NYER wrote:
Hi All,
This is my first visit to the site, and I have to say I'm really impressed with how helpful and knowledgeable you all seem! I've been thinking about business school and I would appreciate a little bit of advice if you have time.
I am a law student at Columbia University, so if I get an MBA it will be through a joint program with the business school. I have been looking at the GMAT a little bit using a Kaplan GMAT book, and tonight I took the included hard copy practice exam and scored a 690. I saw that the range for CBS is about 660-760, with an average between 700 and 710. I know that for law school every LSAT point counts, and if you are even one point (which usually translates to literally one LSAT question wrong) below a school's median it significantly changes your odds of admission. Are business schools as hard edged about numbers as law schools, or is it more acceptable to just be "in the neighborhood" of the median? If a 690 isn't good enough, how much do I need to improve to be competitive? Are there any study materials that you recommend?
Also, I've heard rumors that standards are a bit different for joint degree applicants at a lot of schools. For example, they might overlook less work experience from law students as they tend to be younger than the average MBA candidate. Does anyone know if this is true?
I'm sorry for all the questions, but I am really new to this. Thanks in advance!
Welcome to GMAT Club NYER!
Bad News:1. Kaplan paper test does not really evaluate your performance accurately.
You will need to kill another 3 hours of your life on this. Please get GMATPrep - official GMAT evaluate test. It will give you a very accurate reading of your GMAT level.
2. GMAT is not as critical for Business Schools as LSAT for Law Schools. However, Columbia has been an exception to this rule for a while. I am not sure it has ended but a few years ago, they really wanted to see applicants with higher GMAT scores.
Good News:1. You are correct - you do have a good case being already a Law School student. What most do in that case, is stop by the admissions office at the Business School and have a friendly chat (since you are already a student in one of the schools) - often you can get a good evaluation of chances from the admissions person. They can't tell you things exactly for legal reasons, but can give hints how to strengthen your application and if it is worthwhile for you.
2. Most of the Law Students are able to ace the Verbal part on the GMAT, which means if you are not too rusty, you will be able to breeze through verbal and just need to spend a few weeks brushing your Quant to get a 710+ score.
Go ahead and take the GMATPrep and try to take it seriously so that your results would be representative from both effort and stress perspective.
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