690 to Wharton

Question

Just wanted to share yet another story - this time of a student who got a 690 (Q48, V35) and made it to Wharton Business School at UPenn. She's excited about all the orientation going on and looks forward to the upcoming school year!

https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-prep-about ... -gmat-690/

aalba005 · Answer

Good stuff! I currently also have a 690 score but I will be retaking the test before I apply in Oct 2013, not as confident to go for it with a 690

budablasta · Answer

It's certainly a great achievement and congratulations to the guy who got in. I am just a little wary though. If anybody from GMAT Pill is here and listening, you guys seem to be overdoing it a little bit. You need to be more subtle. I remember a month or so ago we had this guy who got, like, what?, a 780?, yeah he got a 780 and he claimed he did it in record time, I don't remember how many days or weeks, and he apparently owed it all to GMAT Pill. Sure as hell, members on this forum really ganged up against him because that's too outrageous a claim. So, I don't know if you have a PR machinery going here - which is fine by the way - but you need to insert yourself into success stories in a far more subtle way. And seriously, reduce the size of your logo/ banner and do you really need that girl in every one of your banners? Just gets the subtlety out the window, that's all.

novanative · Answer

I agree with you 100%.

Congrats to the GMAT Pill customer who got into Wharton, first off! It takes some special folks to get into a school like that.

However, bottom line is that she had a GMAT close to the 10th percentile of students (and almost surely below that 25th percentile) in the incoming class (and likely lower than 10th percentile of admits). US News has the latest 10th-90th GMAT breakdown at 680-760 and Businessweek has 720 as the median score. She likely had an undergraduate GPA above the average of 3.56 and other professional accomplishments that canceled out a bad GMAT score for Wharton's recent standards. (because a 690 is a hell of a score in reality).

The vast majority of people who apply to Wharton with a score below 700 beyond applications that are just a notch above nearly all applicants in other areas (GPA and professional accomplishments) are going to be rejected. I'm 99.999% sure Wharton's adcom would reject me for GMAT alone though I wasn't going for a top full time program.

I'm not trying to discourage people from applying to schools with a below median GMAT, but if your score is below the median, your college GPA should compensate for that and be above the median. There is a reason why so many of the lower GPA folks (especially those below 3.0) here are so obsessive about getting an above average score. They need a higher GMAT to compensate for that negative mark.

AK_X3 · Answer

Did the student specify their career aspirations? I would have split feelings depending on if they are returning to a past employer or wanting to move onto an investment banking or consulting firm.

It seems that those industries put a lot of value on GMAT Scores (700, 710+) even from an excellent school such as Wharton. It will bring even more attention when that student is being compared immediately to other excellent candidates from Wharton with a higher school and everyone else has a higher score. I would not envy their position once recruiting begins.

If I was friends with this student I would absolutely advise them to try to retake. I'd hate for an industry to be cut off to them because of their GMAT score. Especially when they currently have the time to improve this part of their resume before school even starts.

GMATPill · Answer

Interesting discussion. A few points of clarification...

1) So the student happens to be a girl - not a guy.  She did not use our Quant Pill - but did use the Verbal Pill package. She had only 2 weeks to use the verbal pill before her actual GMAT.

In her email she wrote: "My verbal score has improved from 30 to 35 in 2 weeks. Thanks a lot to your videos. They are very helpful."

She does feel she could have improved even more with a retake and some more time--and she was seriously considering a retake. But given the good results - I think she's fine and advised her so.

2) While it is true that management consulting firms do like people with high GMAT scores, they certainly do not specifically ask for your GMAT score during the recruiting process.  If you'd like you can volunteer your score and list it on your resume. In fact, if you have a good score, you should list it there.

As a former management consultant and alum of Booz & Company, I can tell you that the company does not require you to display your score during the recruiting process.

The student here currently works for a top bulge bracket investment bank. As such, I would suspect the student would have no problem re-entering the industry (without any GMAT score scrutiny) if she chooses so.

3) I can also tell you that Wharton has a "don't ask / don't tell" theme.  Students generally don't volunteer their GPA/GMAT scores to employers. There may be a few exceptions here and there, but that's generally the student body reaction when you ask them about revealing scores/grades to employers.

4) Lastly, AK_X3--- you wrote: "If I was friends with this student"

Make sure you know the phrase should be written as the following for purposes of the GMAT:

"If I WERE friends with this student..."

Hope that clears things up.

Oh yes, regarding the 780 guy Kelvin - we certainly did not expect him to make the claims about the amount of time he had left, etc -  but hey, we are not going to cover up what he actually said.  It's a true story and not the only one. His story is simply an extreme data point that helps illustrate the scope/range of the kinds of students we have helped.

Focus on your studies!

Grad · Answer

690 is a decent score. 
Here is the story about applicant who got into Stanford with the score of 660.
w w w. businessweek.c om/bschools/mbajournal/02waller/1.h t m

AbhiJ · Answer

If GMAT Pill was an admissions consulting firm, this post would have made more sense.

ruthevans41 · Answer

It’s not because she was girl she got an admission at Wharton Business School, there are many girls in the same queue but no admission. But you can say it’s a bit of luck factor that all things went positively and she had her seat reserved at Wharton. Good luck for the candidate and GMATPill team.

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690 to Wharton

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