I took my first GMAT yesterday after studying only for the quant section for two months, and I scored V44 (98th percentile) and Q36 (35th percentile), yielding a 650 overall. I'm not surprised by the quant score- I ran out of time and guessed on the last 11 questions, as speed is my weakness in math; I'm also just out of practice for high school/college math since my career hasn't involved any. The verbal also isn't a huge surprise since I'm an attorney and the practice of law is essentially just the practice of the english language. I will continue to study math over the next three months and take the exam again in August, but for now let's just assume that this 650 is the best I'll do.
First off, how will this terrible math performance be viewed by the admissions committees of a top university? I plan to apply to Wharton/Columbia/NYU EMBA only. Obviously it would be better if it were higher, but what I'm most curious about is whether the strong performance in verbal might help.
To paint a broader picture of my stats in general, here is a quick rundown of how I look "on paper":
I've had a very strong career so far, with income above the average of each of the three class profiles and accelerated advancement all current and former employers. My undergrad gpa was poor (3.0 at Notre Dame), but I graduated from law school very near the top of my class (something like top 3%; ~3.75 GPA at a top 25 law school) and obtained another masters in tax law after that at a top 10 school and something like a ~3.4 GPA. Much of my legal education was done at night while working for a Big 4 accounting firm; I've also worked at a top global law firm and now work at a >$10b multinational corporation. I'm also a CPA.
My goal for the EMBA is to accelerate my climb towards the C-suite at a Fortune 100 company, either by making an early jump into a business strategy role or a later cross over to an operational role, such as a divisional CFO role. Coming up through tax is certainly not a traditional career path for a CFO/COO, although isn't completely unheard of. On a more granular level, I'm looking to fill in some of my weaker areas regarding operational strategy (i.e. marketing, HR strategy, treasury operations, etc). I don't expect that the diploma itself will be the driver towards my future success though it certainly won't hurt, but I feel that I will really benefit from the knowledge gained in a top tier MBA program.
So, that's me in a nutshell. Happy to hear opinions on the GMAT score specifically or on my educational aspirations more broadly. Thanks in advance
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Update as of 8-9-16: Scored a 760 on the GMAT thanks to the help of a tutor who was recommended to me by an EMBA interviewer. Very exciting.
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Update as of Winter 2017- accepted to Wharton EMBA, Philly campus
long journey with a happy ending. Now the real work begins!