I've lurked around the boards for the better part of 5 months. First off, I would like to thank everyone for posting their stories as well as their tips.

I recently sat for the GMAT for a second time. My first time I scored a 620. I don't have the breakdown on hand, but my verbal was in the low 80th percentiles (81 maybe), and my Quant was in the low to mid 50's percentile, and an AWA score of 6.0. My second outing was atrocious, I scored a 570. I do not want to make excuses, but they tested a fire alarm, and it totally messed me up during the quant section. I should have canceled the score. I know that my performances are not representative of my intellect. On GMAT prep I scored as high as a 690 with a slight imbalance on the verbal side. I put a great deal of time and effort into this GMAT exercise, and am quite frustrated. I went straight into studying for the GMAT after I sat for the CFA Level I. I am pretty sure that I am burnt out, but definitely have it in me to get my desired score.

My question now is what do I do? Do I submit the 620 and essays and hope for the best? Will schools accept GMAT that are taken after the deadline (assuming that I sit again). Wait for round 3?

I suppose that some more information is needed in order to evaluate my chances.

25 M
4 years work experience as a risk analyst (prime brokerage)
Sub 3.0 GPA at a good NYC private university
Division 1 Football Player
Staff Writer for the student run newspaper
African American (not sure how this factors in)
Bilingual-English and French

Prior to my debacle, I targeted; Columbia, Wharton (hail mary), Booth( another hail mary), NYU (consortium), Yale (Consortium), and Darden (Consortium). Although, I suppose any MBA program is a hail mary now.

My goal is to transition from the brokerage side into IB.

Any feedback (positive or negative) is well appreciated..

SC,

The first thing you should do is try to get some solid numbers regarding the requirements for African-American admittance. I know relatively little about business school admission tendencies, but I attended law school and teach the LSAT and, as a result, I needed to familiarize myself with how different demographic groups were viewed by admissions committees.

When it comes to law school, being an African American is a massive plus. A famous legal case challenging affirmative action in law school admissions, Grutter v. Bollinger, introduced numbers that the average GPA and LSAT of African American admittants to the University of Michigan law school was .5 and 12 points lower, respectively, than that of white addmitants. For an average student, .5 GPA points and 12 LSAT points is the difference between getting into Harvard and not getting into any of the top 25 law schools.

I don't want to rile up internet trolls, but, like I tell my students, it is essential you recognize your particular admission situation.

This is all a roundabout way of saying that 620 may be sufficient for some top business schools. Please be sure to ask people intimately familiar with the admission situation about your profile. US News and World Report is probably an invalid indicator for you.

Best of luck.

SC Booth,

Where'd you end up? As another AA male I was in a somewhat similar situation. I got a 660 with the 83rd percentile overall after getting 680 and 690 on practice tests. But as I hear, there are usually less than 100 blacks in the whole country who score better than a 700 on the actual exam in a given year. And I don't know everyone's score but I've met two people at HBS who didn't cross the 700 mark. Given that the average was a 425 for blacks and 100 points is roughly a standard deviation on the GMAT, you're essentially two standard deviations above the mean. You have at least a chance at several top schools.

BHY, what football stereotype are you talking about? If he's done well on the CFA then he can do the B-school math. Nothing in b-school is as tricky as the GMAT math.
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He that is in me > he that is in the world. - source 1 John 4:4

Your Dream Theater,

Are you sure about that? There's a pretty big advantage even at the top schools. Have you ever heard of the Consortium fellowships? Several blacks get full rides to a number of top schools. Honestly, I think the boost for blacks targeting MBA programs is greater than that for law schools. Could you expound on what you mean?
_________________

He that is in me > he that is in the world. - source 1 John 4:4

Wow - testing a fire alarm system is definitely not cool. You can reach out to GMAC and if anything, try to get a free retake - they often provide a gmat voucher/coupon for you to do that.

Also, take a look at this thread: should-i-retake-gmat-thread-retaking-gmat-strategies-83339.html

Based on your stats/practice tests, you should have done better. Not everyone improves the second time, but very few slide 50 points. I would include that argument with a note to GMAC for a free retake.

620 for the schools you outlined is a bit weak (though not impossible).

Final question, what materials did you use for your prep?
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Maybe you should have applied to Darden and Cornell too.
_________________

He that is in me > he that is in the world. - source 1 John 4:4

The problem could be your goals. First, breaking into IB is tough. Second, it's even harder with a GMAT below 700. It's possible adcoms feel that your goals are not achievable.

Additionally, you will need solid leadership experience. I'm not saying you don't have that, I'm going by what you wrote.