GMAT Retake - Overall Score Improved but AWA Dropped

Congratulations on crossing the 700 mark! I wouldn’t sweat the fact that your IR dropped from 4 to 5. What matters a lot more is that your composite score increased from 670 to 720. This is a big accomplishment and you are now more “shiny” than many of the applicants who will be applying with less-competitive scores in the 600s.

Generally speaking, from a GMAT perspective, you need to be near or above a school’s average in order to competitive. You should be in good shape for ISB, Duke, McCombs, and Tepper from a GMAT-standalone basis.

But keep in mind that the schools you mentioned care about a lot of things besides your GMAT! *ALL* of them frequently reject candidates with GMATs higher than their averages. If you are applying to ISB, there’s a good chance that you are Indian. Indians come from a very over-represented demographic (and one from which GMAT scores are correspondingly higher).

That makes your application strategy, and, specifically, the way you talk about your short-term and long-term career goals in your essays, *super* important. The imminent achievability of your stated career goals are important because all schools want to make sure that you are employed right after graduation. Employment stats are really crucial for rankings and AdComs want to make sure that you know what you want out of the experience and that there is a high degree of certainty that you will be able to gain placement where you want it.

If a free consultation with an admissions consultant to talk through your GMAT score, target schools and application strategy might be helpful to you, feel free to sign up here: https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/