720 good enough to apply to HBS, GSB and Wharton?

Hi bondtradercu,

Thank you for your post. You've shared very little information, so it's difficult to reply with nuanced input. You have a strong GMAT, solid GPA in quant majors, and seemingly strong work experience (though we don't know anything beyond "IBD at a BB and PE"). What about your involvement? Personal story? Where are you from? How long have you worked? What makes you unique? GMAT scores, GPAs, and "where you've worked" are not enough to offer a real opinion on your prospects at H/S/W.

I will say that even if the rest of your profile is strong, HBS and Stanford should almost always be viewed as reaches. 760/3.6/PE can give you a platform to have a chance, but we would need to know the rest of your profile and story, it would need to be sterling, and you would need to execute extremely well across elements of the application (and get a little lucky). As an example, take a look at HBS's "Who Are We Looking For?" -- Habit of Leadership and Engaged Community Citizenship are critical. We don't know anything about those for you based on what you've shared.

As to your question -- if you have a 760 GMAT, then why the concern over whether a given program would accept you at 720 versus 750? In any case, the short answer to question is that there is quite a big difference between a 720 and a 750, and that could very well be the difference between acceptance or rejection at H/S/W or other programs (though not always). The GMAT is only piece of the application puzzle, but a 720 is 10 to 20 points behind the median for those programs, while a 750 is above it. Plenty of folks get in with 720s, but all else equal, someone with a 750 has better chances than someone with a 720. (Context and demographics matter greatly, too.)

Thanks!
Greg