, and the only breaks i took were either for sleep or for food thats it. but when we came back on track after the three months target the experience was very fullfilling). So i am used to long hours of work on regular basis, infact i relish such enviroment. I have also managed a team of RF Engineers for six months in the largest telecom operator comapny of the country, although i was very young for the role but my national manager had faith in my managerial and technical abilities and the company didn't hire a manager for the department till the time i was serving in the role.(RF Optimization is the toughest department to work in - in Telecommunications Technical departments; it tests both your cognitive abilities and physical endurance.) and we as a team acheived some great results, so i think my profile fits the one for SDA and i think i have good chances of success in admission. I didn't go for the very top schools like INSEAD and LBS because i have a very poor undergrad GPA (Although i have always been involved in extra curricular activities both in Student life and in Job life) and i think it will affect my chances of success and because i have limited international experience(only 8 months). If you have any insights about the SDA program please do share it with me, it will help me alot. Also if you have any advice regarding the admission process keeping in view my profile, i will be very grateful(Disscussed it in quiet a detail, sorry to bother you to read so much but wanted you to have a complete picture :S). I am from Pakistan which does not have a very good image around the globe, and i think i will be compared to applicants from India, do you have any idea how much will it affect my admission success.

Take Care and Regards,

P.S Please also let me know of your background so that i can converse with you better. Thanks once again

Hi Duncan,
Emory is one of my ideal schools. My whole family is settled in Atlanta, infact my Aunt serves as an Assitant professor in the Medical College of Emory, so Atlanta is like a home out of home for me. My Undergrad GPA is what is giving me nightmares. Emory is a top school so i hope i can offset the undergrad GPA with a high score on the GMAT the next time. One more thing i couldn't complete both the sections of the test,i am not worried abt the quant portion as i am strong in it but i left one question unanswered on the verbal and i have no idea how much did it affect my score and i am not able to estimate how did i perform on the verbal. Can you please give me any idea as in how much an unanswered question affects your score on the verbal portion.

Rgds,

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Maubia i am targeting Bocconi for many reasons. Italy is one of my dream coountries around the world. It is the best university of the country and i think if i graduate with good grades from SDA it will definetly help me to get settled in Italy. Its one year MBA program is also what inclines me towards it; i have served in a job market which is very demanding and in which you have to be on your toes throughout the year (When i joined the project in malaysia it was way behind its schedule and the company was enduring huge losses because of miss management and hap hazard work flow proccesses, everything was done on day to day basis and the records kept were so in complete that they were of no use. in the role of team lead i had to re-structure the whole work flow proccess, can you believe it i didn't take a holiday in the first three months since i joined: not even on weekends, and the only breaks i took were either for sleep or for food thats it. but when we came back on track after the three months target the experience was very fullfilling). So i am used to long hours of work on regular basis, infact i relish such enviroment. I have also managed a team of RF Engineers for six months in the largest telecom operator comapny of the country, although i was very young for the role but my national manager had faith in my managerial and technical abilities and the company didn't hire a manager for the department till the time i was serving in the role.(RF Optimization is the toughest department to work in - in Telecommunications Technical departments; it tests both your cognitive abilities and physical endurance.) and we as a team acheived some great results, so i think my profile fits the one for SDA and i think i have good chances of success in admission. I didn't go for the very top schools like INSEAD and LBS because i have a very poor undergrad GPA (Although i have always been involved in extra curricular activities both in Student life and in Job life) and i think it will affect my chances of success and because i have limited international experience(only 8 months). If you have any insights about the SDA program please do share it with me, it will help me alot. Also if you have any advice regarding the admission process keeping in view my profile, i will be very grateful(Disscussed it in quiet a detail, sorry to bother you to read so much but wanted you to have a complete picture :S). I am from Pakistan which does not have a very good image around the globe, and i think i will be compared to applicants from India, do you have any idea how much will it affect my admission success.

Take Care and Regards,

P.S Please also let me know of your background so that i can converse with you better. Thanks once again

Hi Maubia,Thanks alot for such a comprehensive insight of Italy.
Your Post made me think alot. Italy was and is still a dream location for me. Everything about Italy fascinates me and i will still give it a chance to pursue my dream of settling there. I will come thoroughly prepared. My Father loves to travel and has been to many places around the globe. He was also very impressed with Italy, what he told me, and some of what i didn't know before also motivated me a lot. He stayed there for three months and according to him he found the people very nice, the country enchanting, the culture rich, the food lovely, and almost no racism issues which he thinks the rest of the Europe is filled of, except for scandinavia.

I think that if you learn the language of any place, the natives tends to accept you much readily than if you not and i plan to do that before coming to Italy, btw Bocconi also offers an Italian Language course before the commencement of the MBA. Also i am a very confident person and have a lot of faith in my abilities. I think i will be in the upper lot of Bocconi graduates and may be it will help me find a better job in Italy.If the organizations accept non natives. If i can show that i am a capable person then i think i can compete with the non-Italian Whites for a Job, what do you say. I will give the Bocconi admission a try and if admitted i will re-assess the situation. Thanks a lot once again for the detailed insight.


Btw you are from Italy and will have a much higher success chance of admission in SDA, why are you not targeting SDA, Please do let me know. It will also help to broaden my understanding.


Rgds

look at the past alumni comments.. you might find something interesting

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/full_time_mba_profiles/bocconi.html


Why I'm not applying to SDA?
well...
1) Lots of italians apply, places are limited and so it's hard to beat the competition (consider that i'm over the average SDA students age)
2) Italy is a bad economy and nobody cares to invest here... foreign companies prefer to stay away, ecc
3) here technical roles are not well paid ... and in general, you must not expect great salaries or great opportunities
4) Actually I'd like to have an experience abroad