Hello Shohrat,

Did you yourself convert your GPA into US scale or used any agency like WES, ECE etc. to do so? If you did it yourself, then maybe try getting it converted from ECE.

However, some B schools do not require GPA conversion for international students. No school asked me for US scale GPA when I applied back in 2012. However, for MS programs they require US scale GPA.

I think you bring good diverse experience. In my opinion MBA admissions teams do not see many applications from Turkmenistan. So play your diversity card right. Also try and improve your GMAT score by focusing on your quant at least.

As per schools. Rice University is known for Energy/Oil. UT Austin, Texas A&M, UT Dallas, SMU Cox and Texas A&M are good schools (In no particular order, but UT Austin is the best in Texas and highly ranked).

Hope it helps,
Good Luck!
Ayon
(P.S - I designed a part of the mobile network for Altyn Asyr (TM Cell) back in 2012)

Yes, it might possibly be a mis-conversion. A 1.7 GPA in the US is in the C- range, very close to a failure grade. However, some universities in other countries grade students relative to each other, rather than in terms of absolute grades. If that's the case with your school, comparing your GPA to the GPA from somebody at a US school would be like comparing apples to oranges.

If you did poorly in your undergrad, that might be a problem but it really depends on how poorly you actually did.

However, Ayon's right, perhaps you don't even need to convert your grade. Admissions commissions are (hopefully) smart enough to figure out that grades from a Chinese school are different from grades at other universities. You should ask the schools you want to apply to. Barring that, you can give them other information about your undergraduate performance: class rank would be helpful, for instance.

Shohrat :)

I (my wife and sister) used (using) Manhattan GMAT courses. I find their books to be very useful. With the purchase of their books you also get access to their online practice material. Once you study their 9 books or so, and do their online test, you can buy Official Guide, Verbal and Quant practice from MBA.com

MBA.com also provides two tests, that closely resembles the real GMAT. Take the first test before you begin your studies of Manhattan GMAT, take the second test after you are done with all your prep.

Good luck!
Disclaimer: I have taken GMAT four times. My first score was 600 without any preparation, even after several preparations my score was 610, 630 and 630 in four years. I hope your luck is better.