660 (43Q, 38V) Should I retake?

[mmorrison]

My stats are as follows:
GPA: 3.4 from a large public university
Major: Finance; completed my degree in 3 years
Work Experience: 2 years full-time and 1 year interning as a financial analyst at a fortune 100 company.
Age: 22
GMAT: 660

The schools that I am trying to get into are as follows:
1. Emory University
2. Georgia Tech
3. Georgetown
4. Boston College


My question is should I study for another month and retake the GMAT in hopes of a higher score? Or do you think that I have a good chance of getting into one of these schools with my current stats?

[mbamission]

Hi bivinstrey,

Thanks for writing in. I see some potentially solid material in your application given your accelerated path to date. I think your targeting the right group of schools given what I know of your profile. Still you are 10-30 points below the median GMAT scores at all of those schools. If you think you can easily add 30 points to your score with just some preparation I'd advise you to retake. Still even with your 660 I think you are competitive at Boston College and Georgia Tech, and borderline competitive at Georgetown and Emory.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[mmorrison]

Thanks for the feed back. I definitely think that I can bring my score up 30 points if I study the right material. I have already been through all of the manhattan gmat books and the majority of the official guide but what I need to practice is the 700-800 level questions. Do you know of a good resource that I could use to target this type of studying?

Also, if by chance I bomb my second attempt for some reason would that hurt my application at all? Or would the schools only be concerned with my highest score?

Thanks!

[mbamission]

Hi again,

The schools will typically only evaluate your highest score from a single sitting, so I think you're safe to retake it. For advice on test prep, head over to the Forums Home on this site and there are several GMAT-related threads there.

Good luck!
Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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