Scored 700(Q48, V38, IR5). Should I re-take?

Question

Hi Everybody,

I gave GMAT today and scored 700(Q48, V38, IR5).
I know it's just an average score.

Does the above score hurt my chances of getting into a good school?

Should I retake it, aiming for Q >= 50 and IR>=7?

Background:
Indian. 29. Senior Software Engineer. Employed Internationally. 
6+ years out of IT experience. GPA: 3.5/4.

Probable Target Schools:
ISB
INSEAD
Emory Business School
Oxford University’s Saïd Business School
Tepper Business School

Basically, schools offering 12-15 month courses. If someone could suggest me the list of schools offering less than 2 years of MBA course will also be helpful.

Any help would be really appreciated.

P.S: This was my first attempt.

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

Yes, unfortunately I do think that a 730 would put you into a far more competitive category.

Other one year programs in the US include Kellogg, Cornell, Cornell Tech. I think all the programs in Canada are 1 year. Plus they give you a 36 month work visa after you complete School in case you want to stick around.

In Europe, , IMD, St. Gallen, Cambridge, LBS, and if you're interested in lower ranked British programs there's Manchester, Warwick. In France, ESSEC, there's school in Germany of the name of that escapes me right now, but it's pretty good.

If I were you I would just pull the financial times ranking list and look at all of the European programs all the Canadian programs and know that they are 1 year.

And then pull out the schools in the US that have a one-year offering like the list you created than the one I added to here.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

MBADecoder · Answer

Hi Prashant, Your GMAT score will be below par for b-schools like INSEAD, Emory, Tepper. At the others you have mentioned, you can pull it off by submitting a very competitive application and then following it up with a great interview. You can look at 1 year MBAs in the US. Here's and article by Poets and Quants: https://poetsandquants.com/2016/06/15/be ... grams-u-s/ Europe and UK (they will no longer be called by the same name) have 1 year MBAs- your work experience of 6+ years and your GMAT score will make you a good fit for them. As MBA PrepCoach has suggested, also look into the Canadian options (Richard Ivey, Queen's Rotman and Schulich)

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

Adding some more perspective here Prashant:
 
  The GMAT question is not something ideally to be looked at in isolation. It is important to understand how is your profile otherwise. Software Engineer is a pretty broad term - do you do pure coding/testing work or something more? Are there differentiators in your work/outside work that will help you distinguish from the crowd? That and other profile parameters together decide your fate ideally.  
  For reasons mentioned  here  and the point above, we do not speculate on school selection. EU/Asia should be your main target geographies. For US, read  here .  
  Finally, it will also be good to know the brands (undergrad/work) you have been associated with as well as your post-MBA plans.

Cheers,

CriticalSquare · Answer

If you've been scoring higher on your practice tests and think this was just a poor performance, I'd give it another shot. If you think this is representative of your past preparation, you're probably better off focusing on R1 apps and targeting schools like Tepper and the like. ISB, INSEAD, and Oxford would be stretch at this stage unless there is more to your profile that causes you to stand out from the pack. Best of luck!

VeritasPrepEdison · Answer

Agree with the above advice, it would depend on whether you believe you have a reasonable chance of scoring higher on the GMAT. If yes, then you should retake.

All the best!

GyanOne · Answer

Hi there Prashant,

You are aspiring for some of the best schools in the world, and here are some thoughts to consider as you go about this: 
- A 700 GMAT would be about par for an Indian IT applicant at top schools. The IT applicant category is super-competitive and one of the ways in which you can differentiate yourself would be through your GMAT score. Try and raise this by 20-30 points if possible, if not more. 
- Please provide more details on your experience, and please do also mention if you have any international/onsite experience. 
- ISB is a decent bet even with your current GMAT score, but try to increase for the others. Also, try and rationalize your list a bit - there may be multiple good options you may be missing out on. 
- While FT is your best bet in terms of identifying all programs in the less than 2 years range, here is a set of links to help at least with identifying one year programs:  Asia,   USA,   Europe

Scored 700(Q48, V38, IR5). Should I re-take?

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