Am I selling myself short?

GMAT is important for a number of reasons:
1) US School rankings depend on it (the higher the average GMAT score of the incoming class, the better ranked the school is)
2) It is an indicator of academic success while in the program and an easy numerical way to filter/sort applicants

I neglected to consider that you took the GRE - that's a great move! GRE is not considered in the #1 above, so that removes any issues/considerations about GRE impact on the rankings.

P.S. It is not insurmountable to get an 80th or 90th percentile on the GMAT. Esp for someone with your level of accomplishments. As you will see all top 10 schools have GMAT above 700 and most above 720. Ideally you would get at least 700 so that you don't raise any red flags.

BB

I am in the process of applying to business schools (see my profile stats) and I have been fortunate to have already been admitted to one. I've also been given a very generous scholarship. From the time I applied to the time I was offered a place was about 14 days.

In terms of my profile, it's fairly good. I won't go into much detail, but graduate of top UK university with high GPA, postgrad from top Belgian university, good extra curricular including officer in the British Army, tri-national (UK, Canada, Ireland), foreign language (Russian).

My work exp is British govt, lobbying firms, comms consultant (3yrs overall).

I've lived in four countries and currently live in the Middle East. Been to around 40, but tbh not sure. Quite a lot. It's part of the reason I'm so poor... I keep going travelling.

I've advised government ministers, worked - not necessarily directly - with heads of state (including the current President of 'Murica) and work regularly with c-suite. My management exp is decent. Mostly project management stuff, but some line management work.

Put simply, I have no issue getting jobs in the top companies in my current industry, but I don't want to stay in comms as find it horrendously boring and also don't see the value in 'reaching out and touching base so that we can leverage our position to disseminate information on this new merger'. Seriously, who invented corporate jargon? I'm looking for a career switch, but still not 100% on exactly what that'll be. My current thought process is: if I'm going to work in a soul-destroying job, I may as well be paid for it. FYI Comms is not well paid.

As you'll see, I'm still applying to Yale and Duke. My applications are good (I think). I've decided not to use admissions consultants due to the fact that many charge fees higher than London solicitors, which I find completely mad to put it lightly. I received a quote for something like $5k. My response was: are you genuinely a lunatic? Also, my family are all in academia so have helped with editing essays etc. Re references, they are good. Eg. top ranking people (former managers) in companies like Google and Facebook and, in the case of Yale SOM, an alumni.

Here's the clincher, I have a terrible GRE. Well, not terrible, but not great. About 83% average, with a slightly weaker quant section (still over 60%). Nothing to write home about. I'm not really surprised as I only had time to study for three weeks. I've got this major project coming up and I simply can't/won't put any more time into this exam. It's already impacted on my work and personal life (I no longer have any friends) and that's not really acceptable. I'm also quite bad at maths, having not done anything beyond 10x10 since I was 16. I guess another issue is that I am about as far from a minority group as you can get. Privately educated, white, male, middle-class. There is literally no box I can tick. Oh, and I'm not LGBTQUSDUUIO (I've forgotten the full acronym).

Now, Rotman is a fantastic school and it's arguably the top in Canada. But it doesn't perform well in international rankings, which concerns me. Furthermore, in terms of 'wow' factor, it doesn't have the same street cred as Yale or maybe Duke. I spoke to my grandfather who's an academic and has pals at various business schools and he said I should only be applying to schools like Harvard, MIT, Upenn etc. I explained that, with my GRE, that's probably a tall order, but I might be able to get into tier-2 US schools due to the other aspects of my profile. I should also note that I have top-10 European schools trying to get me to apply and, in some cases, saying I'd be guaranteed entry. I'm not really interested in staying in Europe, though, so I'm only applying to NA schools. Also, as I plan on making a career switch, I should really do the 2yr course. Only truly decent 2yr MBAs in Europe are in London (been there, done that) and Spain (have you seen the state of their economy??????). I also explained that part of the business school experience is developing a network in the country/city where you'd like to work for the foreseeable future. I like Toronto, it's a cool city. I've never lived there (or anywhere in Canada for that matter), but it seems like a nice place. Also, being (technically) a Canadian, I don't imagine i'd struggle to get good jobs, even if my entire life has been spent in Europe, with the last year being in Dubai.

So here's the question: What should I do? I have to tell Rotman within 30 days whether I plan on attending. If I confirm, I am required to make a deposit of CAD$5000. I am not a rich guy (I work in comms, after all), so that would be quite a sizeable amount for me to spend. I also applied to Duke Early Access so will hear (I hope) within the next 30 days or so. I gave them a ring yesterday and they seemed very nice. Also doesn't hurt whipping out the ol' English accent. Americans love that.