Raman cracks Tepper with a high GMAT and a low GPA

Raman came to us with just 2.5 years of work experience and a low GPA. While his GMAT score was high, 740, we knew the low GPA with the low work experience would create some roadblocks for him.

However, his diligence helped him create an amazing result and he cracked Tepper, a US top business school.

Here is his MBA application story.

Raman’s goals story

A goals story is the foundation of an application. It is the summary of why you took certain decisions in your career, be it your past, present, or future. Raman’s struggle with the goals story was to find the difference between relevant and irrelevant information from his professional life.

In his first draft of the goals story, Raman laid down every single detail of his career so far. His answer mostly consisted of his job description and then a few words on what his short-term goal was.

The goals story is a very detailed document consisting of the following things:

Past: Your career so far in brief.

AHA moments: moments in the past few months that made you realize you wanted to move on to a bigger role in an organization or move into a different function. Basically, it is the reason you’ve chosen your short-term goal.

Current Handicaps: Reasons why you can’t achieve your short-term goal without an MBA.

Short-term and Long-term goals: Finally, the goals story consists of the goals you have post-MBA.

None of the things mentioned above can be vague. Also, everything in your goals story needs to be authentic to you. For example, your short-term goal can’t be “consulting”. You need to portray a clear vision of the companies and types of responsibilities you will be associated with.

Raman’s struggle was that he did not understand how to research his target companies and the roles therein. In fact, like most applicants, he did not realize that he needed to carry out the aforementioned research.

Our solution was providing Raman with the consulting guide, directions for research on target companies and detailed critique of his existing goals document.

Raman’s essay analysis

Then came the essays. We wanted to use all the optional essays in Raman’s case. While some applicants can afford to not write optional essays, Raman had a roadblock that created the need for them.

Raman had a low GPA. Business schools allow applicants to explain any shortcomings in their application through an optional essay. The only problem we faced with Raman on the optional essay was that the tone seemed like a “sorry I have low grades”, whereas it should have been “Don’t worry about these low grades, multiple other things in my profile show my learning curve and I will be able to thrive in your MBA program”.

After running Raman through this approach, we were able to create great essays for his MBA apps.

Mostly we face a problem of delays in assignment submissions from applicants. Raman was different, he was quick in submitting the applications maybe because he feared we did not have enough time. However, quality is what matters the most when it comes to your MBA application.

while Raman wasn’t exactly lacking in quality, the rush could create unnecessary stress on an applicant. After being reassured that he wasn’t running out of time, Raman finally relaxed and paid more attention to the quality of his application rather than his speed.

The change in his approach to MBA applications is also a huge factor in his success in the same.

With the awesome application that he created, Raman was able to crack Tepper with just 2.5 years of work experience!