Low GMAT score? Here's Our Advice
Updated: Mar 13
Happy New Year! We wish you a prosperous & delightful new year and hope that you realize your dream of pursuing higher education, either in India or abroad. Regardless of where you decide to study (aka at a Tier-1 institution in India or in the world), Faith Career would be glad to help you. In this blog post, our Co-founder and Study Abroad Expert, Tanmay Singh, is debunking a popular myth so that MBA, MIM, and graduate program (M.Sc., MFin, MBAn) aspirants can feel more confident about their candidature.
๐๐ผ๐ปโ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ผ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ ๐ถ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ปโ๐ ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐น ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ถ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐น๐ผ๐.
Let us explain. Since September 2015, we have been helping students to study at top-notch academic institutions in India and abroad. In these 7+ years, we have spoken with thousands of aspirants. One of the reasons why aspirants donโt feel confident about their candidature is because they think that a low or average GMAT score would hamper their chances of receiving an offer letter.
We want to put an end to this debate for once and all. Have a look at the below screenshot which is from Harvard Business Schoolโs webpage displaying Class of 2024โs profile.
What can you observe? Yes, youโre right. There are students who scored 540/800 in the GMAT and are sitting in that prestigious classroom.
โก๏ธ The discipline of Statistics tells us that causation is not equal to correlation. Thus, hereโs the deal.
โ A strong GMAT score (720+) alone will NOT guarantee that you will receive an admit to pursue a top-notch MBA program.
Similarly, your chances of getting into a renowned school arenโt tanked just because you scored a 550.
๐ค But why is that so? This is because the admissions committee ๐๐ข๐๐๐ฆ๐ง๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ evaluates your application. This means that EACH aspect of your application contributes to the adcomโs decision of giving you an offer letter (or not).
If youโve scored 760 in the GMAT but ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏโ๐ต presented yourself well via the four โhumanโ parts of your application (essays, recommendation letters, CV, and live/recorded interviews), then be assured that youโre not going to receive a favourable decision from your target school. Polish the 4 human elements of your profile as much as you can, instead of paying excessive attention to (and worrying too much about the) GMAT since it is only one data point in your application and doesn't tell the adcom much about your predicted success in graduate school (MBA, MIM, MFin, M.Sc., etc.). You and your lived experiences are so much more than just one factual part of your application. Dig deeper and introspect to clearly think about them and produce them on paper.
It is always ๐๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐ด๐น๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ that you work with an experienced expert to refine (to the extend that you can) those 4 parts of your application.