GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Posts: 6921
Given Kudos: 1774
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Re: should i retake the GMAT
[#permalink]
11 Jan 2013, 19:13
Congratulations on joining the 700 Club, Sidd! That's a great score, and you should be especially proud of your quant.
Honestly, the answers to your questions depend almost entirely on where you want to go. If you're an IIT male shooting for top-15 U.S. programs, then yes, your GMAT score is probably below average for your demographic, unfortunately.
But if you're looking at a broader range of schools, then a 700 might be plenty, especially if you can find ways to distinguish yourself from other applicants with broadly similar profiles. The patents sound great. Would you be able to tell some nice, interesting leadership stories from the last four years of work? Could you find a way to sell the adcom on your extracurriculars, even if you don't think they're particularly impressive? Is your career vision a little bit more interesting (and convincing) than that of your fellow IIT male applicants? Can you write your application in a way that makes you seem like a particularly interesting, passionate, and likable character? It probably isn't crazy to suggest that your ability to market yourself well is every bit as valuable as an extra 30 or 40 points on your GMAT score.
So if you're actually serious about second-round applications this year, then it probably makes sense to focus on your applications for now, and then you can worry about the GMAT afterwards. But again, all of this depends on where, exactly, you're trying to go.
I hope this helps. Good luck with everything, and congrats again on the 700!