490 total on GMAT, 6.0 AWA, 3 years work experience

I'm literally sitting in Blue Grass Airport (Lexington, KY) right now... odd. Neither of those programs' admissions stats would lead me to believe a 480 would not throw up red flags in the eyes of the adcoms. Hopefully you have time for a retake. Lots of experience and advise on retaking the GMAT on this forum.

Here is my 2 cents:

You have to retake the GMAT, and make a significant improvement. Why? B/C these are the class profiles for the two schools you are interested in:

Iowa: https://tippie.uiowa.edu/fulltimemba/adm ... ofiles.cfm
Kentucky: (See FAQ) https://gatton.uky.edu/MBA/Content.asp?PageName=MBAFAQs

Now for Iowa the average GMAT is above 680, and for Kentucky the average is above 600. At 490, You are well outside what 80% range for Iowa, and I'd assume the same for Kentucky. With that score, it is quite possible that they won't even look at the rest of your application. I had to give you this bad news, but if you are serious about an MBA, a 490 will probably not cut it, even for these schools. Out of the two schools, you would have a much better chance at kentucky with your current score.

Now, I see that you got a 6.0 on AWA, but not to burst your bubble or anything, but this score really means nothing. NOt to mention that the GMAC will be dropping half of the AWA as of June b/c the score really was beginning to mean nothing.

So in conclusion, you really should consider a retake with signficantly more study time to improve your score into a reasonable range. GMAT Club is here to help you, and there are many many success stories of people dramatically increasing their score! Good luck, and let us know how we can help.