I took my GMAT 2 weeks ago, scoring a 720 (Quant 42 (66%), Verbal 47 (99%)). Now that my excitement about getting a 700+ score has worn off, I am starting to freak out about my low quant score. I read a couple of threads here stating that unless an applicant has a balanced score with both quant and verbal above 80%, applying to schools with heavy emphasis on quant such as Wharton or Chicago is a waste of time. I wanted to hear the opinion of the “seniors” here already accepted to the top 20 b-schools.

A little about myself: I am a female who immigrated to the US in 2000. I started my education in Eastern Europe majoring in Linguistics but moved to the US after 1 year of college. I took classes in a city community college for 2 years, mostly gen-eds as I knew that I would transfer to the Big 10 school my junior year. I majored in Finance while at the university and graduated with the overall GPA of 3.9 out of 4.0. By the nature of my major, I obviously had to take Calculus and Statistics, and I got A’s in both classes. I got A’s in all of my Finance classes as well, including Options and Futures that was very quant-heavy. I’ve held various Finance positions after graduating from college: I worked in Equity Research, Tax Consulting, and Corporate Finance – all somewhat quantitative fields.

Now, I don’t know how to justify my low quant score in GMAT. I don’t want to sound defensive and say that if I had more time, I’d solve it all because other people manage to get the questions right with the same time constraint. Somehow, GMAT quant and the time given to do the questions just never clicked with me. My question is, given my background and work experience, will the admission committee still consider my application weak because of my low quant score? My intention is to concentrate in General Management and/or Marketing the second year of my MBA, so I am not one of the IB and Consulting track applicants.

Thanks for your inputs!

aviroop,

Thanks for your reply. The example that you provided definitely shows that I might be competitive at schools with the quant emphasis after all.
I am not planning to retake the GMAT. Oh, I am SO done with that test!!!
I just want to get opinions from GMATclubbers on the "balanced" score issue among the quant-oriented schools, such as Wharton and Chicago. I am trying to narrow down the list of schools I want to apply to, and if I have little chance in getting into Chicago for example, I'd rather direct my efforts to other MBA programs.

I honestly don't think you have to address it at all. Its a great score, you have the grades and classes to back it up.

Not everyone can be an engineer with a super computer for a brain. Someone has to talk for them

Thanks, guys, for your replies.
I'm still on the edge though... so many schools, so little time to choose!

I haven't even done that and have no clue how I am going to begin doing that. Coming from a tiny college very very few alums go to any MBA schools let alone the top schools I am aiming at. I had one prof who has a GSB MBA from 1985...and no one I work with has MBAs aside from local part time programs.

As for the quant score question...you aced tough math courses. Make a little statement in the optional essay saying you dont feel the GMAT really reflects your true quant ability and the point out your grades in the high level math. Its not worth the effort of restudying when you should be working on essays.