At a loss with a 640- please advice

Question

Hi All,

I took my GMAT Three times

First time got a 630 (44Q 33V awa 6)- Aug 27, 2011
Second attempt 640 (49Q 28V awa 5.5)- Sept 1, 2011
Third Attempt 600 (42Q 30V)- Nov 5, 2011

Where can I apply?

I am a female in Maryland with my CPA from California (husband and i moved). I am currently working in Public Accounting at a large international firm. I have forensics Accounting experience as well. I would have 5 years of experience by fall of next year.

I am heart broken with my third gmat attempt. I scored a 730 and 720 in GMAT Prep and about the same on my MGMT tests. I am burnt. I want to focus on R2 apps now.

My GPA in accounting is a 3.9 and my overall GPA is 3.4. I went to a top 20 school for my undergrad. I have very good ECs (part of committees at work and heading a local not for profit chapter) and steller Recs.

My questions are-

I applied Early Decision and interviewed at Duke? (it went well). Do I stand a chance with my GMAT given? Can i do anything to strengthen my application? like study for my CFE?

What schools shall i applied to?

I sent in my recs for Cornell, Columbia and Carnegie and I am interviewing at Carnegie on the 28th of this month...shall i defer my app for Cornell and Columbia for next year and apply to other schools? i would hate those recs to go to waste?

Finally, are my chances hurt given that I am applying in R2 with a crappy GMAT score?

just an fyi- i sent no schools my last gmat score and the schools mentioned above already have the first two scores.

Thanks guys- i am so lost

losttraveler · Answer

Hm, being female if you have good career goals identified and solid experience.. cornell might not be that far out of the equation... CBS I don't see happening with a 3.4 GPA paired with the gmat.

bakfed · Answer

I understand why you think you're lost but it'll be hard to give you a more realistic answer based on what you wrote (and i mean that with all due respect).

You have to understand or tell us what you want to do post-MBA. With a 640, your chances are greatly diminished at top b-schools, but not impossible. I'm currently attending Darden and I know a lady who got in with a 630. Surely that was more of an exception to the norm. But it goes to show that it's possible. What you want to do post-MBA will matter a lot in this case. If you're gearing for consulting or banking, chances are you want to head back into the testing room and aim for nothing short of a 700. If you're goal is to be a brand manager (not trying to knock on this occupation), GMAT score is less of a problem. Another question that you have to ask yourself is - what are you trying to aim for in terms of school? Are you simply trying to head to as good of a school as possible for the name? And it's perfectly legitimate if that's the reason. However, if you're thinking about getting a quality education, you will get the same whether you get your MBA from Harvard or from Tepper or Kenan-Flagler. These are critical questions that you have to answer for yourself; treat it as a self-awareness thing. If you're targeting Columbia, look at the mid-80-percentile and you'll get a good sense of where you stand. Your CPA will help only to a certain extent. There are too many finance/accounting folks who apply to top b-schools every year who will have higher GMAT score. You should treat certificates as icing on the cake. You need to have the cake's structure and infrastructure built before you can add the icing. Without a firm foundation, any icing is moot (well, maybe not that extreme, but you should get the point). Your overall GPA of 3.4 will help you, no doubt about that, since the average GPA for most top b-schools lies around 3.4. To be completely honest with you, at this point if you're targeting R2, there's nothing else that you can or should do except to work on your R2 applications. It's too short of a time between now and submission date for you to start anything else. Focus on why MBA and why a particular school as each b-school will be questioning it. If you make a strong statement, you can get by even with a 640. My recommendation would be to retake your GMAT only if you know you can get over 680 right now; otherwise, any additional time (and money) spent on one extra GMAT is more or less meaningless.

To answer your questions to what schools you should apply to: from a traditional view, I'd say aim for the top 15-30 schools. But that's not saying that you can't get in Duke or Columbia. It's just a way to minimize risk involved (as well as dollar spent).

Feel free to ask any additional questions. And here's one of my question - Are you sure you took your first GMAT and second GMAT tests in the span of just 5 days? I've always thought that each test need to be spaced by a calendar month.

rhyme · Answer

East coast! DC here

So, you forgot to mention what your long term goals are, that would probably help make some recommendations. But here's one I'll throw out as a slightly different perspective than others: you are aiming squarely middle of the (top) pack with your current selections and a 640 is a respectable score. Its not a "crappy" score. It seems crappy here because there's huge bias for people to over-report awesome scores and under-report lower ones, but make no mistake about it, a 640 is respectable. Moreover, people tend to forget that median scores at many schools are close to the mean... someone is getting in with <700 - and not just one or two "someones" - plenty of people. Cornell, last I recall, had a middle 80% range for GMATs from 600 to 740. What I'm getting at, perhaps contrary to your thoughts, you should put at least one "go big or go home" school in your list (assuming that you are purely motivated by rank). Why not take a stab at Kellogg or Booth or Ross or some other top program? Your odds are not fantastic - but they are not ridiculously poor either; and in my view, better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all. You have to weigh the time and effort required against perhaps what that means for your other apps, but its worth at least considering. Second, and perhaps far more baffling: I dont understand the motivation behind postponing your Cornell or Columbia applications? Is the issue that you think you'll be wasting your time trying or that you don't want to attend? Whats the overarching goal here? Admission *somewhere* this year or an eventual admission to school A or B? It seems like you've got both goals in mind.

At a loss with a 640- please advice

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