Six GMAT Exams & Nine Dings Later, An Admit From A Dream B-School 

It took six tries on the GMAT exam and nine dings from prominent business schools but Sharan Godya never gave up. Now he’ll be going to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management this fall

March 28th was a day I will always remember. After having taken the GMAT a half dozen times and feeling the sting of rejection from nine different schools, from INSEAD and London Business School to Columbia Business School and NYU Stern, it was the day I would hear from one of the schools at the very top of my target list: Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Weeks before this date, my doubts increased. I wondered if that hard-fought 720 on the GMAT was enough to put me over. I wondered if I would have to start all over again, waiting yet another year to apply to a new round of MBA programs. I wondered if my consultant was right, that I should have applied to a group of “safety” schools.

I knew that Kellogg would call accepted applicants, and I imagined the moment that I would be on the phone with someone from the admissions office. I was on a work call in India around 8:40 p.m. when I saw an unidentified number with the +1 code come up. My phone let me know the phone number was in Evanston, Illinois.

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