Re: GMAT 690(q49 v 34 ). Enough to get in top 20 B schools ?
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05 Sep 2008, 08:12
690 is fine, and congrats to you, but I am amazed how much weight people in here put on the GMAT. When you start filling out applications and writing essays, you realize just how small a part of the whole package it is. If you spend months or even years trying to break 700 because you "deserve better" (which is kind of an arrogant thing to say...you get the score you earn...the test makers don't owe you anything because you think you are smart), you're wasting your time and you would be wise to take an econ course to learn the meaning of opportunity cost.
You should be spending a LOT more time making yourself look special in the essays. If you are Indian with a technical/programming/IT background, and i'm just being honest here, you are really at a disadvantage. Even with a 750, adcoms read literally 1000s of essays from the same Indian IT people over and over and over. We all know what IT guys really do, and it is not particularly interesting, especially if you are not in a managerial position. What are you going to write about in your essays, how you fixed a glitch in the office printer and everyone slapped you on the back? The point is, I think you ought to focus on extracurriculars or volunteering to strengthen the essays and make yourself standout. No matter how high you score on the GMAT, with an Indian IT background, it won't really matter. They expect your demographic to have insanely high GMAT scores, so you have to make up for it in other ways.