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Hi, I am a working professional in the Indian IT industry. Having completed my education (bachelor's and master's degree) from India, I am planning to pursue PhD in Marketing (Consumer Behaviour track) from the US . GRE score : 326 (Q166, V160) in the first attempt, expecting ~330 (Q168+, V163) in the second attempt Undergrad: B.E. (Electronics and communication) from an not so known Indian University Scored 73%, equivalent to a 4.0 GPA as per the GPA calculator Masters degree: M.B.A. in Marketing, From Symbisis International University, India CGPA 2.6/4, (seems appalling but Indian GPA systems are a bit different, was still in the top 30% , also the highest GPA ever achieved by anyone in the univ is 3.3) Work Experience: 6+ years in product management, user experience and marketing strategy for mobile apps and SaaS based products. Have worked in small to mid level technology start-ups, where my role has had a direct say in product/market strategy. Was granted ESoPs by one of the start-ups as well. Have analysed live user data of over 80 million users over a period of 2 years, hence have a very empirical understanding of different aspects of consumer behaviour, especially in the digital marketing environment. Research experience (while pursuing MBA) Market research projects for 2 start-ups Dissertation: Factors influencing churn and user retention for the telecom market in India Industrial research :Social vs operational factors, which ones being the most influential in making users switch to another telecom service Industrial research: Effect of six-sigma process implementation (by telecom companies) in reducing the customer churn Reason to pursue PhD: Several realizations while working in the tech sector for over 6 years. One of them being that there are no or very few standard models available for the tech- businesses to assess consumer behaviour. Also given that data analysis has always been my forte, I want to pursue something intensive, and something that can be standardized for a long term use. Applying to : 12-14 B-schools(US), spread across evenly but all within the top 30 Dream schools: Kellogg, Duke Fuqua, Columbia, USC Marshall, UT McCombs I have a few questions regarding my profile for which I am seeking inputs: 1) Would my MBA CGPA negatively affect my chances? Should I mention in my SoP that the university just had a mandate that only 1-2% students could score above 3.0? Or rather than blaming the univ, I should justify it in terms of having a different focus back then (4 years ago), which was to be honest getting as much of industry experience as possible. 2) My letters of recommendation: The one from my employer might be more stellar than the ones from my professor as my employer would be able to give an account of more recent account of my quantitative skills. Will this even matter to the admissions committee though (as it is a given that they prefer letters from academicians) ? 3) No published papers at all. Not sure the extent to which this can affect my chances. 4) No academic research experience, the only experience I have is of industrial research Any sort of feedback regarding this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks