So, 10th, 12th and grad marks are not up to scratch? And you are wondering if that means the end of the road for your MBA dream? Should you just give up your search for the best CAT Coaching? No!
Yes, the Top 4-IIMs (A, B, C, L) give some weightage to your past academic scores in their shortlisting criteria. Some other IIMs, such as IIM Shillong, and colleges such as the FMS also give importance to past academics. Generally, for these top few colleges the shortlisting criteria includes: Your CAT Score and Your past sins .. err .. academic performance.
But, here are a few things for you to take heart from:
One, so many excellent colleges (with average starting salaries comparable to or just a notch below the rich old killjoys mentioned above) are cool dudes who prefer to forgive and forget how badly you scored years ago in your 10th or 12th standard (when you didn’t even know what an MBA is, let alone that one day you will need to woo her). And for your ticket to a great career, any good B-School will be just fine.
This is me ranting: But for ****’s sake, why do these morons make you feel like a criminal for those innocent misses? Probably, just because they can. It has absolutely zilch to do with your ability to become the best manager, writer, speaker, or entrepreneur ever! Harsha Bhogle was rejected by IIM Calcutta once and he rubbed in it in his nice, gentlemanly way when he was invited for a session at IIM Calcutta a decade later.
This is what you should know:
These colleges would even otherwise need you to score a very high percentile to be shortlisted. Yes, even if you totally nailed it in your 10th, 12th and grad exams (and probably missed out on life during this golden, fleeting, adolescence age?) – you would still need a freakish 98-99%ile. Now, here’s the clincher – if you DO get that percentile, you would have enough other super colleges, who aren’t as fussy and will get along with you perfectly fine. Show me a 99%iler sitting at home, twiddling his thumbs, because of the above reason – and I will show you five, no make that 10, 98%ilers (with poor/average past academic show) who have made it to great B-Schools.
Still don’t believe me? Watch a 1-minute (short!) video of Mayank Gupta who was worried just like you, but made it to several top B-Schools including IIM Lucknow.
If your dream career needs or follows an MBA – don’t sweat over your past academic scores. They can’t stop you from realizing your dream. Believe in yourself and focus on ensuring your best CAT preparationbecause once you ensure a top percentile at CAT, a good B-School will be well within your grasp!
About the author: Deekshant has sleep-walked through several 100 and 99.9 %iles in practically every section of the CAT. That he is a cricket fan and he writes okay is evident from most of his posts. 1000s of our students swear that he can motivate almost anyone to double his/her percentile through very simple yet powerful inputs. And that’s why every MBAGuru student has direct access to him via mail and Telegram. Oddly, he somehow also finds the time to write songs professionally. And yes … almost missed this … he is an alumnus of IIT Delhi & IIM Cal 