640/3.3/4 years WE/Peace Corps -->Please advise
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16 Dec 2010, 20:29
As you can see, this is my first post on the forum, and I'm putting a huge amount of information out there. I am hoping you guys can give me some good feedback here. Basically, I am trying to figure out a game plan, both for the GMAT and for selecting schools. Here's my rundown: I have a 3.3 from a top 25 private university with a hard science major and a business minor. I did a a business consulting program for the Peace Corps for 2 years and 3 months, and have worked in microfinance for the year and a half since. I plan on continuing to work in microfinance. I am not interested in working for a corporation. I am interested in getting a good business education that will help me with my goal of starting my own company, with the aim of incorporating socially-conscious, sustainable elements (see TOMS), and/or working with companies and non-profits that share my focus on sustainable development and environmental stewardship.
OK, nuts and bolts: I took the GMAT and, after getting 680-720 on most of my practice tests, I got a 640. Bummer. What's more is it was incredibly lopsided: an extremely high verbal and an extremely low quantitative. I imagine that doesn't help.
Basically, how high do I need to get my GMAT to be competitive at the following schools, given my background? Are these good schools to be considering given my goals? Are there other schools that would better suit me (focus on entrepreneurship, environmental stuff, sustainable development...)? It should also be noted that I want to live in an interesting city, or at least relatively close, like Charlottesville to DC. Also, I'd like to live in the Pacific Northwest, northern California, or East Coast, but would be open to living and working abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. Do foreign MBAs carry back to the US very well? Also, should I wait until next year to apply at this point? Also, I'm from Maryland if that helps at all.
The list: Berkeley (far and away my first choice), Michigan, Virginia, NYU, Texas, Georgetown, UWashington, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Babson, ESADE (in Barcelona, Spain), IESE, Copenhagen Business School, McGill
Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate it.