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[jackw1]

Hello, looking for an evaluation and a little advice. I got a 680 on the gmat (41 V Quant 42). A little pissed about the quant score considerably lower than I had been scoring (70 to 75% range). I would rather not take it again. I am wondering about my chances at all the top ten, some of top 15 also, schools. I have 3.92 GPA at a state school, my major is business economics. I have taken a fair amount of quantitative classes and aced all of them. Here is my resume :

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration May 2013
Major: Business Economics
GPA: 3.92
Relevant Coursework: Economics of Strategy, Managerial Accounting, Quantitative Financial Management, Marketing, Honors English, Intermediate Macro and Micro Economics

JP Morgan FADP Summer Internship Program
Intern
-Owned the General Ledger reconciliation process for Government and Agency bond products, working alongside with Product Controllers
-Tracked daily repo and repurchase trades and helped move trades off of balance sheet during month end process
-Rated 5/5 on End of Summer Evaluation and awarded Intern Excellence award for my work throughout the summer

Blackbaud Europe
Intern
-Worked on the Financial Control team for the London Office
-Conducted financial analytics and reporting as well as forecasting
-Worked alongside upper management on crucial financial documents

Score Consulting Internship
Intern
-Learned from mentors with years of experience from all over the
nation, including CFO's and other highly successful business people
-Evaluated business plan with both clients and mentor and developed actionable plans and solutions

-Intrafraternity Council- Athletics Chairman; 01/10- 12/10
- Mock Trial- Prosecution Captain; 09/09-05/10
-SOPHOS Sophomore Honorary Group- Member; 04/10-05/11
-Student Health and Recreation Fee Advisory Board- Head Chairman; 01/11-05/11

- Excellence Award Scholarship; 07/09- present
-Academic Year Academic Distinction; 05/10, 05/11
-Top Attorney in Mock Trial Round; 10/09
-Selected for Final Round of Business Math Competition; 10/10

-Proficient in Windows Office and Microsoft XP. Familiar with accounting platform SAP

-Studied at the University of Westminster in the Spring of 2012. Relevant Coursework: International Economics and Operations Management, also participated in an internship

I'd like to apply to NYU, Cornell, and Harvard as a reach. Wondering how my chances are and what I might be able to do to improve, I will be working for JP Morgan when I graduate. Thanks so much for your help!

[mili]

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your profile! If I am understanding correctly, you're a senior in college right now and expect to graduate in May 2013. While you have a strong GPA and internships, I would strongly recommend that you wait a few years to apply to business school if you are very interested in a top 10-15 program. Generally speaking, these schools require an roughly 3-5 years of post college full time work experience. Without this, I feel you won't be competitive against your peers. This would also give you more time to prepare and retake the GMAT at your leisure, and hopefully you could apply with a stronger score.

At this stage, I don't believe Harvard is a realistic shot, but with a few years at JP Morgan, a stronger GMAT, and strong extracurricular and community leadership post-college, that could definitely be an option! If you were to apply right now to NYU and Cornell, I think your chances may be slim given your lack of work experience.

If you're question is "what can I do over the next couple years to improve my chances," my answer is: get involved in leadership positions on community/non profit organizations that you're passionate about, get involved as a leader in extracurricular activities/groups, take on as much responsibility as you can at work, and just continue to focus on being a well-rounded leader. As I said above, I know you don't want to, but it would help to retake the GMAT and improve your score.

Hope that helps,
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com
 
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[jackw1]

Thank you for your reply! I apologize for posting on the other site, didnt realize they were the same thing. Yes I was more looking for what types of things to do in between now and applying in 2-3 years as I have been planning. Do you think my GMAT alongside a solid quant background is strong enough as is for schools like cornell, nyu, darden, or are you more of the opinion that to be a very strong candidate I need to get it up. I have heard there really is not much difference between say a 680 and 700 and I do not realistically expect to knock quant out of the park, 80th percentile is probably the highest I would ever get realistically because as you might expect I am much more proficient doing "in the classroom" mathematics than I am doing standardized forms of math. I know that my GMAT score puts me in the "middle 80" (http://poetsandquants.com/2011/04/27/th ... t-schools/) for all the top schools and my GPA is in top ten percentile, perhaps slightly lower adjusting for the fact I do not attend a "target school", so I am wondering if it is absolutely essential for me to bump up the extra 30 points tops, assuming I don't have an off day on verbal. Sorry for writing so much just want to get a good idea of where I might stand come 2-3 years with regular progression and this GMAT score compared with same progression and perhaps a slightly better one.

[mili]

Hello,

The real answer is that a higher GMAT score can only help your chances (assuming your score is balanced). So, while a 680 is a decent score for your target schools, having a higher score will increase your chances at those programs. I do believe there's a difference between a 680 and a 700. It wouldn't hurt to try again sometime over the next couple years and see how you do! Worst case, you do equal or worse, and you go with the original score.

Hope that helps,
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com
 
Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)
 
Download [url=http:// http://info.mbamission.com/MBA-Personal-Statement-Guide/]mbaMission’s Free Personal Statement Guide[/url]
 
Visit the mbaMission Blog
 
Follow mbaMission on Twitter