A lot of people around me (including me) have been having problems, judging the dimensions of an MBA Application process, may it be the GMAT, the academic record, work exp, interviews or essays.

One thing that I have realized in the past month (hopefully it is right) is that GMAT is just yet another component in the application process. It is used to assess your academic abilities to project how you will fare in the MBA crunch. It can very well pad you if your undergraduate GPA is low, but the reverse is also true.

I know a lot of people here in India, who have scored in the early 700’s like me and are planning to retake the GMAT. I see an obsession to cross the 750 mark (all the best). I too had such thoughts, but now I have decided that I would much rather put that energy into the rest of my application process.

What is more important is how you weave your story. Even schools like Wharton & Stanford have given admissions to people with scores in the 600s. What is important is how you weave your story around your credentials and make the most of it. GMAT is just one part of the whole picture.

But, one thing that I have had a problem analyzing is how each component fits into the whole application story. Thanks to the MBATour guys for clearing it out for me. They had this excellent table that demystified things to a great extent.

Also read this awesome article (you will have to register though, but its free) that delineates various aspects of the application. Very neat…