sarastiles28 wrote:
I tried to improve my score on the GMAT three times - the first time, my score was OK (670) but I thought I could do better on the math part so I concentrated on that before trying again. The second time, I did fine on the math and then the language part suffered. I did a third GMAT but never got a better score than the original 670. So I went with that and realized that I should spend the rest of my time getting all the other things as right as possible. The GMAT's not the be-all and end-all - you can make yourself sound intelligent and try to be very convincing on the essays. But you have to cater to the strengths of each school. That's what took so much time for me. Research. But I ended up with a slightly different list of schools than I had when I started! Better for me. So I won't have a Harvard MBA - shoot me.
Yeah - I think you're being realistic, smart. You can only do your best, and if it's not good enough for HBS - so bloody what? How many people are going to get in to HBS? There are enough excellent schools out there to choose from and you can still aim high, only with better chances. I don't see it as a compromise at all - the good schools are all a real challenge to get in to.