johnnyx9 wrote:
I think in some senses, high stats CAN get you in.
I've read somewhere (don't recall, where, though) that your reasoning works for most schools but not for Ultra-Elites. The reasoning was that since Ultra-Elites get an enormous amount of applicants with high GMATs and/or high GPAs, they can pretty much choose the people they'd like to have since most of their applicants will have the high stats anyway.
On the other hand, I recall how pelihu was told by his interviewer that CBS (an ultra - elite) would value his high GMAT as it would help them offset lower GMATs from other admitted applicants.
Additionally, I've read about lots of people with high GMATs being offered full scholarships by lowered - clustered schools (Near Elites and beyond).
Furthermore, I've been told by people that my relatively high GMAT (at least high within my demographic group) may have helped me get a merit based partial scholarship at one Elite school.
I've also read recently on the transcript from the admissions chat with HBS adcom, that they really value verbal competency (due to case method). I reason they would probably place more value on GMAT verbal, essays and TOEFL (if applicable), and interview (if invited) than on the total score or the quant score.
To conclude, based on what I've read and/or guessed, I think that the lower clustered a school is, the more help you will get from a higher than average GMAT.
L.