The perennial question which applicants try to address every year is how their profiles are viewed by admissions committee at different business schools. An admission in coveted business school is path to better future opportunities for most of the aspirants and GPA and GMAT score form an important element of the application. As a professional full stack GMAT consultancy firm, we at Careercarta try to answer this question based on data points we have seen over the years.

One of the most important advice we offer our aspirants every year is not all GPAs are equal. They are not supposed to be if you think about it. There is absolutely no way GPA for an engineering graduate can be compared to English honors graduate. Even engineering graduate across different colleges will have different scoring standards. Some university are considered to be lenient while others may be tough graders. To counter this, universities use curve grading system to better fit GPAs across different majors. But there is a good news as well. GPA alone would never be a deciding factor. This certainly doesn’t mean that a low GPA won’t need justification in the application. It is important to address the same in some part of the application.

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On the other hand, GMAT serves as a standardized score for all applicants. As such it is the only part of the application which can be used to compare incoming pool of applicants directly. What applicants also need to keep in mind is the purpose of the exam. The exam is designed in a way to help assess an aspirant’s ability to cope up with rigors of the MBA course academically.

Below we have put together some points based on our data of couple of years busting some of the myth that are way too prevalent:

• A high GPA combined with high GMAT is not a sure shot way to get an admission. While it certainly boosts the application, we have also seen cases where students were unable to get admit even after stellar GMAT and GPA. A finance major background student with a 780 GMAT score didn’t even get a call for interview from a school best known for its Finance major.
• Difference is key in application as admission committee is looking for diversity in class. So sometimes having a good brand in undergraduate combined with work experience from a globally reputed brand might not suffice as the applicant pool consists of lot of people of similar background.
• For diversity in profile it is important to showcase highlight of your personality which is different from your work profile. Community work or involvement in hobby always helps your application to outscore others.
• Most important point about application is admission committee trying to know you as a person and therefore your essays provide them window to peek through your life. Compelling essay forms the backbone of the application and aspirants need to make sure that they are able to highlight traits of their personality correctly.

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Our industry leading experts share a common belief that MBA application is a hurdle race where every barrier can hamper the race and only way to win is to win them all. You can also read our blog on what business schools look for in an application here or view our topper talk series here. You can also write to us to get more information on how we managed 90% acceptance rate for Fall 2020 starting class at www.careercarta.com and book your free profile evaluation as well.