680 - Quant 39 Verbal 98 IR 8 AW 5 - Top B Schools?

[katherineannwhite]

I am a female applicant and will have 6 years work experience before starting Business school. I work in education research and consulting now and did Teach for America directly after school. I use quant skills in my job.
My scores are as in the subject and am trying to decide if I can, due to timing issues, and need to retake the GMAT. I am likely to get a lower score on the quantatative, than verbal, but this score was particularly low for me as I missed the first 5 minutes of the test and then panicked due to a moderator issue. The rest of the test is quite painless and I believe I can score similarly.
I am planning to apply to the top 10 schools, as well as a few others, for first deadline. I have a few questions on this. Is it still worthwhile to retake the test after turning in applications (I will not be able to retake until after the deadline)? Should I retake given that I will likely move to around a 720? Does my IR score improve schools impression of my quant skills?

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. A 680 is respectable, and schools are always looking for qualified female applicants, so that is a plus too. Your background is less traditional which is a plus and a minus, but can work well for you if you position yourself well and share what is unique about you, what you'll bring to the class, and what your post-MBA goals are, i.e. why you need this degree.

Re: your scores, I'm a little unclear as a 39 Q looks like a scaled score but 98 V looks like percentile? Would you like to clarify?

If you are applying R1 and you won't be able to retake until after the deadline, it is not extremely worthwhile, i.e. schools have to make the decision based on what is submitted at that point. Schools that have rolling admissions may be a better option for that sort of scenario, and it's not unheard of for a school to give a conditional offer based on you increasing your GMAT (Columbia for ex has done this), in which case then you'd take it after submitting, but the rest of your application has to be stellar.

That said I wouldn't rule out your chances with a 680, so sounds like you have some thinking to do... or could apply a few schools R1 and re-take if you feel strongly about that and a few more R2.

Keep us posted and good luck!