Should Work on Application / Retake (Round 3) / Postpone by 1 year

Question

Have scored low on GMAT (680-Q50,V31), inspite of scoring 710 & 740 on GMAT Prep & between 690 & 730 on MGMAT.

For all MOCK CATs - Quant was between 48 & 50 - Verbal was between 36 & 40.  .

Target Schools - Booth, Fuqua, Kellogg & LBS. (Second Round Deadline date - 5th January 2016).

Profile - Male /Indian / Engineer (IT). Total exp - 5+ yrs. 1 year in Business Consulting (worked on inhouse SaaS product steering product roadmap and analytics), 4+ yrs in setting up own venture (Entrepreneur - Boot Strapped - in Human Resource - Helping tier 1 technical companies in hiring process).

Extra curricular / Accolades - Multiple in school and college. Heading various Clubs / Groups in College. Prior to college actively involved in Theater & represented state in Cricket. Multiple certificates (20+ from college & school for winning & participating in various inter & intra institution events and fests).

Education - B.E. (IT) in 2010 - Tier 1 college - Absolute GPA - 7.8 / 10 (95%ile).

Should I work on Application / Retake GMAT after 21 days & parallely work on application / Retake after 1.5 months and apply in Round 3 / Postpone MBA by one year.

ALSO If not from the target schools, would these scores be good for McDonough / Emory

Thanks for all the help

Admissionado · Answer

Overall, if you believe you can get at least 20 points higher, my advice would be for you to retake the GMAT and apply with the best score possible (next year and NOT R3). Here's an article about Indians retaking the GMAT which may be of help to you: https://bit.ly/B613Mgc Best, Jon

PersonalMBACoach · Answer

While you should definitely retake the GMAT for your target schools, if you scored as high as 740 on practice tests you may be able to get a higher score this year (in a few weeks). If you have time to put together some applications it wouldn't be a bad idea. I agree not to go for round three with your profile though.

Good luck!

Best,
Scott

VeritasPrepDozie · Answer

Thanks for sharing your profile. I think given how competitive your applicant pool is and the caliber of schools you are targeting you will have trouble gaining admission with your current profile. I would recommend retaking the GMAT if possible this year or next year, round 3 would be a tough roll of the dice for you. So see if you can improve your score while pulling together 1 or 2 apps. Again keep in mind your essays and short answers will be just as important if not more important as your GMAT scores so don't take that aspect likely

MBADecoder · Answer

You can take GMAT 16 days after taking the first test. SO if think you scored badly because of the jitters and can hit 730+ with minimal practice, go ahead and retake GMAT now. If you can be super-disciplined about it, then maybe you can apply to 1-2 colleges in R2 (spaced applications in terms of deadlines)

R3 does not make sense for Indian applicants. It will more likely put you under the burden of applying next year as a reapplicant, and answering that extra question- how have you improved since your last application (like, 6 months ago)?

Should Work on Application / Retake (Round 3) / Postpone by 1 year

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