Fought the GMAT and the GMAT Won

Hi Vandygrad11,

First of all congrats for the great score. Yes a lot of people and even schools say a competitive GMAT score is with >= 80% percentile in both quant and verbal. However, 78% is really close to 80% (so your split will be considered good by the schools) and your overall score is also high, so there is no need to retake the GMAT. Gaining admission in top 5 or even top 10 schools is very subjective; you never clearly know on what basis they have rejected/ selected you (could be work-ex, extra curr, achievements, demographics etc. etc..). As far as the GMAT for the top schools is considered, the score is merely a qualifying number. If you are a top school material then you will gain admission even with a score below 700. You have a 730, which is even better. Your score is equal to the average GMAT score for Harvard and Stanford and above the average for almost all the other schools. I suggest that you now focus all your attention towards researching and writing essays; this will surely pay huge dividends. All the best..!!

Hope this helps,
Vercules